John Farrell recently finished his first year as the Toronto Blue Jays bench boss, and while it was his first season as a Major League manager, his previous experience as both a player and a coach allowed him ample preparation for the responsibilities he would face.
Farrell was drafted in the 2nd round of the 1984 draft, and played for four teams across parts of ten major league seasons. He retired after the 1996 season in which he pitched for the Tigers, and immediately moved into the coaching ranks. Farrell joined his alma mater, Oklahoma State, where he served as an Assistant Coach and Pitching / Recruiting Coordinator. Farrell worked in the college ranks for five years, after which he joined the Cleveland Indians as their Director of Player Development -- an extremely important position in every organization. He held that position for five years, with the highlight being the 2003 season in which the Indians were ranked as the number one farm system by Baseball America -- a farm that included future All Stars Brandon Phillips, Victor Martinez, Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore, and Travis Hafner. Farrell rejoined the coaching ranks in 2007, this time in the Major Leagues. Terry Francona and the Boston Red Sox hired him as their pitching coach, a role he served for four seasons before interviewing for -- and receiving -- the job as the Toronto Blue Jays manager.
This brings us back to the 2011 season, John Farrell's first in Toronto, and first as a manager. His decisions from the dugout were a mixed bag, and to say anything else would be a bold faced lie. He diverted from the Cito Gaston mantra of sitting and waiting for something to happen, but went too far the other way. It may have been nerves. It may have been an attempt to put his stamp on the team. Whatever it was, April was an interesting month to watch. Farrell called for more aggressiveness on the basepaths in one month than we saw during the entire 2010 season. Some of it was genius, with the double steal on Opening Day immediately coming to mind. Other times, not so much. A problem quickly arose with the aggressiveness -- Blue Jays base runners were becoming a distraction not only to opposing pitchers, but also to their own hitters at the plate. Far too often Rajai Davis or Corey Patterson would be dancing around at first or second base while Jose Bautista was standing at the plate. When Bautista is in the batters box, every runner is in scoring position, there is no need for such activity on the basepaths. Farrell was eventually forced to move Davis to the bottom of the lineup, so he could still be used as a base stealing threat without taking away from the potency of the heart of the lineup.
Farrell dialed back the aggressiveness as the season wore on, but a new issue arose late in the summer -- the sacrifice bunt. The sacrifice bunt has a place in baseball, but its niche of effectiveness is a lot narrower than most managers seem to comprehend. The Twitter hashtag of #FarrellBall quickly became a popular internet meme, as John Farrell became seemingly infatuated with the sacrifice bunt. Toronto could be down multiple runs, already have a runner on second base, have an out recorded in the inning, or be in the heart of the lineup, and Farrell would still call for the sacrifice. If any of those conditions are met, calling for a sacrifice bunt lowers your chances of scoring the run. You only get 27 outs, and throwing one away to move a runner up one base is rarely an intelligent move.
Most baseball people will acknowledge that in-game decisions are a very small portion of a manager's responsibilities, and while John Farrell's moves were at times highly questionable, it's hard to argue against what he did for the other 21 hours every day. With Roy Halladay, Vernon Wells, and Shawn Marcum all playing for new clubs, a leadership void was created within the clubhouse. In addition to the loss of the aformentioned "high character" players, General Manager Alex Anthopolous brought in players with supposed "character concerns" -- Yunel Escobar, Brett Lawrie, and Colby Rasmus. Despite this, for the first time in years, there were no public disagreements between the manager and his players, issues we dealt with far too frequently during the John Gibbons and Cito Gaston regimes. Yunel Escobar toned down some of the flash, instead focusing on the fundamentals and having an excellent comeback season. Brett Lawrie handled his demotion during Spring Training in a professional manner, and was a media darling after his summer promotion to Toronto. Colby Rasmus -- a player Tony LaRussa couldn't stand -- meshed well with the team and coaching staff, and made no ruckus whatsoever during the final months. To ignore or discredit the impact John Farrell had on these (and other) players when reviewing or analyzing his debut season would be both unfair and ignorant. Managers aren't just guys who call for stolen bases and intentional walks, they're responsible for managing the egos and personalities of 25 grown men -- all day and every day -- for seven months. That is forgotten far too often.
It has been reported that the Red Sox -- Farrell's former employer, who recently moved on from manager Terry Francona -- have a desire to bring John Farrell back to Boston as their next manager. WEEI.com, a Boston Sports news outlet, has gone as far as to say that Farrell "is the man they should target". While it's doubtful (and with Alex Anthopolous' policy change today, seemingly improbable) that John Farrell would try and get out of his contract with the Blue Jays to rejoin Boston, the reports are yet another feather in the cap of Toronto's skipper. In their first season post-Farrell, Boston's clubhouse self destructed. Players would drink booze and order food to the clubhouse during games they weren't involved in, with some reports even suggesting the players drank alcohol in the dugout (though such rumors have been vehemently denied). While it's impossible to know the full extent of the meltdown, it's clear that John Farrell was an important cog in the Boston Red Sox wheel, and without him they have a severe lack of leadership.
Last offseason, Alex Anthopolous undertook an exhaustive search for Toronto's next manager, and he appears to have struck gold once again. Managers can learn and improve their in-game tactics with experience, but leadership is an inherent ability that a person does or doesn't have. John Farrell is a leader. John Farrell has gathered knowledge of the game through his jobs in both the professional and amateur ranks. With more experience, John Farrell has the potential to be one of the best all-around managers in Major League Baseball, which fits perfectly with Alex Anthopolous' desire to have All Stars at every position -- even in the dugout.
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