Boston Red Sox: Epstein Leaving May Not Hurt as Much as You Think

Theo Epstein has long been thought of as one of the best general managers in the game of baseball. He has seen great success in his duration with the Boston Red Sox, including two World Series victories, but he has recently been tied to the open GM position of the Chicago Cubs.

Initial reactions to this have been shock.

Why would someone with one of the best GM jobs in baseball want to head to the mess that is the Chicago Cubs?

It has been speculated that Epstein wants to take on a new challenge and see if he can bring the Cubs back to the days when they were a competitive baseball team.

Red Sox Nation is up in arms, wondering why anyone would ever want to leave their beloved Red Sox.

But how much would Epstein leaving the team really hurt? I mean his mistakes are the reason why the Red Sox are in such dire straights down the stretch.

Sure, Epstein has had some great signings but what has he done lately besides have a bunch of signings that haven’t worked out?

For starters, no pun intended, Epstein has been unable to find an effective starting pitcher through free agency.

It began with the insane posting fee and contract for Daisuke Matuszaka, who is recovering from Tommy John surgery and never lived up to the hype and spiraled out of control when he signed John Lackey for $80 million over five years.

Lackey has gone on to be, arguably, the worst pitcher in baseball since joining the Red Sox.

Other pitchers who never panned out for Epstein include Brad Penny, John Smoltz and Kevin Millwood, to name a few.

His one success came when he acquired Curt Schilling from the Arizona Diamondbacks for pennies on the dollar, all be it a huge acquisition that led to a World Series, it is his only starting pitching success story.

What about Josh Beckett, you say? Beckett was acquired by Jed Hoyer and Ben Cherington after Epstein quit. It was later revealed that Epstein would not have made that trade if he had been the general manager at the time.

The bullpen has also been a failure of Epstein as he has never seemed to be able to judge bullpen talent. Although it is widely known that bullpen arms are quite the crap shoot, you’d think he’d be able to find some serviceable guys.

You can’t leave out the huge contracts that were given to J.D. Drew and Carl Crawford either. Drew is a long term failure and Crawford has yet to show he is worth the $20 million per year he is being paid.

My biggest issue with all this is that Terry Francona will probably take all the heat for the bad personnel decisions made by Epstein and could lose his job. Francona likely had no push or pull on what players Epstein and the front office acquired but the manager is usually the scape goat.

It should be Esptein on the hot seat and not Francona. Epstein's failures in personnel decisions have brought the Red Sox to the brink of missing the playoffs this season and it may not be a big hit to the Red Sox if he does end up going to Chicago.

Don’t get me wrong, Epstein is a great GM but we live in a “what have you done for me lately?” world and lately, Epstein has done more wrong than right.