Theo Epstein to Cubs: What Will His Legacy Be with the Boston Red Sox?

It's all over now. First the season ended too soon, then Terry Francona's career as Red Sox manager ended prematurely and now the entire organization has entered a period of sudden and significant transition with the departure of Theo Epstein to the Chicago Cubs. 

The era which started on November 25, 2002, with Epstein's hiring as the youngest general manager in Major League History was one of unfathomable highs and lows for Boston Red Sox fans. Epstein's first season ended with a crushing walk-off home run off the bat of Aaron Boone that sent the Yankees to the World Series and the Red Sox back the the drawing board. 

Epstein's final season also was a baseball horror story. While 2003 was a sudden and terrible shock, 2011 was a low methodical, tortuous ordeal that mercifully concluded with several dramatic games all ending simultaneously in the worst of ways on the season's final night of September 28th.

Orioles' walk-off win over the Red Sox, Rays' walk-off win over the Yankees...Red Sox walk off the diamond until opening day 2012.  

In between, though, Epstein produced the finest moments in Boston Red Sox and possibly Boston sports history.

In spite of multiple documentaries, endless highlights and numerous books, there is no way to accurately recreate the joy of the 2004 postseason. When the events of the ALCS against the Yankees are replayed they still seem mythical.

Roberts didn't really steal that base, did he? Ortiz didn't just hit a walk-off in Game 4 and he definitely didn't hit a walk-off less than 24 hours later in Game 5!?  Schilling is not pitching lights-out baseball in Yankee Stadium with blood running down his ankle. Mark Bellhorn didn't just get a call overturned by the ump and get awarded a home run? Don't even try to tell me that the Red Sox just absolutely demolished the Yanks in Game 7, getting home runs from Ortiz and two from Damon? What next? A World Series sweep?? Yes. 

Theo and the Sox weren't done though. They had a solid 2005 and a disappointing 2006, but in 2007 they stormed out of the gate and really never looked back. The Red Sox won the division, won the ALCS, and then swept another National League team (Colorado Rockies) aside with ease to claim another ring. 

It started to go down hill after that.

2008 was a tumultuous year in which the Sox would jettison the mercurial Manny Ramirez in a midseason trade. While the Sox would make it back to the ALCS, they would lose a tough Game 7 to the Tampa Bay Rays. From that point on the Sox started a steady decline. 2009 ended with an ALDS sweep at the hands of the Los Angeles Angels. The Sox would miss the postseason in both 2010 and 2011, with this season ending in the most sickening of ways. 

What Theo leaves behind is a team that has plenty of talent but seems to lack heart and most certainly has lacked results.

As a franchise Theo leaves behind a pretty good setup.

The Red Sox have a very good farm system and just completed one of their best drafts this past summer. The Red Sox are a team that operates under philosophies. Offensively the Red Sox are one the most disciplined lineups in all of baseball. They take pitches, they draw walks and they work counts, and that often results in the opposition's starting pitchers leaving games earlier than they intended to.

The pitching philosophy has met with more skepticism. Pitch and inning limits, along with frequent rest, just hasn't seemed to yield the results they were intended to. Epstein's 2011 team started the season with a pitching staff ranked among the top five in all of baseball. They ended the season with a September team earned run average of nearly 6.00.   

Even the New York Yankees with their 27 World Series championships have endured 83 separate seasons in which they have not won a ring. The simple fact in life is that no one wins every year. Theo's legacy is the 2004 ALCS comeback, the 2004 World Series title and the 2007 World Series title. 

Epstein's signings will be pored over in the coming days and weeks: Ortiz, Schilling, Millar, Lugo, Lackey, Gonzalez, Crawford, Renteria. Some were good, some were bad. All GMs have their successes and failures. Not all of them win World Series titles though, and very few have ever won a World Series title in Boston...never mind two of them. What will Theo Epstein's legacy in Boston be?

Winner. Case (and era) closed.