Boston Red Sox: Ben Cherington Must Fix Old Problems to Succeed as GM

With the news that Theo Epstein is leaving his job as the Boston Red Sox general manager to take the same position with the Chicago Cubs, Boston fans immediately began wondering who would replace their wunderkind GM.

Well, it seems like we have a definitive answer to that question.

Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports is reporting that Ben Cherington is going to be the man for the job. 

Cherington is the man who Scott Lauber of the Boston Globe, as well as other sources close to the situation, expected would be the man to take the job.

As his first order of business, Cherington needs to get rid of the people who are now smearing the Red Sox, past and present.

Ben Hohler of the Boston Globe reported that Jon Lester, Josh Beckett and John Lackey were eating chicken and drinking beer in the Boston clubhouse during games when the Red Sox were going through their collapse.

Whether or not this is a rare occurrence depends on who you ask.

That same article reported that Terry Francona's tumultuous personal life and alleged drug addiction also got in the way of his ability to successfully lead the team.

I don't know Francona, so I am not even going to begin to speculate on that. That is none of my business and I will have no problem if I never hear another word on the subject.

The same is more or less true with Lester, Beckett and Lackey. I don't know how rare it is to drink beer during a major league game, but I do know that starting pitchers are on their own on days that they don't start.

We may never know how true any of these reports are. But true or not, someone is leaking this information out and Cherington needs to get rid of those responsible.

If that doesn't happen, no free agent will ever want to go to Boston. Why would you want to go to a team if you can't even trust that members of that organization aren't going to try to smear you?

Before Cherington even thinks about what players he wants to keep, get rid of, or bring in, he needs to handle this problem.

If he doesn't, the problems in Boston aren't going to get any better.