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Remember a few weeks back when the Red Sox were interested in making John Farrell their next manager, and the Blue Jays were totally cool with him taking the same position at a club in their division? In fact, they said this:
"Selfishly, I don't want any of our guys to leave, but at the same time I hope all of our employees have opportunities to better themselves, whether it's responsibilities, financial, whatever it might be," Anthopoulos told sportsnet.ca over the weekend.
And then, like fifteen minutes later they were all:
Team president Paul Beeston and general manager Alex Anthopoulos released a statement that said: "The Toronto Blue Jays have amended their policy and will not grant permission for lateral moves."
At the time we all assumed that was the end of the Farrell-to-Boston saga. We were wrong.
Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal is reporting that the Sox kept pestering the Jays, asking them what it would take to get Farrell to come to Boston.
The new rule, however, didn’t prevent the Sox from trying to change the Jays’ minds.
The Sox, according to major-league sources, have had conversations with the Blue Jays about Farrell since the Jays’ policy shift, asking what it would take for them to reconsider their position.
However, the Sox never considered it likely that the Jays would engage in serious discussions about Farrell, and the conversations failed to progress, sources said.
As we've officially entered the talking ourselves into getting excited for the Bobby Valentine era, I guess it makes me feel a little better that the Sox did pursue Farrell even after being told 'No". I think he would have been the perfect manager for this team.
And kudos to the Blue Jays for realizing what a moronic, self-destructive policy they had. When your franchise's mission statement is "Aw, shucks" you might as well get comfortable being 4th or 5th in your division every year. When you're competing with the Sox and Yankees every year, you better toughen up. And they finally did.
