Ex-Red Sox GM Explains Challenge Of Establishing Team Culture

Over a decade ago, the Red Sox were in a similar offseason predicament when then-Boston general manager Ben Cherington served as head honcho of the front office, helping guide the organization of its bottom-of-the-barrel finish in 2012.

Cherington was handed the front office leader seat, plus a Red Sox team that needed a change in both personal and culture. Before the start of 2013, the Red Sox were fresh off a 2011 collapse in the final month, which bounced them out of the playoffs and an even worse 69-93 run in 2012.

Putting that in the rearview mirror is no easy task.

“When you’re in that clubhouse and you see it, and you feel it, it’s real,” Cherington told WEEI’s Rob Bradford on Audacy’s “Baseball Isn’t Boring” podcast. “… The harder thing is how to build that. Who are the individual people and players that are gonna create that? It’s a harder thing to predict than it is to kind of actually see when it’s actually happening. It’s a real thing, but harder to actually predict.”

The 2013 roster turned from unpredictable underdogs into an easy-to-root-for collection of gritty and hungry players rallying the city of Boston amid its darkest time following the marathon bombing. And they didn’t slow down in the postseason either, winning the first World Series at Fenway Park in 95 years, defeating the St. Louis Cardinals.

Cherington, although successful in adding to Boston’s dynasty run, is also best remembered for striking a blockbuster trade that began the official transformation in the team’s locker room culture.

Before the end of the 2012 season, Cherington and the Red Sox traded Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to the Los Angeles Dodgers, freeing up over $250 million in guaranteed contracts.

“I don’t think I felt more confident in my trade-making ability by August of 2012, but I definitely felt more confident in our assessment of the team and what needed to happen to give us a chance to be better,” Cherington explained. “I definitely felt more confident in that. And that led to the confidence in that trade.”

Now with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Cherington is still in the hunt to recapture that same magic that fueled a forever-cherished Fall Classic run.