The starting lineup, meanwhile, remains largely unchanged, though the Red Sox at least temporarily possess even greater questions in right field and at shortstop, the latter from where Marco Scutaro recently was supplanted for, of all things, financial reasons.
Into this all now steps Bobby V., whose arrival in Boston this season may very well offer at least some answer to a question long debated in baseball circles: exactly how much of a difference can a manager make? Red Sox fans will be quick to point out that the Sox won the World Series the last time they changed skippers, when Terry Francona displaced Grady Little between the 2003 and 2004 seasons. Just the same, Francona had at least two things Little did not - Curt Schilling and Keith Foulke - each of whom proved critical in ending Boston’s 86-year drought without a World Series championship.
But Valentine? He is the headliner on the list of the Red Sox’ offseason acquisitions. How the Red Sox fare this season may very well depend on whether Valentine takes Boston’s talent (which is considerable) and mask its weaknesses (which are notable).
Valentine has been everything from polarizing to egomaniacal since the Red Sox hired him at the end of last year, so let’s get this out there now: the more time that passes, the better he sounds and looks. The more inquiries that are made about Valentine’s most recent managerial past with the Mets, the more it becomes clear that his supporters outweigh his critics. The latter just tend to be far more vocal, undoubtedly because Valentine, like Robert DeNiro in “Meet the Parents,” unceremoniously squeezed them from his circle of trust.
The same is likely to happen here, of course, because Boston is nothing if not political.
