Cody Ross says Red Sox GM Ben Cherington “lied to my face”

By Craig CalcaterraAug 2, 2013, 2:59 PM EDT
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Cody Ross left the Red Sox for the Dbacks via free agency. He’s back in Boston this weekend and went on WEEI for an airing of grievances:

“They told me that they didn’t want to sign guys to long-term deals, and then they gave [Shane] Victorino a three-year deal, and then [Mike] Napoli a three-year deal or four-year deal, whatever it was [later shortened to a one-year deal after health issues popped up]. So, basically they lied to my face. At that point, I kind of got a bad taste in my mouth and wanted to move on, and that was it.

These things are always a little bit of he-said, he-said. I don’t think it’s at all unreasonable to assume that Cherington told Ross they didn’t want to sign him to a long-term deal, as saying they weren’t signing anyone to such a deal isn’t exactly realistic.

As it is, Ross is having a sub-par year, so lying or not, I’d say Cherington made a good choice.

Pirates hire Ben Cherington as their new general manager

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By Craig CalcaterraNov 15, 2019, 1:39 PM EST
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The Pittsburgh Pirates have hired Ben Cherington as the team’s new general manager. They do so after the general manager meetings ended, but better late than never.

Cherington served as GM of the Boston Red Sox for four years, winning the World Series in 2013, but resigned during the 2015 season after Dave Dombrowski was named Boston’s new president of baseball operations. Which was a defacto demotionn for Cherington who, until then, had the final say in baseball decisions. Dombrowski, of course, was fired late in the season this year. Cherington went on to work for the Toronto Blue Jays as a vice president, but was seen as biding his time for another GM position. Now he has one.

Cherington takes over in Pittsburgh for executive vice president and general manager Neal Huntington, who was fired after a 12 years at the helm. Also fired was team president Frank Coonelly. Travis Williams replaced Coonelly recently. While the Pirates experienced a few years of contention under Huntington and Coonelly, they have slid out of contention in recent years as the club has traded away promising players for little return, all while cutting payroll. There’s a very big rebuilding job ahead of Cherington.

The first move he’ll have to make: hire a manager, as the team still hasn’t replaced Clint Hurdle since he was dismissed in the final weekend of the regular season.