Theo Epstein has formally resigned as General Manager of the Boston Red Sox, and will now join the Chicago Cubs. Thus, the architect of the two World Series titles is gone. Gather together all the '04 and '07 memorabilia, folks, and put it in a safe place. You are not likely to see any more for a while.Theo is taking the best of his former Boston brain trust with him to Chicago—Jed Hoyer and Jason McLeod (both coming from the Padres) will re-form the real Big Three that gave us our glory. McLeod was Boston's Director of Amateur Scouting for six years—producing the likes of Pedroia, Bard, Buchholz, Ellsbury, Lavarnway, Kalish, Reddick, Middlebrooks, and Fuentes. Not bad.
Of course, Theo gave us the Nomar trade; the Papi, Millar and Mueller signings; the trades for Schilling and Adrian Gonzalez, to name a few. Sure, there were several swings and misses on free agents, but he vowed a "player development" machine—and he gave it to us.
Most importantly, Theo Epstein was the only local presence in the Red Sox management hierarchy. He lived the Red Sox gestalt—he didn't just pay it lip service. Now, we are left with three distracted carpetbaggers.
Kiss your ring dreams goodbye.