Rosenthal on D&C: Will Sox overreact again?

Fox Sports baseball reporter Ken Rosenthal joined the Dennis & Callahan show Monday morning to address the issues with the Red Sox that led to the departure of manager Terry Francona after eight seasons.

"It doesn't look good, no question about it," Rosenthal said. "At the same time, I'm not sure all these histrionics are worth their while, starting with the departure of Tito. Listen, all teams have problems in the clubhouse. I would venture to say this stuff was going on in the 2004 and 2007 clubhouse. But back then Tito was winning and not losing. Hey, no problem.

"The real question is, How do you react to all this? And a lot of people in baseball feel they've already overreacted once. The question is, Will they overreact again and allow Theo [Epstein] to leave? Because they control that. They don't have to allow him to leave."

Asked if he thinks Epstein is part of the solution in Boston, Rosenthal replied: "Yes, I do. Listen, there's no question he's made some bad moves. There's no question Brian Cashman in New York has made some bad moves. There's no question every large-market high-revenue GM is going to screw up once in a while because they're spending more money than the other guy.

"But in the last month, I will say this about both guys: Did Terry Francona simply become an idiot, and did Theo simply become an idiot? No. The Red Sox had a catastrophic collapse. We all can agree on that. I'm not sure it's much deeper than a catastrophic collapse, and you don't rip up your whole organization because of it."

Following are more highlights from the conversation.

On Francona's departure: "There are times when any manager in any situation after a certain period of time has run his course. That seems to be what happened with Tito. What I'm saying is, had a lot of things been handled differently, starting with picking up his option, then maybe he would have had more authority in the clubhouse. And maybe the whole dynamic would have been different. You don't know. And maybe, again, as I said initially, after eight years, it's just time. And there's nothing wrong with that."

On Francona's replacement: "The idea of Bobby Valentine seems a little far-fetched to me if Theo is the general manager. It's not that they can't get along, but Bobby Valentine certainly has his own views. Heck, even if Theo isn't the general manager, the Red Sox have strong views on how they want to go about their business and the way the manager should conduct the business. And that's not saying that they micromanage every move, but certainly there's a lot of discussion. There's no secret Tito has a computer on his desk. And that's part of what they do. That's frankly what every team does at this point. I don't see Bobby V. being a guy taking instruction or even advice.

"I would guess that they would hire someone that would be a bit of a surprise, like they did the last time with Francona, whether it's an established guy -- which it probably should be -- or someone doing this job for the first time."

On if the Sox need a hard-nosed manager to shake up things: "It's a lot easier to have a tough guy with a younger team than it is with a team with all these big contracts. You can talk about getting tough all you want. I'm not sure you're going to get that culture change to the extent that maybe we're talking about, and maybe if all this stuff is true that they would need. They can benefit from a new voice, and that's a little bit different than a guy who comes in and starts kicking rears. A new voice would simply set a different tone. And again, after eight years, OK, I get that. I'm not sure that this take-charge, kick-butt mentality that maybe a Kirk Gibson is doing with Arizona is going to work in Boston."

On John Lackey's future in Boston: "You can always get rid of players. Remember when the Cubs had Milton Bradley. I would suggest that at that time Milton Bradley was an even bigger problem than Lackey is now, and a guy that really they needed to get rid of even more. That's how bad it was. They traded him for a similar bad contract -- Carlos Silva -- and actually, they made the money work. It worked. You can trade bad contract for bad contract.

"Yeah, I believe [the Red Sox] could it. I don't know off the top of my head who his contract matches up with exactly, or closely, but I would imagine that there's multiple players that would be involved or that you could target in that sense. And you know what? Lackey, for his own benefit, probably would be better off getting out of [Boston]."

To hear the interview, go to the Dennis & Callahan audio on demand page. For more Red Sox news, visit the team page at weei.com/red sox.