John Gibbons reflects on his interview with the Red Sox
The three days in Boston back in early 2020 seem like a blur for John Gibbons.
The Texas native (whose mother hailed from Gloucester) had already managed in the major leagues for 11 seasons, going 10-10 in his postseason appearances with the Blue Jays. So when Chaim Bloom and Co. invited Gibbons to town for a series of interviews for the then-vacant Red Sox managerial job, he has a pretty good idea on the realities that come with the job.
But Gibbons did have one question of the Red Sox brass that had been bugging him, as he revealed in an appearance on the Bradfo Sho podcast.
"I really enjoyed the interview," remembered Gibbons. "I really liked the people in the front office but they really ran me through the gamut. I think I sat down with everybody in the organization. When I sat down with the analytics guys - I think there were three of them - and I really liked them and we were talking back and forth. I think I had the reputation of anti-analytics, which really isn’t the case at all but I try and balance things. They asked me, ‘Do you have any questions?’ I said, ‘Well, first off, you’re the Boston Red Sox and you guys and the New York Yankees are the two big-money franchises. It’s unlimited. If you want to do something, you do it and that’s a beautiful thing. So the Yankees can’t hire more analytics guys than you can unless you allow them to. There’s such an overload of people trying to figure out different formulas in this game. Have we tapped it out yet? What’s going to separate you guys from the Yankees or you guys from the Yankees?’ I don’t even remember what his answer was. Baseball is like it has always been. It comes back to who has the best players. Who stays healthy and who has the best players. They’re not out-smarting you because they don’t have any more resources than you do. Maybe they have somebody from Yale and you have somebody from Harvard and you upped them there. I don’t know."
The job ultimately went to Ron Roenicke, who was let go after one season with the Red Sox bringing Alex Cora back.
Gibbons hasn't managed since 2018. He did reveal on the podcast, however, that he has a book coming out in April, which served as the impetus for joining social media earlier this week.
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