FORT MYERS, Fla. -- It was no secret what the relationship between Dave Dombrowski and John Farrell was at the end. Not the best. It happens between front office types and managers, and it certainly would have seemed to be a factor in the Red Sox moving on from a manager who had won back-to-back division titles.
Now there is a new Red Sox manager, and along with the change comes a different dynamic. It's a reality that both Alex Cora and Dombrowski knew was coming. How was it going to all unfold? Neither knew.
More than a month into spring training, they have a better idea.
"It's been great," Cora said of his working relationship with the Red Sox president of baseball operations. "The good thing is that he watches the games. He's there from Pitch 1 all the way until the last pitch of the game. He pays attention. He asks questions of stuff that happens in the game, which I don't mind. I like talking baseball."
"For me, it's been great," Dombrowski noted. "I didn't know him. I didn't know him at all, or very little before we hired him, so you never really know until you start working with anybody. But through the interview process and over the winter time I've enjoyed getting to know him. He's intelligent. He's hard-working. He's conscientious. He's a good communicator. And down here that's been a continuation. He's a good person. He really wants to be successful. He's open-minded. He has his thought process. And we have a chance to communicate basically on a daily basis, however, I also think it's important that he has his own space. He doesn't need to see me down there on a daily basis, watching all the drills. I know they are being down and followed through on."
Buck Rodgers. Tom Runnells. Rene Lachemann. John Boles. Jim Leyland. Phil Garner. Luis Pujols. Alan Trammell. Brad Ausmus. Farrell. And now there's Cora.
Dombrowski has run through the gamut of managerial types, having to bob and weave through a litany of different personalities and levels of experience. Now the Red Sox' chief decision-maker has been faced with partnering up with a skipper with no previous big league managing experience, and no familiarity when it came to his new boss's way of doing things.
Even after all these years, Dombrowski knew adjustments were going to be needed. Sure enough ...
"It's probably not much different communication than I've had in the past. It's a little bit different because it's just new for him," Dombrowski said. "When we made our first roster moves I usually let the manager talk to the players and I follow up on anything because I try to establish them as the leaders of the clubhouse, which they are. But in this case, Alex had never done it before so I easily stepped in and talked to the guys and he followed up on it. There will be a time where he takes it over. Those are small adjustments that come into play.
"But I've found it very refreshing. He's great to work with. He has his thought process. He's energetic. And I think he's made the camp an enjoyable, but also think he has a pulse of things that need to be worked on. For example, we get to the last couple of weeks where there is some emphasis he has to try and focus on, and he knows what he wants to accomplish. He has a pulse of what is taking place."
And there's more where that came from.
"I probably talk to him more about some of the players from a background perspective from what we've seen in the past. Because he's only observing from now and from video," Dombrowski said. "So that's a little different. I think another one is also making sure he has what he needs from a comfort zone perspective, not only from me but from other people in the organization. I just want to stay on top of that a little bit more. I also want to make sure that even though he's on top of things, just being sure he's aware of the rules with cut-down dates and all of those things. He's aware of those things, but probably not as aware as he will be. And for the injured guys, we want to make sure we're on that page together. We have two weeks to go and we don't have to do it now, guys who aren't ready to go with us how we're going to approach everyone and talk to them about it."
Still, make no mistake about it, there is still a lot learn about each other.
The duo hasn't gone through real games together and they don't know what life will be like when Dombrowski is a presence in the manager's office in the midst of a long losing skid during some road trip. All they can say for the time being is that each likes what they have seen so far.
"He interacts with the players more in a different fashion. I think it's more an age-related, contemporary thought process, but he also knows there is a line between him and the players," Dombrowski said. "He's very communicative with them. It's very similar to a Jim Leyland, when I saw Jim interact with the players. Not necessarily the same way they go about it. They may talk about different things and go about it in a different fashion.
"I think Alex is getting to know the players. He has interacted with them more from a dinner perspective than probably any manager that I've had. He's getting to know them better. He's a big believer in knowing all about them. Secondly, he's more of their age bracket which is a comfort zone for them. It's good to get to know them away from the ballpark because once the season it's not easy to do. I know he's going to have a team dinner in Tampa. We did not do that last year and I think that's great he's bringing that back. He's been great."
