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So the Red Sox turned to Bobby Valentine to bring discipline to a clubhouse in which players drank beer and ate fried chicken in the clubhouse during games. But the former New York Mets and Japanese Leagues manager alienated so many players that the team was forced to bail out on the season, trading three highly paid but underperforming players for a chance at a fresh start in 2013.
Valentine was fired after finishing in last place with a 69-93 record -- four games behind Toronto and the team's worst record since 1965. General manager Ben Cherington was back in the market for a manager, and this time he didn't need a hard-line disciplinarian.
"The team is in a different point than it was last year when we hired Bobby," Cherington said after firing Valentine. "The roster was fairly mature and we felt, mistakenly in retrospect, but we felt at the time, that we had a chance to win and the team was ready to win. We're now at a different point."
Farrell, 50, had a promising pitching career with the Cleveland Indians before an injury kept him out for the entire 1991 and `92 seasons. He returned to pitch sparingly in four more seasons, finishing his career with a 36-46 record and a 4.56 ERA.
He coached at Oklahoma State, where he pitched in college, from 1997-2001 and then spent five years in the Indians' front office before Francona, a former Cleveland teammate, brought him to Boston as pitching coach. Under Farrell's guidance from 2007-10, Red Sox pitchers held opponents to an AL-low .254 batting average and led the league with in 4,771 strikeouts.
Farrell is familiar with Red Sox management from his time in Boston and has worked with many of the club's pitchers -- including starters Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz, who were All-Stars under his tutelage.
"His broad set of experiences, and exceptional leadership skills, make him the ideal person to lead our team," Cherington said in the news release. "I have known him in various capacities throughout my career, and I hold him in the highest regard as a baseball man and as a person."
Aviles, 31, is a career .277 hitter who played 136 games for the Red Sox in 2012, mostly at shortstop.
Carpenter, 27, is 1-5 with one save and a 5.70 ERA over 67 career relief appearances with the Astros and Blue Jays. He appeared in 33 games in 2012, 30 with the Astros before being sent to the Blue Jays in a 10-player trade on July 20; he also made 23 minor-league appearances last season.
Originally a catcher, Carpenter converted to pitching in 2008.
[Associated
Press;
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