What To Know About New Red Sox President Dave Dombrowski
BOSTON (CBS) -- The Boston Red Sox made a big off-field splash on Tuesday night, announcing that Dave Dombrowski will be taking over as President of Baseball Operations.
Dombrowski is well-known around the world of baseball thanks to his 37-year career, with Boston being the fifth team he'll work for.
Here's all you need to know about the new man in charge of baseball operations down at Yawkey Way:
- After a brief stay at Cornell University, Dombrowski earned a business degree from Western Michigan University in 1979.
- He started his baseball career in 1978 as an administrative assistant with the Chicago White Sox. Dombrowski became the organization's farm director in 1980 and then assistant GM from 1982 to 1986.
- Following his stint with the White Sox, Dombrowski went up north to join the Montreal Expos. He was in charge of player development in 1987 and was promoted to assistant GM in 1988. Later that year, at the age of 32, he became the team's general manager, the youngest in the Major Leagues at the time. It was a position he held until 1991.
- Dombrowski was known as an aggressive GM, and it came back to bite him during the 1989 season. Hoping to make a run at the division, he traded for Mariners starters Mark Langston and Mike Campbell in May, sending his top three pitching prospects to Seattle, including future Hall of Famer Randy Johnson. Langston pitched well for Montreal but they missed the playoffs, and the lefty signed elsewhere in the offseason. Johnson went on to win 303 games in his 22-year career.
- After his time in Montreal, Dombrowski served as GM of the Florida Marlins from 1992-2001.
- Dombrowski constructed Florida's 1997 World Championship team by signing key free agents Al Leiter, Kevin Brown, Livan Hernandez, Bobby Bonilla and Moises Alou in the seasons leading up to their title run. But just months after the Marlins won their first title, Dombrowski was ordered by Florida ownership to hold a fire sale and traded away most of the team's stars.
- After future Red Sox owner John Henry purchased the Marlins in 1999, Dombrowski remained the team's general manager. In his finals years with the club, he went on to draft Josh Beckett (2nd overall in 1999) and Adrian Gonzalez (1st overall in 2000), but also traded Johan Santana for Jared Camp, who never pitched in the Majors.
- After the Marlins, it was onto the Detroit Tigers for Dombrowski, where he served as President and General Manager from 2002 to 2015. Under his watch, Detroit went from being one of the worst teams in baseball, losing 113 games in 2003, to a yearly playoff contender. They made two trips to the World Series under his watch, falling to the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006 and San Francisco Giants in 2012. In his 14 years at the helm Detroit reached the postseason five times, making it to the ALCS in four of those seasons.
- His first big signing with the Tigers came in 2004, when he inked catcher Ivan Rodriguez to a four-year, $40 million deal. Two years later, he brought on Jim Leyland as manager, and Detroit's turnaround was complete.
- Notable draft picks by Dombrowski in Detroit included Justin Verlander (2nd overall in 2004), Andrew Miller (6th overall in 2006) and Rick Porcello (27th overall in 2007).
- The biggest trade of his career came in 2007, when Dombrowski sent six players, including Miller and fellow highly touted prospect Cameron Maybin, to the Florida Marlins for Dontrelle Willis and Miguel Cabrera.
- Dombrowski made another big trade in December 2009, sending outfielder Curtis Granderson to the New York Yankees and Edwin Jackson to the Arizona Diamondbacks in a three-team trade. In return he received four players, including outfielder Austin Jackson and pitcher Max Scherzer.
- His final trade as GM of the Tigers was sending Yoenis Cespedes (who he acquired from the Red Sox in the offseason for Rick Porcello) to the New York Mets.
- Dombrowski was released by the Tigers on August 4, but didn't stay unemployed for long, joining the Boston organization just two weeks later.
