Ben Cherington Will Be New GM

Ben Cherington has been informed that he will take over as General Manager when Theo officially leaves

According to Tim Brown of Yahoo! Sports, the Red Sox have informed Assistant General Manager Ben Cherington that he will be promoted to General Manager when Theo Epstein's transfer to the Cubs is official. Cherington has been with the team for something like 14 years. The Sox originally hired him as an intern back in 1997 and he worked his way up the ranks to become Dan Duquette's most trusted scout. Before Jed Hoyer left to become the GM of the San Diego Padres, Cherington served as the Senior Vice President and Co-Assistant GM. He also served as Co-GM alongside Jed Hoyer in 2005 during Theo's little hiatus (better known as "pony up the damn money or I'm out of here"). Benny Boy is gonna have a hell of a lot of work to do. He has a manager to find, order to restore in the clubhouse, trades to be made, and some staff to replace (Theo's most likely taking some guys with him to Chicago, most likely some of the medical staff). If I were him, the first thing I'd do is trade Beckett and Youkilis. Two guys who can play but are clubhouse cancers. Trade Beckett for a right handed bat to take over right field duties and a prospect (that's not a reach either, there's teams that would drool over Beckett being shopped) and trade Youkilis for some pitching prospects. I would love to see them sign a guy like Mark Beurhle or Doug Fister, someone that can be relied on to take the ball every 5 days and pitch a good game and pitch at least into the 7th inning. Get some bullpen help too, 'cause Jenks and Albers were brutal and Dan Wheeler was just OK. Try like hell to dump Lackey (sounds like old friend Jed Hoyer would like him) and find a right handed DH and put Ryan Lavarnway on the 25-man to back up Saltalamacchia. Hopefully they can snag Dave Martinez who can bring some Joe Maddon philosophy into the clubhouse and get the Halo playing, KFC eating, and Natty drinking out of the clubhouse. And did I mention that Martinez could help straighten out Crawford? Someone the guy knows and is comfortable with could do wonders for his performance next year.