John Farrell, Former Manager, Boston Red Sox

Date of Birth: 8/4/1962
Birthplace: Monmouth Beach, New Jersey
College: Oklahoma State University

John Farrell, former manager of the Boston Red Sox, started his major league baseball career as a pitcher in 1987. He played for three teams (Cleveland Indians, Los Angeles Angels, Detroit Tigers) with fair results. His statistics as a player include a 36-46 record, .439 win percentage, 4.56 ERA, and 355 strikeouts to 250 walks in 116 games with 698.2 innings pitched.

After his playing career ended, Farrell worked as an assistant coach at a university, staying in that position for four years. He rejoined major league baseball in 2001 as the Director of Player Development for the Cleveland Indians. During that time, he developed a working relationship with Terry Francona and in 2007, he joined Francona with the Boston Red Sox, serving as Francona's pitching coach for four years.

Farrell became the manager of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2011. In two seasons with the Blue Jays, the team finished in fourth place both years, with an 81-81 record in 2011 and a 73-89 record in 2012.

In October, 2012, Farrell was traded to the Boston Red Sox, replacing Bobby Valentine as the team's new manager. In 2013, his first year managing the Red Sox, Farrell led the team to a 97-65 win-loss record and an American League pennant and World Series win. A year later, Farrell had the unfortunate distinction of managing a team that went from worst to best to worst in its division. In 2014, the Red Sox had a 71-91 record for a fifth/last place finish in the AL East.

The Red Sox and Farrell had another poor year in 2015, finishing again in last place in the AL East division with 78 wins to 84 losses. In August, 2015, Farrell was diagnosed with lymphoma and he stopped managing the team while he went for treatment. It was announced on October 22nd that the disease was in remission.

Farrell returned to manage the Red Sox in 2016 to a first place finish in the AL East division. They finished the regular season with 93 wins to 69 losses but they lost the AL division series to the Cleveland Indians in three straight games.

Farrell led the Red Sox to a first place finish in the AL East division again in 2017, with the same record as 2016 (93 wins to 69 losses). They went on to lose the AL Division Series to the Houston Astros in four games.

Farrell has a 432--378 record in his five years with the Red Sox. His overall record as a major league manager is 586 wins to 548 losses.

The Red Sox fired Farrell on October 11, 2017, two days after the Red Sox lost the division series to the Astros. He was hired as a scout by the Cincinnati Reds in March, 2018. That same month, he became an analyst for Baseball Tonight on ESPN.

Sources for Information
Wikipedia - John Farrell
Baseball Reference - John Farrell