John Farrell is out as Red Sox manager

There have been rumblings from fans for years, and more recently the press, and now it’s finally happened: John Farrell will not be returning to the Red Sox as manager in 2018, per the team’s Wednesday morning announcement.

The move does come at a bit of a weird time: Farrell won a World Series with the Red Sox in 2013, in his first year with the team, after he was pried away from the Blue Jays — the team he left the Sox for in the first place, back when he was their pitching coach. In 2014 and 2015, Boston came in last place in the AL East, and Farrell remained. After consecutive AL East titles and Division Series’ exits, though, apparently, the Red Sox had seen enough.

The final act of Farrell in a Red Sox uniform was protecting one of his players, as he ran out onto the field to get himself ejected in a very obvious “look at me, ump, over here!” moment to distract Mark Wegner from Dustin Pedroia, who was arguing balls and strikes in Game 4 of the ALDS. That feels about right: Farrell made mistakes in games, and was criticized for how he played matchups and his bullpen usage, but he was also popular with his players because he was a guy who could keep the clubhouse together and stood up for them, even when the team was playing poorly.

Maybe he wasn’t quite as popular anymore, with the huge amount of roster turnover and the influx of youth that’s taken place over the past few years. Maybe Boston is going to look for someone who has had more success with younger players, or bring in a fresh, new face to the managing scene. Maybe Boston is just making a change because someone has to go, and it’s not going to be the guy who built consecutive AL East champions (nor should it be).

It’s unclear what direction the Red Sox are going to go in now, if they already have a replacement in mind — as they did when they let Bobby Valentine go and focused on bringing in Farrell — or if they’re just going to setup a bunch of interviews and see what shakes out. What we do know, though, is that there won’t be constant stories or fan’s tweets written about firing Farrell, putting an end to, well, five years of those.

[Update, 11:35 a.m. ET] Apparently Farrell wasn’t fired for his on-field performance, but no one except for the Red Sox and Farrell know what the reason is.

That... is not a good way to handle the situation, though, regardless of what the reason is. If it’s a serious offense, then it should be on the record. If it’s something just between Dombrowski and Farrell that should be kept private, well, keep it all the way private, then.

Instead, we’re in a weird in-between place, half in the dark and with people about to speculate the hell out of what the light might be. Especially since “no level of team success” means that Farrell would have been fired even if the Red Sox won the World Series, which implies that whatever he did or said or thinks was irredeemable in Boston’s eyes.