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Throwback Thursday: Blue Jays trade manager John Farrell to Red Sox
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Photo credit: © Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
Ryley Delaney
May 1, 2025, 18:00 EDTUpdated: May 1, 2025, 18:45 EDT
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One of the oddest Toronto Blue Jays trades in franchise history was with the Boston Red Sox.
With the Blue Jays playing the series finale against the Red Sox on Thursday, it seems fitting to look at one of the weirdest trades in team history with the Red Sox in this week’s edition of Throwback Thursday.
John Farrell was traded once during his playing days, on May 14, 1996, from the Cleveland team to the Detroit Tigers. A little over a week later, Farrell appeared in his final Major League Baseball game and eventually found his way to the coaching side of things.
The next year, he joined Oklahoma State University as an assistant coach. Starting in 2001, he served as a director of player development with Cleveland, and before the 2007 season, Farrell joined the Red Sox as a pitching coach.
On October 25, 2010, the Blue Jays hired Farrell as their 13th manager in team history. In 2011, the Jays finished with an 81-81 record, 16 games back of the division and 10 games behind the final Wild Card spot.
Farrell’s second season as the Jays’ manager went worse, as they finished with a 73-89 record, 22 games behind the division and 20 games behind the final Wild Card. The only team worse than the Blue Jays that season in the American League East was the Red Sox, as they finished with a 69-93 record.
Shortly after the season ended, it was announced that Farrell had accepted a position as the Red Sox manager. On Oct. 21, 2012, the Blue Jays traded Farrell, again, a manager, to the Red Sox along with David Carpenter for Mike Avilés. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the first time a manager had been traded by a big league team.
Avilés never played for the Blue Jays, instead, he was traded with Yan Gomes to Cleveland for Esmil Rogers. Rogers didn’t find much success with the Jays and was claimed off waivers by the New York Yankees during the summer of 2014.
The Jays acquired Carpenter in the J.A. Happ trade, but he only pitched two and two-thirds innings with the team before the trade. He was claimed off waivers by the Atlanta Braves where he found success in 2013, posting a 1.78 ERA and a 2.83 FIP in 65.2 innings pitched. His final big league season was in 2019.
The individual with the most success post-trade was Farrell. He turned the 2012 Red Sox, which finished with a 69-93 record, into a 97-65 team, winning the 2013 World Series with the organization in his first season.
Farrell didn’t find the same success in the rest of his tenure, eventually being terminated after the 2017 season. Ironically, the Red Sox won the World Series the season after Farrell was fired. Since his tenure as the Red Sox manager, Farrell has served as a scout for the Cincinnati Reds.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.

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