Alex Anthopoulos, the senior vice-president of baseball operations and general manager of the Blue Jays, said the team had no intention of letting John Farrell out of the last year of his contract until Farrell told Anthopoulos soon after the season ended that managing the Red Sox was his "dream job" and that he wanted to pursue the opportunity.
A day or two later, according to Anthopoulos, Red Sox owner John Henry called Blue Jays owner Paul Beeston asking for permission to pursue Farrell, which set the wheels of Farrell's departure in motion.
"This is the one job for Farrell," Anthopoulos said Sunday afternoon on a conference call. "Theres no other city that was more of a perfect fit and a perfect opportunity."
He said the sudden, and unexpected, departure of Terry Francona after the 2011 season led to Farrell's return to Boston after only two seasons in Toronto.
"It was really in a lot of ways a perfect storm of events," he said.
Other highlights of the call:
The Jays' GM also complained of "gamesmanship" -- "Not on our side" -- that caused negotiations to "not go as smoothly as possible." But he also said he had no "issues with Red Sox general manger Ben Cherington, and Beeston doesn't have any issues with the Red Sox ownership group".
Boston Red Sox
Anthopoulos said the compensation issue was negotiated "primarily on ownership level" and that several names were discussed before the teams settled on Mike Aviles. He also said rumors of Adam Lind being involved were "100 percent false."
Anthopoulos also said Farrell's coaches -- hitting instructor Dwayne Murphy, pitching coach Bruce Walton, first-base coach Torey Lovullo, third-base coach Brian Butterfield, bench coach Don Wakamatsu, bullpen coach Pete Walker and coach Luis Rivera -- are "free to explore other opportunities," raising the possibility that some of them may join Farrell in Boston. Lovullo worked in the Boston organization during Farrell's time as Sox pitching coach, and Rivera played for the Red Sox in the 1990s.