The fair criticism to me is that what makes Farrell special is that not only was he a pitching coach but he had a few standout coaching victories, the best of which was Jon Lester, so our expectation now is that he has the ability to still do this, but either he doesn't or he has twice worked with pitching coaches that he defers to and they can't do it. Perhaps it is an unfair expectation, but if Farrell can't do that, what is it he does well that would make the Red Sox regret firing him? The offense is good, some of the young players are quickly blossoming into stars, maybe this is a Belichick thing where he became an expert at the side of the ball he didn't coach until he was the manager. Maybe the talent on that side of the ball is very good and Farrell has simply gotten out of the way.
Fact is, the pitching staff is in crisis and I don't buy the talent excuse, Porcello and Kelly were successful MLB starters before being acquired not long ago, yes Buchholz is inconsistent but he was a Cy Young contender before getting hurt in 2013, Wright is having an incredible season and Dombrowski just added one of the best starters in baseball to this staff, to think we should just be able to wave off all of these guys to the point that we should expect this kind of performance is absurd, we shouldn't need the Mets staff to expect the rotation to be just OK. If we just excuse Farrell over every flaw, like "well David Price is on a new team and figures to struggle" what is he actually responsible for here? Should Dombrowski scramble to acquire starters for a manager whose starters now, including a former Cy Young winner in his prime, are underperforming? If the Sox acquired Chris Sale tomorrow, why should I believe he will maintain his performance when practically no starter this team acquires recently does so? It may be the talent acquisition, it may be player evaluation, it may be bad luck, but it also may be that there is something seriously wrong with the way this team coaches pitchers and if that is the culprit, that buck stops with Farrell.