John Henry has shown over his run as owner of the Boston Red Sox that he is not one to shy away from making sudden moves. He did just that in Sept. 2019 when he relieved Dave Dombrowski from his duties as the team’s president of baseball operations.

This call came a day after the Red Sox dropped to 17.5 games back of the first place New York Yankees in the AL East standings following their 10-5 home loss to the Bronx Bombers. However, the Red Sox were less than a year removed from celebrating their ninth title in franchise history following a World Series win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Speaking to USA Today Sports’ Bob Nightengale ahead of the 2022 World Series, the current Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations took some time to reflect on his Red Sox exit.

“I don’t think I was treated right,” Dombrowski said. “It hurt. It didn’t end the way I hoped or was handled.”

Phillies owner John Middleton is still in disbelief over the Red Sox's decision to part ways with Dombrowski, who needed just a few years to build a World Series winner in Boston.

“I still don’t have any idea why John Henry fired him,” Middleton told USA Today Sports. “I really don’t understand it. But I’m grateful he did. We wouldn’t have Dave Dombrowski and we wouldn’t be in the World Series.”

Dombrowski ended up spending a few years away from the majors before being named the Phillies' new president of baseball operations in 2020. The Phillies had aspired to bring Dombrowski to the organization for years, and in the end, there was one notable factor that finally persuaded the longtime executive to take his talents to Philadelphia.

“The biggest thing was that he needed to be reassured,” Middleton said, “having been burned in Boston. When you win the 2018 World Series title, and you’re fired the following August [September], you can’t go through that process and have it not affect you psychologically and emotionally. Dave needed to know that he wasn’t going to walk into a situation where I was going to flip on him.”

Dombrowski now has the opportunity to become the first executive in MLB history to win a World Series with three different franchises, after having won it all with the Red Sox and also the then-Florida Marlins.