The slide just keep’s continuing for this year’s Red Sox team, now parting ways with both its manager and general manager at the end of the 2011 season. But while Terry Francona’s departure may be shrouded in mystery (or at least controversy) general manager Theo Epstein’s is not.

As most of you might already know, Theo has left Boston for a position that appears to be more lucrative, at $20 million over the next five years, but could also yield Epstein more power. But instead of criticizing him for the leap. I say it’s more productive to look at his time here, as the Sox GM, and decide what we need of our next GM.

Theo was a boon for the Red Sox, and for you anti-literary types that means he was pretty good. There’s the obvious, the World Series titles under his watch that hadn’t happened in….well, awhile, but then there are the little details that you might be overlooking.

During his tenure as Red Sox GM, Epstein brought in some tremendous talent with some of the best trades in baseball, and key early acquisitions. Who can forget swapping out an injury-plagued and bitter-against-Boston-media Nomar Garciaparra with Orlando Cabrera? Or in his adding of Dave Roberts for a mere minor leaguer? Esptein put the pieces together to win the 2004 World Series, including the decision of not-renewing Grady Little’s contract and bringing in former Phillies manager, Terry Francona.

Hanley Ramirez may have proved to be a star shortstop after all, but in landing Beckett and Lowell from a floundering Marlins organization Epstein again provided the pieces exactly necessary for what the Sox needed to propel themselves to another championship in 2007 (look up Becket’s performance in those playoffs if you doubt me).

Epstein also landed Schilling and his bloody socks the year before, after Schilling had racked up 194 K’s in only 168 innings. Schilling might not have turned out to be a Cy Young winner in Boston, but he was very valuable down the stretch, even offering to restructure his contract, and Epstein gave up only prospects for him. And let’s not forget his clutch signings of David Ortiz, Kevin Millar, and even Adrian Beltre and Jason Bay, both of whom played exceedingly well during their short stays in Red Sox uniforms.

Still, Theo’s legacy will ultimately have to focus on his mismanagement of free agent talent. Though he had his early promise, over the recent years Epstein hasn’t been such a keen observer of talent, allowing John Henry’s bankroll to ultimately decide to go after the biggest, and not the best names.

As touched on the in the last article, we can possibly forgive him on Dice-K because we didn’t know what we were getting and he had been uber-dominant, but ultimately nearly every other recent free agent signing on his watch has ended in disaster. The list is long, and looms largest around the signings of J.D. Drew and Carl Crawford, but ends with a cataclysmic exclamation point surrounding John Lackey, who raked in a massive deal despite never having a 200 K, or sub 3.00 ERA season to his credit.

I will, however, defend them, both Theo Epstein and Terry Francona, for being great additions to the Red Sox organization, and for having combined to help us win two World Series championships which probably wouldn’t have happened under anyone else. Francona deserves much more sympathy because he could ultimately only work with the players that he was given.

Let’s face it, Francona’s a player’s manager. This is why guys like him. They feel relaxed playing under him, and in turn produce even if left to some unorthodox results. Now that times are tough, we can’t condemn him for this season’s collapse, not if you’re willing to ignore the World Series title in ’04. Those self-proclaimed “idiots” may have cared much more than the present players, but their actions were similar (drinking in the clubhouse especially highlighted here). So the issue shouldn’t be solely hefted on Francona’s shoulders, who I applaud for leaving his way by making it clear that it wasn’t entirely his own decision. Instead, we should be blaming Red Sox management for trying to play Yankee-ball and inking the biggest names regardless of clubhouse karma. A player’s manager can’t manage guys who don’t have the discipline to take their jobs seriously after inking enormous deals.

Hold your head high, though, T & T, because no matter what the Boston media says about you both, you did great things for the Red Sox. Let’s hope the next guys can clean up the mess we have going now, though. And for the love of Fenway, can we please get someone smart enough to tell John Lackey to put the ribs down and finally get to work?