Bill Ballou: Finish of Red Sox season leaves plenty of things to ponder

For the 107th time in the last 116 years, the Red Sox’ season has ended in disappointment and not as Boston being the best team in baseball.

Now, there is disappointment and there is Disappointment. This was lowercase stuff. Take Sept. 25, 1932 — that was Disappointment, Boston finishing 43-111, although the Sox ended the season with an 8-3 victory over the Yankees in front of 8,000 at Fenway Park.

One difference between the way 1932 and 2016 ended, aside from the opposite results, was that this year’s fans stuck around the ballpark to bid David Ortiz a fond farewell, while in ’32, they stuck around to make sure none of those players were coming back.

Ortiz won’t be back in 2017 — we are sure of that. John Farrell will be back — we are sure of that because announcing it was the first thing Dave Dombrowski did on Tuesday. With those things settled, Dombrowski’s next item on the to-do list involves trying avoid a 108th disappointment in 2017.

While the Farrell rehiring is likely to be unpopular, what reason would Dombrowski have had to fire a manager who has won two division titles and one World Series in four years? Using Steven Wright as a pinch runner is not enough. The way the Sox staggered through the final 13 days of the season might be enough except that to some extent, Farrell was a prisoner of his employers.

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They are the ones who overcooked the David Ortiz farewell weekend.

With Farrell’s return decided, Dombrowski can turn his attention to other more pressing matters in a review of the year. Some good — and not-so-good — things he will be looking at:

• How will the Red Sox replace Ortiz? He was unique, so they cannot. They can make up for some of the lost production, but it does not seem likely they can do it within the organization. Hanley Ramirez is comfortable at first base, and we all know what can happen when Ramirez is not comfortable.

There are no guarantees about what Pablo Sandoval may add when he comes back next spring, but if he were to be a DH, his production will not approach that of Ortiz.

No matter how much it might cost the Blue Jays to re-sign Edwin Encarnacion, he is beginning to evolve into a Canadian David Ortiz. If Toronto doesn’t pony up and bring back Encarnacion, Jays ownership will be thankful the country has a nonviolent population, save for the occasional hockey game.

Jose Bautista, though — a different story. His career seems in decline, but a change of scene and less wear and tear on his body as a DH might turn things around.

• Something Dombrowski can take comfort in is knowing that Dustin Pedroia is back from some time wandering in baseball’s statistical wilderness. It turns out that injuries were indeed behind the little dip his career took after he signed a long-term contract.

Injuries are OK. At this age, Pedroia will have them, but he has proven that he did not get complacent because he found stability. It would have been uncharacteristic if he had, but this great rebound season was Pedroia at his best.

• Jackie Bradley Jr. hit .415 during his 29-game hitting streak early in the season, .232 in his other 127 games. That’s how numbers are compiled in baseball, in chunks of good and bad, but Bradley’s late-season dip and dreadful playoff performance leave his future open to questions.

• Boston is going to need a third baseman for 2017. Here’s betting that Sandoval comes back and regains his job for the same reason that Ramirez bounced back from 2015 — pride. This year had to be embarrassing for Sandoval as 2015 was for Ramirez.

Travis Shaw appears to be a career .245 hitter, Aaron Hill is over the hill, and Brock Holt is most valuable as a utility player.

• Blake Swihart, even if he is not great defensively, is Boston’s catcher of the future, that future perhaps being as early as next year. Sandy Leon eventually turned into Doug Mirabelli, and if he had 500-at bats a year might strike out 200 times. Christian Vazquez just can’t hit enough, and Swihart will improve defensively.

• No player with enough experience to reach free agency is worth what he makes unless his team wins the World Series, so let’s not be too hard on David Price. Price is not the best pitcher in the baseball, but every one of the 230 innings he worked for Boston this season meant one less inning Matt Barnes, Heath Hembree, Junichi Tazawa or Noe Ramirez had to pitch.

Price’s postseason problems are troubling, but you have to get there first, and he helped Boston do that.

• Finally, the Sox’ late-season plunge won’t carry over to next year, Boston will regret making the Drew Pomeranz trade, and Koji Uehara has pitched to 51 batters in postseason play for the Red Sox without walking a single one.

There’s a good chance he’ll get to extend that streak next year, depending on how good Dombrowski is at problem-solving this coming winter.

—Contact Bill Ballou at william.ballou@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillBallouTG.