Little Won’t Return to Manage Red Sox

The Boston Red Sox insist that Grady Little’s disastrous decision to stick with Pedro Martinez in the seventh game of the American League championship series isn’t the only reason they let him go.

It sure didn’t help.

Little was dismissed by the Red Sox on Monday, less than two weeks after he left his tiring ace in too long, probably costing the team a chance to play in the World Series. Little wasn’t fired -- he was sent off with kind words and a $250,000 bonus but without a new contract.

The Red Sox said that the parting of the ways, as they called it, was not solely based on what happened in Game 7 of the ALCS. According to the Red Sox news release, owner John Henry “took the position well before the postseason that the club may need to question a long-term commitment to its manager.”

“This is not an organization that makes decisions of this importance based on one event,” President Larry Lucchino said.

Little’s decision to go with his gut instead of the numbers that said Martinez lost effectiveness as his pitch count went up illustrated disastrously, but not exclusively, that he was out of place on a team that emphasized statistics.

Lucchino and General Manager Theo Epstein said Little bristled at the idea of coming back for another year with no security beyond the current year. He asked for the team’s complete support, and a long-term contract that would demonstrate it.

“It became clear after a lengthy discussion that Grady was not going to have 100% support,” Epstein said. “Once that question was answered, the other answer was clear.”

The team released a statement from Little in which he thanked the team for the opportunity to manage in the majors and stressed his accomplishments over two years in which he won 93 and 95 games.

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Jim Duquette will become the New York Mets’ permanent general manager today, the team said. Duquette has been interim general manager since Steve Phillips was fired in June.... Dan O’Brien was hired as the Cincinnati Reds’ general manager. O’Brien, an assistant general manager at Texas, fills a job that has been vacant since the Reds fired Jim Bowden on July 27.

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Vladimir Guerrero, Miguel Tejada and Gary Sheffield filed for free agency along with pitcher Bartolo Colon.

Relievers Keith Foulke, LaTroy Hawkins and Armando Benitez also were among the 71 players who filed, raising the free agent total to 106 among the about 225 players eligible.

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Toronto catcher Greg Myers agreed to a $900,000, one-year contract after a season in which he hit .307 with 15 home runs.