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There has been speculation that the Cubs wanted Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo to be their manager, and that the Red Sox, by way of a three-year agreement signed after 2011 to keep Chicago from poaching Boston staff, were keeping the Cubs from making this happen. According to Peter Gammons, though, this is far from the truth, as the Cubs have not even called the Red Sox about Lovullo to ask permission to interview him.
Now, had Epstein called Ben Cherington when he began his search for a manager and indicated Lovullo was one of his top choices, Cherington would have at least tried to see if the wounds between Red Sox ownership and their former general manager had abated enough to at least get a sympathetic ear.
But the Cubs did not call. Cherington approached Lovullo, who indicated that he wasn't certain what he wanted at this point in time; he also did not know the Cubs' intentions. Cherington and Lovullo worked out a three year deal at a sizable raise, and that was that.
The Cubs likely did want Torey Lovullo to manage them, or, at the least, to have the opportunity to interview the man who was the Triple-A PawSox skipper during Theo Epstein's second-to-last season with the Red Sox. Since they never called, though, as Gammons says, there was no opportunity to find out if the Red Sox would have allowed Lovullo to interview. There has also been an assumption that Lovullo would have taken the job were it offered to him, but even that's unclear, given Lovullo didn't know "what he wanted" or "the Cubs' intentions."
It's easy to think the Red Sox wanted to block the Cubs, who forced the Red Sox into an uncomfortable situation after the 2011 season. It's easy to believe that Red Sox ownership would want to make Chicago squirm a bit, or force some compensation out of them in the event Lovullo was hired by the Cubs. None of that speculation matters one bit if the Cubs never bothered to call and find out, however: Thanks to this, anyone besides Torey Lovullo as the next Cubs' manager is on the Cubs and their unwillingness to even pick up the phone.