Seeking to hire a new lead baseball executive, the Red Sox encountered their share of trials and tribulations. As has been widely reported, the club was met with a string of rejections at the outset, with a number of candidates declining invitations to interview for the position.
Eventually, the Red Sox discovered their footing, conducting interviews with more than a half-dozen candidates before choosing Craig Breslow as their new chief baseball officer.
From assorted interviews with those familiar with the process, here’s how that unfolded over the last few weeks:
* In the initial stages of their search, the Red Sox decided to aim high with their outreach. In addition to previously reported targets such as Mike Hill, Jon Daniels, James Click and Derek Falvey, the team also sent out a feeler to a prominent current executive, who also declined to speak with them about the opening. Having swung for the fences early, the Red Sox then recalculated and targeted more obtainable choices.
* One industry source confirmed “it’s fair to say” the Red Sox were initially surprised by the number of rejections they received. Team president and CEO Sam Kennedy was almost offended when a reporter asked him if the lure of the job might be diminished. “This is the Boston Red Sox,’’ said Kennedy. “If you want to run a baseball organization, this is where you want to me. You want to be in Boston.” Turns out, that wasn’t a widely shared sentiment. Then again, as one industry source noted, that’s hardly unprecedented. “Teams always expect their (vacancies) are more desirable than they really are. That’s just how it goes.”
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* Breslow was on the Red Sox’s radar almost from the outset, though at that point he was hardly considered any sort of favorite or front-runner. He came recommended by some who are respected within the Red Sox organization, and was known to many in Baseball Operations staff from his time as a player in Boston. As the process got underway, he was identified as someone who was, at the very least, worth speaking to, if for no other reason than to get his perspective as a valued baseball mind and someone from outside the organization who could bring an unbiased look at things.
* Even as the search evolved, the Red Sox were open to including new candidates to the interview process. When Kim Ng walked away from the Miami Marlins, she was contacted soon after by the Red Sox. Ng told the Sox she wanted to take some time to think about her next role and passed on an interview. At the same time, the Red Sox requested permission to speak with Baltimore Orioles executive Sig Mejdal, the brilliant analytics expert who helped build the St. Louis Cardinals, later contributed to the current Houston Astros dynastic run before joining the Orioles with GM Mike Elias. But the Orioles, perhaps fearful of losing a key front office mind to a division rival, dragged their feet on the process and never provided the Sox with the go-ahead to speak with Mejdal.
* Late last week, the Red Sox narrowed the list of finalists to three: Breslow, Minnesota Twins GM Thad Levine and current Cleveland consultant (and former Pittsburgh Pirates GM) Neal Huntington. Other interviewees — current Red Sox assistant GM Eddie Romero, former San Francisco Giants manager Gabe Kapler, current vice president of scouting (and former scouting director) Paul Toboni and assistant GM Mike Groopman — were informed they were out of the running.
* Breslow first began to separate himself from the pack when, during the second round of interviews, he met with Red Sox principal owner John Henry. Henry, who has always relied greatly on analytics in his own business dealings and favors them when it comes to his baseball management team, was impressed by Breslow’s aptitude for metrics and how they should best be utilized and interpreted. Henry also was impressed with Breslow’s overall intellectual curiosity.
* Following the vetting from Henry, Breslow became the clear favorite for the job. Initially, there had been some reservations about putting Breslow in the No. 1 chair because of his relative inexperience. But as the process wore on, the Red Sox could not identify any of the other candidates as suitable No. 1′s to oversee Breslow in the second chair. Additionally, there was some concern that if the Red Sox offered anything less than the No. 1 job, the Chicago Cubs, for whom Breslow had worked for the previous four years as director of pitching development, might see an opening to retain him with a promotion. Finally, there was an internal consensus that if Breslow were to take the No. 2 role and the team enjoyed immediate success, another team would attempt to soon lure him away with an offer to be the primary decision-maker. Eventually, the Red Sox grew comfortable with the idea of making Breslow the chief baseball officer, while acknowledging that it may take a bit of time for him to fully grow into the position.
* There’s been no official word on the length or terms of Breslow’s contract. But it’s known that the Red Sox gave predecessor Chaim Bloom a five-year deal when he was hired in October of 2019, and there’s no reason to believe that Breslow got a deal different than that one.
* The expectation is that Breslow will not hire a general manager for some time; there’s no guarantee or mandate that he will, period. But the smart thing for him to do is get acquainted with the rest of the Baseball Operations staff. Those long-serving members can provide institutional knowledge, while guiding him through his first offseason as a top baseball executive, and, if necessary, his first season, too. Breslow’s on-the-job work history is in pitching development, so he’ll need some help when it comes to roster building. And others will be there to provide assistance on salary arbitration, free agent negotiations and trade talk. Of those on staff, Eddie Romero is viewed as having the best chance of one day being promoted into the role. But it’s also entirely possible that if Breslow chooses a GM, that pick could be external.
* It’s also possible that Breslow could hire a more experienced senior advisor — someone who has been a GM or top decision-maker elsewhere — to serve as something of a mentor and top evaluator. Theo Epstein, who took control of the Red Sox at 28, relied heavily on Bill Lajoie. Ben Cherington later had Allard Baird. Even the more established Dave Dombrowski had Frank Wren. Bloom, though he was open to the idea, never found the right fit or circumstance. It would seem that Breslow could use a veteran voice, but the Sox Baseball Operations is already bloated in the eyes of some and adding another hire could prove problematic.
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In the NHL, players regularly become members of the front office. The Bruins management team is led by two former players: GM Don Sweeney and president Cam Neely. Other top players who’ve made the transition to management include Hall of Famers Steve Yzerman, Mario Lemieux, Ron Francis, Joe Sakic and others.
In baseball, it’s far more rare, especially now when so many executives are schooled in analytics and a strong academic background is as valued, or more valued, that playing experience. But Breslow’s hiring gives MLB four former players acting as the top baseball executive for their teams: Jerry Dipoto (Seattle), Chris Young (Texas), newly hired Chris Getz (White Sox) and now Breslow.
Breslow’s 2013 teammate with the Red Sox and longtime MLB pitcher Ryan Dempster was a guest on the latest episode of Fenway Rundown and Dempster believes Breslow’s dozen years as a pitcher in the big leagues gives him instant cachet in the clubhouse.
“I think it does,” said Dempster. “I think it gives you a little bit of credibility without even him having a conversation with anyone yet. And I think the more conversations he has, that just continues to take place. The days of (an executive saying), ‘Here’s your players’ to the manager, and the manager then makes the lineup and the players go play and there’s no conversations with the front office…those days are over.
“There’s a lot of conversations that happen, with the front office speaking to premier players on the team (and asking), ‘What do we need? What do you think we could have?’ So when you have those (conversations), you feel heard and you feel like there’s an understanding. And I think (Breslow) is an amazing listener. That’s a powerful thing to have. He might not have all the answers, but he’s going to find out what they are.
“And I think, being in those (chief baseball officer’s) shoes now, when he makes decisions, I think there’s a little bit of that — whether it’s subconscious or whatever — (players) immediately have a little bit of like, ‘He understands…he played.’ It doesn’t mean that somebody in the position who hasn’t played can’t pull that off, too.”
It may be, too, that Young directing the Texas Rangers to the World Series in just his second full year on the job could lead to more players taking on the role. Like most sports, baseball can be a copycat league and nothing succeeds like success.
“You have highly educated people (like Breslow, a Yale graduate) and Chris Young from Princeton,” said Dempster. “Chris played in the big leagues for a long time and took on that assistant role (first), learning. ‘How do things operate? What do we we need to do here? How do you maintain success?’ So when you have that, what’s the hardest thing to do in the analytics world? To sit there and compute heart rate, right?
“When you have somebody who’s been in it and can understand the heart rate…it almost makes that a little bit quantifiable in a way. So I think having ex-players who have been down that road, who are smart and can tackle it, I think we’re going to see more and more of it.”
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EXTRA INNINGS
1) Enough, please, of the carping about how Texas and Arizona don’t deserve to be in the World Series, or that the Series is somehow tarnished by the lack of a “marquee” or legacy team. Sure, Fox would have preferred Houston vs. Los Angeles to boost ratings, but that’s not what this is about. Both teams qualified for the postseason as wild cards (forcing them to play an extra series), and advanced despite not having home field advantage in any of the series they played. That should count for something. And there’s something novel about having two teams who haven’t reached the Series in some time. Besides, the fact that both clubs lost more than 100 games as recently as two years ago stands as powerful motivation for other organizations trying to rebuild.
2) The elimination of the Houston Astros means that the last repeat champion in baseball remains the 1998-1999-2000 New York Yankees. That seems long enough to be something out of the ‘dead ball’ era. In fact, with the Astros out, MLB is assured of crowning its ninth different champion in the last 10 years. (Only the Astros have won more than once in that span). In those 10 years, 14 different teams have reached the Series. The NFL loves to boast of its parity, but despite the absence of a salary cap, MLB actually has seen more teams take part in its championship event in the last decade. In that same 10-year span, the NFL has had just 12 different franchises make appearances in the Super Bowl.
3) Not that my picks have been worth heeding this postseason, but I think the Rangers win the World Series in six games. The Texas lineup is unrelenting, Nate Eovaldi is on one of his patented rolls, and it seems like the Rangers have been on a mission since the wild card round. But I envision one game being blown by Aroldis Chapman in the eighth inning, keeping things interesting.
