The Red Sox would need cooperation from the Diamondbacks in order to lure former lieutenant Mike Hazen back to Boston to replace Chaim Bloom in running their baseball operations department. It appears Arizona’s ownership isn’t too interested in making that happen.
On Tuesday, Diamondbacks president and CEO Derrick Hall told Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic that the Red Sox haven’t contacted him and that he hopes Hazen remains with Arizona for the foreseeable future.
“They haven’t contacted me,” Hall said, per Piecoro. “And I hope they don’t. He’s under contract, and we like him.
“He and I are always having conversations about his future,” Hall added. “He’s got a full year, then a club option on top of that, so there’s still plenty of time on the contract. I can’t envision us going a different direction with what he’s built and his (leadership) team.”
Hazen, a former Princeton University baseball player who grew up in Abington, Mass., spent 11 seasons with the Red Sox from 2006 to 2016 and rose to the title of general manager under Dave Dombrowski in 2016. In Oct. 2016, Arizona lured him away from Boston by hiring him as its general manager and he has spent seven seasons there. The Diamondbacks (79-72 entering Tuesday) have had a good season and have a strong young core that Hazen has built.
A report from ESPN’s Buster Olney last week noted the Red Sox were internally discussing Hazen as a potential Bloom replacement but noted that his contract status with the Diamondbacks may preclude a move. As Hall noted, Hazen is under contract through 2024 and has a club option for 2025. Hall told Piecoro that extension talks are underway.
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The Red Sox are looking for a new baseball operations head after firing Bloom, who spent four seasons with the club, last week. Team president and CEO Sam Kennedy said the team will conduct a “thorough” search that will take more than a few weeks.
“It’s very early to be talking about specifics when it comes to a candidate,” Kennedy said Thursday. “At the end of the day, we need leadership. These are big operations. So we need leadership that can help continue to build the organization from the bottom up, continue to promote and expand processes and procedures, medical, analytics, keeping up with this ever-changing game. And leadership that is focused on winning at the big league level. So it’s something we’ve all been trying to do the last several years. And that will be a mandate going forward.”
