The Red Sox’s search for a new baseball operations leader is accelerating, with one candidate pulling ahead of the pack. Alex Speier of the Boston Globe and Chris Cotillo of MassLive each indicate that Cubs assistant general manager Craig Breslow is the favorite.
Speier reports that the Sox have already offered the position to Breslow, although there’s no indication he has yet accepted. Cotillo suggested this evening that the hiring process was gaining steam and the job could be filled imminently.
Breslow, 43, is a Yale graduate who spent 12 seasons in the majors as a reliever. While he spread that across seven organizations, he’s best known for his time with the Sox. The New Haven native pitched 211 innings across five campaigns with Boston, turning in a 1.81 ERA for the 2013 World Series club.
After concluding his playing career in 2018, Breslow signed on with the Cubs as their director of strategic initiatives for baseball operations. He shed that wordy title when he was named director of pitching one season later. The following year, the Cubs bumped him to AGM in Jed Hoyer’s front office, a title he has held for the last three years.
Boston fired chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom as the season was winding down. They haven’t announced the specific title of the person they’re planning to bring in as head of baseball operations. Since Breslow holds the AGM title, the Red Sox could offer him a bump to general manager — either as the leader of the front office (as seems increasingly likely), or as the second-in-command under a newly minted president of baseball operations.
Cotillo suggests the Sox could still bring in two new front office hires, utilizing the president/GM structure that has become commonplace around the league. They don’t need to make both additions simultaneously. The Tigers, for instance, left the GM role vacant for an entire season to afford incoming president of baseball operations Scott Harris time to choose his top lieutenant.
Even if there’s agreement on a hire in the next few hours, the Red Sox aren’t likely to make a formal announcement tonight. MLB dissuades teams from releasing noteworthy news on the day of postseason games. With two scheduled off days between tonight’s NLCS Game 7 and the first contest of the World Series, it’s possible a hire is finalized tomorrow or Thursday.
mlb fan
Good. I never wanted the job anyways. I was just using the Red Sox to drive up my salary at Safeway.
olmtiant
My man!! This from a Jewel foods worker in Chicago!!!
BaseballisLife
THE Jewel.
Cmurphy
The Jewels 🙂
olmtiant
40 plus….( no college here in my mistake??)
Boxscore
Well, well they made their choice. Only really know about Breslow from his time on the Sox but seems like a sharp mind and time will tell. And just as with Bloom or DD or any other front office employee – don’t know ’em personally so any comment positive or negative is based solely on job performance. I can only hope a cult of personality doesn’t grow around Breslow like it did around Bloom. Like I said, time will tell. I wish you luck Craig. You are gonna need it.
DBH1969
PTO man, Make sure you get extra PTO!!!
Old York
@mlb fan
You must be rollin’ in the cash working at Safeway. Do you drive your Benz to work or just have the chauffeur drive you in the beat up truck so people don’t think you’re rich?
User 4245925809
Without attempting to sound like some politically correct u know what? Breslow is my favorite of the male potential hires. NG, or Raquel Ferreira were my favorite choices, but with those 2 seemingly out? Might as well go with possibly the smartest guy in the game.
Amanda89
yay,
now give him a 4 year contract and fire him after 3, lets not break tradition!
BaseballisLife
You created a new account after your last one for banned after your alcohol fueled racist rant?
Maybe next time don’t use your first name so people don’t know it’s you so fast.
vtadave
Wow must have missed that!
myaccount2
Dang, I missed something wild apparently.
Gwynning
“Looks like you’ve been missing a lot of work lately…”
“I wouldn’t say I’ve been *missing* it, Bob.”
Hemlock
Amanda89,
Do you think that black men living in Detroit deserve the same opprtunities for career advancememt as white men? Would you be ok with some of Detroit’s black men moving to Boston to seek employment? Why or why not? Please share your thoughts in detail.
benji31
I wouldn’t mind if he becomes the GM. Former Red Sox who I believe won a ring with them so he knows how to win and I believe he went to an Ivy League school. Hopefully he isn’t the owners puppet and will pay players to win
mang
Oh, Benji.
Yes, he did win a ring with the Sox (2013), he did go to an Ivy League school (Yale), and he’s absolutely, completely being hired to be John Henry (and Alex Cora’s) puppet.
sophiethegreatdane
Looking forward to four years of Sox fans complaining about this guy, and longing for Bloom.
mang
We are good at that.
I wish they’d never fired Dombrowski. It’s not my money.
User 3180623956
No one in their right mind will ever long for bloom.
Amanda89
i truly hope he succeeds , this merry go round of this team is a trainwreck
HalosHeavenJJ
There seem to be two types in baseball: Ivy League or former player. The fact he’s both could bode well.
He’ll be the cool exec because he played but still educated enough to be respected by the suits.
mang
Chris Young.
SamtheMan!
Hazen played minor league ball too.
Academic requirements for athletes to go to an Ivy League aren’t nearly as difficult though. Most Ivy League athletes don’t make it to the pros either. I’d wager that there’s quite a few highly intelligent ex professional athletes who went to a better sports school.
mang
Facts
Pedro Martinez’s Mango Tree
Yuck. Should have just given the job to Romero
CravenMoorehead
Him being a Yale graduate must have made him stand out in the hiring process from other candidates. That’s even more impressive than YankeeBleacherCreature’s 7 years of community college.
Gwynning
Shots fired! Where’s my popcorn?
BaseballisLife
Good hiring. My wife won’t like it. Think I will let her find out on her own.
YankeesBleacherCreature
She could move to Boston with him. /s
BaseballisLife
We bought a house in Greenwich a few houses down from Gerrit Cole and once the remodel is done or this house in Jupiter sells we will be moving back there.
SamtheMan!
Can you smell the scent of his jock from your front porch?
Amanda89
and if he can trade sale, we will literally have him bend over and kiss his ass
CravenMoorehead
How many boxes of wine have you consumed today, Amanda?
Gwynning
Eleventeen-ish is my guess
Hemlock
No sir. That right there is Amanda Bynes.
ccsilvia
The way they’ve gone about this entire process is simply ridiculous and just speaks to how uninvolved/disinterested John Henry is in this particular portfolio item.
KingKen
What exactly has been poorly done about this process? They identified multiple candidates they were interested in, interviewed the ones who were also interested in the job, and went from there. What exactly would you have done differently?
Poolhalljunkies
We all dont hate cora
Thec’s
Get rid of Cora! Let Breslin be the head of baseball operations and then let Romero be the GM! Hire Varitek as manager. Firestone thing the roster needs is more defense. Then start on the pitching move Houk and Whitlock to the bullpen and then get us a couple starting pitchers! It all starts with defense. We were horrible last year!
cpdpoet
Non-sox fan here, what would the asking price be for sale and ALL his 24 salary and vesting option all paid by receiving team?
Gwynning
Great question cpd, and quite honestly, one that is hard to judge.
By all accounts, and this is very debatable, but Sale would seem to have a negative trade value. Cost production is low, age is a factor and performance could range from possible Ace to possible DFA. Sale is a mixed box of chocolates and you never know which one you’re going to get.
Hired Gun 23
The hiring is pending a ‘thumbs up’ emoji response from Cora via text. Stay tuned…
Gwynning
Apparently he texted back 3 eggplants
Hired Gun 23
Dammit…what a straight shooter!
wbz41
A-Rod news is allowed during big playoff games though.
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
I think he would be a good guy for the job.
I come here to talk about Breslow and all I hear is Cora whiners
GASoxFan
It’s gonna go hand in hand for a bit until the dynamic shows itself in the coming season.
I’m more curious about, IF breslow signs on, how many changes he’s going to bring to the AGM and analytics structure dealing with the arms.
He was the man who made the plan with CHC, but, BOS has a fairly entrenched exec structure. Can breslow get the latitude to remake half the BOS department, the pitching side, which has been woefully inadequate
Poolhalljunkies
Youd think some of them would be encouraged to explore opportunities elsewhere
Angry Disgruntled Sox Fan
I came here to talk about Breslow and all I hear is Cora whiners
User 3180623956
Did you come here to talk about Breslow and all you hear is cora whiners?
Poolhalljunkies
Based on tweets from bradford and spier sounds like Breslow is very detail oriented and will get a clear defnition of front office structure etc before accepting
Poolhalljunkies
How long before the ohtani to boston train gains real steam?
KingKen
Why would it gain any steam. The Sox need top of the rotation pitching not another left handed hitting DH option. Nor do they need a pitcher who will be a constant injury concern goi g forward. They’ve had more than enough of that in recent years.
Poolhalljunkies
It was a joke and you obviously havnt read all the tweets and stories already stating the rumor of ohtani to bos
KingKen
Sorry. Tough to pick up sarcasm and jokes on here sometimes. Yea I agree the rumors have been rather ridiculous so far this fall. So many focusing on big name players because of their name with no consideration over whether or not they actually fit with the team’s needs.
Poolhalljunkies
However..every team should be on ohtani including boston hes the best player in a generation and a marketing bonanza..so while your argument holds some merit we arent just talking about any player here lol come on
Amanda89
The alex cora hate is beyond sickening at this point,
you all literally act like this man go’s home at night and beats kittens to death with his bare hands behind a garage, what do you all personally hate so much about this man?
is is the houston cheating thing,. that nobody cares about anymore, or the fact that in 2021 he was rehired as fast as he was, AFTER being punished for a year,
ask yourselves this,
why does bill belichick get away with cheating and VIDEOTAPING other teams with nothing but a few days of ppl caring, a fine and then nobody cares anymore, what has he done to earn that respect that alex cora hasn’t?
hate is hate, but you can’t hate him for simply existing. And trust me i’m not that into him to begin with, i personally wanted them to hire Aj hinch, but wow, if you listen to cora after the sox games as i do since i watch EVERY GAME and i attend most of them, he always blames himself when they have a bad night, he will literally say’ i fcked up here, i left this guy in to long, i didnt double switch, etc, you need to get on with your lives or kill yourself, its getting to the point that you care more about him then the actual team.
Hemlock
Interesting. And how does this make you feel?
Amanda89
nobodys gonna complain about breslow, hes legite the best they could have hired, its the best news to come from this team in the last 5 years
the only ‘ tweak’ id make is still hire levine in some compacity and COMPLETELY go out and spend this off season
Hemlock
> COMPLETELY go out and
> spend this off season
Or, beat the Holiday rush this season and COMPLETELY shop online.