TODAY: The Red Sox officially announced Breslow’s hiring today, with an introductory press conference scheduled for November 2, one week from today. Principal owner John Henry, chairman Tom Werner, and team president Sam Kennedy all spoke glowingly of Breslow in statements.
“Each year, one baseball club emerges with a championship. Our organization continues to have significantly high standards and expectations with a goal of being able to compete annually for that coveted privilege,” Henry said, “We feel strongly that Craig is the right person at the right time to lead our baseball department. Craig’s understanding of the game is remarkable. What convinced us to bring him aboard in this capacity was his highly strategic philosophy and his grasp of what it takes operationally in today’s evolving game to excel at the highest level in player acquisition, development, and execution at the major league level. We are excited to welcome him back.”
Werner praised Breslow as “an extraordinary leader” while Kennedy noted the “astounding character references” the club received regarding Breslow from the likes of David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, and Cubs manager David Ross, all of whom played with Breslow during his time as a pitcher with the Red Sox. Breslow himself also released a statement.
“I couldn’t be more excited to return to the Boston Red Sox, an organization that means so much to my family and to me. I am humbled by the opportunity to lead baseball operations and to work alongside so many talented people.” Breslow said, “I know firsthand how special winning in Boston is, and I look forward to once again experiencing that passion and success with our fans.”
Oct. 25: Craig Breslow has accepted the Red Sox’s offer to take over as head of baseball operations, report Alex Speier and Michael Silverman of the Boston Globe (X link). He is expected to be named chief baseball officer, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive (on X). The team will presumably wait until Wednesday before announcing the hire.
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.
Just a half-decade after first joining a front office, he’ll get his crack at running the show. Breslow replaces Chaim Bloom, who was fired midway through September with the team en route to a second straight last place finish. Boston finished the season at 78-84, an identical record as they had in 2022.
Breslow will be tasked with pushing the club back into contention in one of the game’s toughest divisions. He steps into a situation that’s certainly not devoid of talent but comes with an uncertain direction. The Red Sox ranked 11th in run scoring behind a lineup anchored by Rafael Devers and Triston Casas this past season. Former top prospect Jarren Duran took a step forward to secure an outfield spot.
Boston will have some decisions to make as they build around that group. Justin Turner is likely to decline a player option, subtracting one of their top hitters from this year. Alex Verdugo is entering his final season of arbitration eligibility and could be a trade candidate. The Sox will need better from Trevor Story at shortstop but could upgrade at second base, which was a revolving door during Bloom’s tenure. Masataka Yoshida is on hand in left field and at designated hitter, while they could explore ways to upgrade on the catching tandem of Connor Wong and Reese McGuire.
The pitching side has its share of uncertainty as well. Tanner Houck, Nick Pivetta and Garrett Whitlock are all effective multi-inning arms who haven’t cemented themselves as starters. Brayan Bello tailed off following a promising first half. Chris Sale has battled myriad injuries in recent years. Boston’s rotation finished 22nd in ERA.
While a mediocre defense hasn’t done the pitching many favors, sorting out the rotation might be the top priority for Breslow and his front office staff. The longtime hurler unsurprisingly took on a heavy workload in building the pitching infrastructure in Chicago, as The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma, Patrick Mooney, Jen McCaffrey and Chad Jennings chronicle.
The Red Sox have a solid minor league pipeline and an organizational track record of running higher-end payrolls. They’ve cut back on player spending of late, opening this season outside the top 10 for the first time this century (as covered by Cot’s Baseball Contracts). It’s unclear precisely how much ownership will make available this offseason, although it’s apparent the Sox are going to make some kind of effort to compete in 2024.
Breslow joins Texas GM Chris Young, White Sox GM Chris Getz and Seattle president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto as former MLB players who are now in charge of a front office. He landed the job over the likes of Minnesota GM Thad Levine, former Pirates GM Neal Huntington, former Giants manager Gabe Kapler and internal candidates like Eddie Romero, Michael Groopman and Paul Toboni — all of whom met with Boston brass. Various high-profile executives (e.g. James Click, Kim Ng, Derek Falvey and Mike Hazen) either declined interviews or pulled themselves out of the mix at one point or another.
It’s possible Breslow’s hiring is just the first, if most important, in constructing the new look front office. There have been reports that Boston could also hire a new #2 executive in the kind of arrangement that has become commonplace around the game.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
How’d you get hired on your day off, Craig?!
Congrats to Red Sox Nation
How much does a GM make per year? Breslow – years and amount?
I’d guess 4yr @ $20m? 24m?
Wasn’t this guy a reliever like 2yrs ago to now gm
No. He’s been working in the Cub’s front office and played a big role in developing a stronger farm system.
Ham – Yes, but he is wicked smaht.
Less than Cora! This will be my last bad RS PoBO joke.
That info isnt always public..but cashmans last contract was reported as 5/25
This will be much less. Congrats from one New Haven native to another.
Dewey – To celebrate, Pepe’s pizza for all.
Fever—Modern Apizza on State St is better than Pepe’s, IMO.
Fat – Both are quite good.
The Daily Meal did rank Pepe’s the best in the country about 3 years ago. not sure where they stand now.
Agreed. Sally’s is the worst of the three; although I hear that Zuppardi’s in West Haven is good—never been there. All this talk about Pepe’s and Modern is making me hungry!
Fat – You and me both!
Step in the right direction, thats for sure.
I differ in opinion from the writer here though. Whether Breslow is hired as a GM, or a PBO, DOES make a difference, and isn’t ‘an immaterial distinction.’
O’Halloran was elevated to VPBO, not fired from the organization to create a GM vacancy. Should Breslow come in as a GM he is nominally under O’Halloran on the depth chart.
Sure, they say Brian will be tasked to other duties, but, unless you’re over him, he can meddle.
Let’s Go Breslow!
Cubs lose Harris now Breslow. Are we sure we’re keeping the right guys? Because if you look at the Cubs money that Ricketts is paying guys to play for other teams, I’m not sure.
Heyward was the only one and that contract is over.
Number one Heywards contract isn’t over, Then you have Mancini, Barnhardt, Bellingers buyout, Smyly’s stupid contract that they might have to eat. That adds up to 25 million or about 4 relievers.
It looks to me like Heyward’s contract is over.
Smyly’s $8.5M is probably about right for a #4.
Bellinger’s buyout is the cost of signing the guy, unless you don’t like the signing.
Then you need to go to Spotrac and look down for 2024 expenditures to see the Cubs are paying the last year of Heywards deal off at 4 years and 5 million a year. Bellinger gets his buyout even if he opts out on his end which is also 5 million. Mancini and Barnhardt cost 10 million for not being here and Smyly’s deal will in all likelihood have to be paid down when he goes.
spotrac.com/mlb/chicago-cubs//payroll
It says Heyward’s contract doesn’t count against the payroll. But it does count against the Luxury Tax so don’t be fooled.
Mr. Franco, you made two claims in this article that are demonstrably false: “he’ll get his crack at running the show” and “[he is] now in charge of a front office.”
It seems impossible that you wouldn’t know that both of those claims apply to O’Halloran, not Breslow. Could you please explain what you actually meant to write?
Gomez – Absolutely wrong in your statement if Breslow is the POBO. He’s the man.
Dewey asked the right question earlier since the writer stated chief baseball officer which is NOT a position in the Red Sox organization leaving it unclear which spot he got. It’s inferred the tasks will be that of the POBO so if they are then he will be O’Halloran’s boss.
To me, the O’Halloran move was simply retiring him from active duty but providing him with income for his service. Many companies give long time employees great titles with no power. I believe that is what O’Halloran got.
Breslow needs to establish his relationship with ownership. Will he be a DD type POBO who RUNS THE SHOW or will he be a puppet like Bloom? Lets hope he is an alpha male who only accepts being in control. Otherwise, we are in for more of the same crap we had with Bloom.
I think he was their best choice of a very limited set of choices.
Both DD and Bloom were in charge, but still employees. You could say they were both “puppets”. DD was just more aggressive in how he worked towards the goals he was given, within the boundaries he was given. Either due to those boundaries changing, being well over threshhold, or because of his past experience, Bloom was given a different set of objectives. DD never had to reign in payroll, never had to get below the tax. That was one of Bloom’s objectives. I’m not saying Bloom didn’t deserve to be fired. I’m just acknowledging that they each were following the instructions given, as every POBO does.
TF –
I disagree that the move was entirely about giving a thank-you payout to O’Halloran. Easier method would be using a golden parachute.
While VPBO is new to the red sox, it’s not a first for MLB. I think there are things on the player drafting and development side Kennedy/Henry wish O’Halloran to keep doing, BUT, wanted new faces in other aspects of business. They didn’t want him as PBO, but, also didnt want to lose him to resignation if not getting the promotion.
TF – Great post as usual.
The writers here have repeatedly stated Breslow is replacing Bloom.
Since Bloom was POBO, that means Breslow should have the same title.
The big question, how much say will he have in hiring a GM?
It’s funny, we never hear about Crockett even though he’s SVPOBO.
sty – You’re right, but Dombrowski ultimately refused to follow Henry’s instructions … that’s why he left.
Styme – You seem to have confused the words subordinate and puppet when it comes to DD. DD was never a puppet, he was POBO who decided all things presented for approval to the board. That’s his job.
Bloom didn’t approach his job in the same way and did very little initiation of acquisition or trade requests. Many think Mookie was forced on him as a trade. That’s the behavior of a puppet.
DD was fired for refusing to be a puppet.
Bloom did NOT have different directives. He presented his mistaken view of how to approach fixing a not broken team and ownership simply supported him. Your information is grossly inaccurate!!
Payroll was NEVER an objective for Bloom or DD. DD presented acquisitions that would keep his pursuit of players below the CAP and told Ownership they owned the previous mistakes. Bloom took it upon himself to replace the money spent on big contracts with multiple smaller contracts. That step down in contract size led to a huge step down in talent.
You have no idea how a baseball organization is run. These owners NEVER limited money to DD or Bloom. There is a process in place to request transactions to be funded and the owners have supported all their GMs with their requests. The only time they denied anyone was when DD wanted to pay Mookie his fair market value. They balked and it led to DD being fired. The reason they balked is the center of much speculation but clearly it was the biggest mistake in 100 years.
Instructions are NOT given from the Owners to the GM/POBO. That’s a myth. The POBO’s job is to present trades and acquisitions to a governing board who then funds the event with their approval.
Somebody gave you really bad information about how a baseball organization works.
GA = The O’Halloran move is his golden parachute. He’s a name on the door with nothing but a chance to provide input to the POBO. The POBO is ultimately the decision-maker as far as what goes to the board for approval.
The shelf move is a common practice that shows respect to long time employees so they feel involved but lose their decision making status.
I thought the biggest, and maybe only, problem in the Theo days was that Lucchino wanted a say in things where he was out of his depth. I wouldn’t mind someone “shadowing” him for a year or two (I liked Ng for that), but Breslow has to lay his vision and framework for Henry. Once Henry buys in, Breslow should be authorized to do whatever he wants, within that framework.
I would think that would have been part of the interview process. And reportedly Breslow had some conditions on how he wanted to be allowed to go about things before accepting, so again I would think some of this would have been covered in that negotiating.
Joe – Considering Lucky’s incredible background and the fact he was Theo’s longtime mentor, what do you think he was out of his depth on?
No offense but you’ve got the term “shadowing” wrong. The rookie Breslow would ideally shadow an experienced #1 guy. The person shadowing is the one learning, not the one teaching. For example, Theo shadowed Lucky for many years. That’s what proteges do.
Until Breslow learns the ropes, he will be relying a lot on others.
king – I’m guessing Breslow wanted autonomy when it comes to pitching decisions, and he deserves it.
Lucchino was not “out of his depth”.
Lucchino and Towers hired Theo as an Intern in San Diego,
The problem between Theo and Lucchino was the
experienced Pres of Baseball Ops wanted to remain involved in the decision making process.
Theo had learned and grown into the job (mentored and trained by Towers and Lucchino
and wanted
to make decisions on his own and have his mentor Lucchino take a few steps back.
Only way to do that was for Theo to leave Boston.
GASox – Excellent post as always.
IMO they could make Breslow the POBO, move Romero up to GM, and then make Cora one of the AGM’s when he is relieved of his managerial duties.
Fever – BLASPHEMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
First – Breslow is the POBO
Second – Romero is lucky to have a title. He’s worthless.
Third – Cora should be in baseball jail and never allowed to be part of the organization after they fire him for incompetency and lack of morals.
If Breslow wants a GM under him he will pick that person and not have some schmuck who is not qualified forced on him because he’s part of the organization.
Likewise, Breslow needs to redo the entire coaching structure as well. First, he needs to fire Cora and bring in a guy he wants and then he should discuss with that person who the new coaching staff will be. If he does go with a GM of his choice that person needs to be hired to fire Cora and work with Breslow to build the new coaching staff.
Bite your tongue suggesting Cora may be in the organization in the future. I want to bring all my Red Sox merchandise out of storage as soon as possible and that doesn’t happen until Cora is gone and forgotten.
100% agreed- troll. I haven’t spent a dime on anything related to Fenway Sports Group since they retained the cheat.
O’Halloran has no talent whatsoever.
Butch – can you back that statement up? While he may not have the skills to head the team, I believe that he really doesn’t want that job, he’s actually a very smart individual who has worked hard for the organization for years.
Ugh…. This sucks as a Cubs fan but happy for him and his family
Well earned and going to be missed
Your boys have come a long way. As a Cub’s fan, how much do you think Breslow had to do with the development of Steele & Assad? Even Hendricks who was MIA for two years.
He was a solid guy in the Cubs front office from what I hear and read.
If the White Sox were smart, which they are not, they should have went after Breslow.
Should have even entertained the idea of checking into Craig Counsel as manager as well.
Joe you should recall that Breslow did have one big miscue and that was in the signing of Jameson Taillon (sp?) to the free agent contract. Breslow was all hot to trot on him.
Good Luck!
I like this! Will be fun to have him back in the Red Sox mix!
Hell yeah! Breslow’s both a smart guy and a baseball guy, and he’s got experience in a Cubs system it would be awesome to see Boston emulate. This is excellent news, which is desperately needed as a Red Sox fan
Boston to emulate the Cubs? Think you got it backwards. Cubs won zero until they poached Theo.
I’m a Red Sox fan. I don’t have it backwards. The current Cubs system is much closer to the Theo regime than the Bloom system was. All I’m saying is it will serve us well to get back there 🙂
“The current Cubs system is much closer to the Theo regime than the Bloom system”
——-
Bloom and Epstein build teams through the draft and trading for young players. What “system” is Epstein doing thats so much different?
The Cubs have been more aggressive in free agency and much more decisive at the trade deadline in recent years than Bloom. I’m not a Bloom hater, but his odd “play both sides” approach at the last two deadlines was not successful and a serious hindrance to the team in spite of the improvements he made to the farm system.
roiste – To be fair, Theo knows what he’s doing and Bloom didn’t. Theo had a plan and executed it and Bloom didn’t.
There is NOTHING similar between Bloom and Theo.
They are probably as far apart in philosophies as they are in skills.
Theo is a great GM. Bloom is one of the worst in history.
Theo provided Boston with lots of talent. Bloom released all the talent from the world championship team except Devers who he completed overpaid.
Troll- stop making sense
To be fair, Bloom was limited in what he could do by the present Front Office meddling by John Henry, Sam Kennedy and the 47 VPs.
Boston would not have won all those recent titles if the present structure of their front office had been in place at that time.
You rang ma’am?
Are you checking out the Diamondbacks dance squad/cheerleaders again? Those sunglasses aren’t hiding anything Theo.
Back on the market again in three years or four?
Literally the smartest guy in the room, hopefully that translates to succes for the Sox
And you know this how?! Cubs have not been that good lately, but are improving
a cub reject
not rly
Did I miss where he got fired from his position with the Cubs? That’s the only thing that would make him a Cubs reject.
Damn, I hate it for the Cubs- He’s been a big part of their farm system’s resurgence- but hey, ya gotta wish a man the best whose seriously done the job.
Red Sox got a good one, can’t blame them either. Breslow has done a good job in the player development aspect for the Cubs. The complete opposite of the guy across town has done and is now a GM himself…
Solid hire by Boston. Let’s hope the owners let him do his job and build out a new methodology across the organization, especially on the pitching front. The Sox need a new approach on how to develop young pitchers; Breslow has great experience doing so. Hopefully he can identify solid, young talent in the draft as well. The Sox are still 2 years away from fielding a legitimate playoff roster but this offseason is very important in building towards that. Would love to see Breslow add a solid FA starter this offseason and a decent, short term option for 2B as well. A lot of youngsters will be coming up this year and next, so Breslow has his work cut out for him, identifying which of the rookies will be building blocks versus which can be traded for veteran help. Bloom’s best legacy might be this year’s first round pick in Kyle Teel. Boston desperately needs a franchise catcher and Teel looks like he may be the answer there. One more year of Wong & ??? and hopefully Teel will be here to stay, anchoring a revamped pitching staff and a very young and talented offense as well. Breslow has some good pieces to work with, but it will still be a challenge to put together a legitimate starting rotation. Hoping for the best!
I agree.He has guys he has to see if they keep or trade.If people are expecting a World Series or even playoffs next year i thiink it is too ambitious.Fill your team with the guys you want here.Fill around with Free agents.Plus the fact they were as bad as people say.this year’s pick should be closer to the top of the draft.Get a more finished product.Not built on Ceiling.We have hitters who can’t really play defense.We need most all around players.And Pitching.Draft a lot of pitching.Some have to work out.
TB Sox NY
I agree.He has guys he has to see if they keep or trade.
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That’s one of the things I liked about DD. I think he had a good handle on which prospects were overrated, and then cashed in. That’s often a dangerous, but highly lucrative, line of work.
We could be in the playoffs in one off-season. Texas Rangers did that and we did it in 13. No two to three years excuse.
The rangers hadn’t made the playoffs since 2016. This is the thing with BOS/NY fans. You want it all tomorrow.
Breslow doesn’t have pitching and has 3 playoff teams sitting in his division.
As we have seen, one off-season can make a difference. Mets and Padres in the same boat on the flip side.
I’m not saying it will happen, but we were in the playoff race at times in 2023. Some fine-tuning and upgrading could certainly get us back in if the right deals are made. Anything can happen.
Brian – Breslow has a roster with a couple of good player, lots of mediocre players and a whole lot of money. As Judgement Day stated, he is in a position to turn this around quickly (FYI Judgement, it took the Rangers two years) but he needs to focus on two top of the rotation pitchers, a reshuffling of the defense so Devers and Yoshida no long put on gloves, a replacement at 3B for Devers and a lefty reliever. With as much money as he has and the need to trade either Devers or Yoshida for one of his needs, he could fill all the holes this off season.
He could also leave things as they are and put a miserable fielding team out there and watch the pitchers struggle with their bad defense. He could ignore the need for two top of the rotation SPs. If he doesn’t address the real issues on the team, expect a .500 season. If that’s the case, the owners simply played a shell game and didn’t upgrade the POBO spot.
It’s always best to give the guy the benefit of the doubt to start with and then evaluate his moves as they happen. Bloom looked good other than being completely inexperienced but he misled us by suggesting analytical techniques he never used and by discarding the 2018 roster. He was supposed to be a brilliant construction guy and turned out to be a brilliant DESTRUCTION guy. Breslow begins as a brighter baseball mind with better hands on experience but we need to evaluate actions not hypotheticals so we need to wait and see what his first moves are.
As always, we all hope that compliments will be coming his way as he recovers from the Bloom disaster. He has until December to figure out his list of non-tenders. Frankly, I hope it’s lengthy and clears the payroll for better players with higher value to cost ratios than what Bloom accumulated.
Breslow will now take a year to see what he has, before making the big moves. He will add pitching, but mostly evaluare.
He has a whole lot of money? Really? How much?
Boston will have a good sized payroll, but they already have a lot of it accounted for. How much is left to spend is not his decision.
Red sox have an active 2024 payroll at
$153m, an estimated total with arb and pre-arb of $179m, and face a CBT line of $237m.
Aside from 2023, bloom had the leash to spend up to, and occasionally over the CBT. Also, bloom was canned for an expectation of a better w/l record. If the goal for ’24 was to save more money no reason to can him now after he saved Henry a good 50m this year. No reason to expect Breslow to be held back further.
Red sox have money to burn this offseason if desired.
I agree with Sty. How much money do they have? As the article states, they’ve cut down on spending. So which type of team is he going to get? The kind where they give him the money needed to address all the holes at once or is he going to be fixing the problems on a budget?
But as others have pointed out, their own divisiion has 3 playoff teams ahead of them and I’m sure the Yankees are going to be looking to make improvements of their own.
I think the Sox will add mostly short term deals this off-season so Breslow can evaluate what he has.
The money opens up after next year with Martin, Sale, Jansen, and Turner off. There’s productive players in that group that would have to be replaced though.
The most important thing for Breslow is setting up his organization and building his foundations in scouting and player development. Hopefully, fans have some patience because you don’t do it quick if you want it right and sustainable.
Aside from 2023, bloom had the leash to spend up to, and occasionally over the CBT.
==============================
I’ve defended Henry in the past, but this is really the biggest issue. Spending to cap only works if most of the league is under the cap. As I mentioned elsewhere, TX has spent ~ $150M on FAs to get their 90 wins. Philly spent $103M on FAs to get to their 90 wins.
If Henry isn’t going to spend some money, Breslow isn’t going to magically make SPs appear.
I think it goes farther then that. If you are a fan that thinks two TOR pitchers are coming in via free agency your naive. The reason for this is to much competition for to few pitchers. It’s a simple supply and demand equation most teams are going to be looking to add pitching in the off-season including financial heavyweights like the Dodger, Mets, and Yankees. There are at least a dozen teams that want multiple pitchers this year just not enough pitchers to go around. I will be happy if Breslow manages to land one of the top 10 free agent pitchers. IF they want to truly address the starting pitching then they are going to have to trade for it if they want more then one. The Red Sox have the bullets to do it they could move Casas for a difference maker starter and address first base via free agency. They could move one of their prized prospects in a deal for a controllable starter. I will be interesting to see how Breslow responds to this problem.
Personally I would like a more conservative approach play the youngsters see what you have and where your needs really are and go hard in the the much deeper free agent market next year.
The only way I see the Red Sox adding multiple starters is striking fast. When free agency opens they need to ink one of the top guys right away then immediately turn and go after another. It will be expensive to go that way but imo it’s the only way when there is this much competition overpay early and often and buy your rotation. If not let’s look as 2025 as realistic point to start really competing again.
Styme – He could have up to $150MM if he makes a trade or two. Right now he’s at $160MM with a CAP at $230MM so $70MM. He has 42% of his current payroll tied up in an over-paid Devers, an over-paid Story and an over-paid Yoshida. He doesn’t need two DHs so the $70MM could be $88MM if he deal Yoshida or $100MM if he deals Devers.
He needs two top of the rotation SPs, a 3B and a lefty set-up man. That’s a lot of money to fill the needs AND he can ratchet up the defense 15 spots by simply not playing Devers and Yoshida in the field.
Breslow can spend as much as he needs to build a champion just like EVERY other GM under this ownership group.
brewsingblue82 – The short answer is yes. The money to fix all the holes is there but it will take a trade to make the team maximized. They don’t need two DHs costing $18MM and $30MM.
Start with $70 to get two SPs, a 3B and a lefty set-up man and add to it what ever they can get for Yoshida or Devers and you have a young team that is good enough to win the AL East. Sale becomes the SP6 so he’s a bonus if he’s good again. Lots of low cost pitching and hitting thanks to DD’s farm system.
This team could be far more competitive overnight if the new POBO can find the skills that are needed and has the self confidence to move a guy like Devers off 3B to help the pitchers. We shall see.
Brian – This isn’t rocket science!! The infrastructure does take time but the players are now. They have a strong core young group from DD and they have a couple of nice veterans like Jansen and Martin. Everything else is Bloom trash and can go.
The number of wins is defined by the talent not the infrastructure. The infrastructure changes will build longevity. Right now, the immediate problem is a lack of talent and Breslow can fix that quickly with the money available to him.
Stop with the conservative “lets buy the guy time” crap. We heard that with Bloom and look how that turned out. Results are all that matters in year one. He needs to replenish the talent given away by Bloom. As he does that he can work on the infrastructure which does take time but it’s a background task that doesn’t impact wins in the year you do it.
How much does 3 starting pitchers, a couple relievers, a short stop & a catcher cost in free agency?
$500MM in total commitments?
“If you are a fan that thinks two TOR pitchers are coming in via free agency your naive.
“The only way I see the Red Sox adding multiple starters is striking fast.”
————–
Which is it?
There are a lot of SPs on the market and Red Sox have a lot more money than most other teams, to spend. For example, Mets and Yankees cant outbid Red Sox. Todays rules are tougher on big spenders, just being from NY doesnt change that fact.
The question is do SPs want to come to Boston. Bad defense and a vocal group of terrible fans cause a lot of FAs to go elsewhere. They need to shake that image. The former is easy, bring in some defensive players, the latter is next to impossible.
Texas Rangers did that
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The amount of money that TX spent is astronomical. Their current roster has ~ $150M of recently-signed free agents. If I was allowed to spend $150M this off-season, I think I could get any one of 26 different teams in the playoffs.
I think Henry will open the checkbook, but more like $50M than $150M.
I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad approach. It’s a bit early for a new front office to go that hard. He’s new to the organization. He may have guys already that are capable of filling slots. Worst thing you can do is spend heavy and leave yourself inflexible.
I like the hire! Solid background. Please start off on the right foot by firing Cora, and putting Tek in as manager.
Is bashing Cora the next big sport or something?
Way to ruin the welcome party by inserting Cora into every response.
Is bashing Cora the next big sport or something?
===========================
FWIW, I think Cora has a target on his back this season. But some RS fans simply need someone to hate. Without Bloom, who else are they going to hate?
Brook – SPOT ON!!!!!!!!! Absolutely blast the crap out of Cora and send him on his way to hell for him putting us through it.
It’s always good to scrape the scum off the bottom of your shoes before you start a season!!!
A Yale grad???. Wtf.
Surely Boston Red Sox could afford a Harvard grad.
So they fired a Yale grad and replaced him with a Yale grad. I wouldn’t call it a “new look front office”.
This Yale grad had a fairly decent career actually playing baseball. So there’s that difference.
GASox – Let’s not forget Bloom graduated from Yale COLLEGE with a degree in Latin Classics.
Breslow graduated from Yale UNIVERSITY with a degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry.
As long as Breslow has better social skills than Elon, I think with experience he will become an excellent POBO.
Are all Yalies the same? Does that include Brett “Hold my beer” Kavanaugh?
Of course, you could be correct. As Pete Townshend commented on another MLBTR post, “Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.” Will the Red Sox get fooled again?
I like beer
First order of business: fire Cora, promote Varitek to Manager. Hey—I can dream can’t I?
I feel as if Graduate of Yale doesn’t even fully paint the picture for Breslow. He majored in molecular biophysics and biochemistry. Would’ve been a doctor if not for the baseball career.
And more specifically, in this case, an eye for talent. Completely revived the Cub’s farm system.
Incredibly smart guy, played the game, and has had success in AGM roles. This looks like a great hire on paper.
And Matt Patricia was a rocket scientist, how did that work out?
Matt Patricia. The boy with a girl last name. Like Vinnie Barbara-Ino, Chris Kristie, Domingo Jean or Ndemakum Sue.
Luicchino brought a Dentist he hired for the Front Office to Boston with him.
I guess that is a thing for Boston,
Nice. Sounds like someone competent, so that’s a plus
All people want to talk about is firing Cora. These fans are worse than the front office itself.
These fans are worse then….worse then !? Worse than cubs fans ! Jk guys. Jk.
I thought Cora more likely earned an extension than a firing after what he pulled off w this team. How can u compete all season in the AL east when your rotation ranks 22nd in baseball ? Good managing. That’s how.
Or, your pitching staff was better than 22nd in baseball and poor managing left guys in too long as often then not, inflating era totals, and dropping your team rankings.
Or, your pitching/manager handling of pitching was bad, and, you were blessed with players that hit enough runs across to get some wins.
Or, the new balanced schedule which was supposed to inflate your win totals by adding non al-east games resulted in a lack of improvement over the prior year’s team, showing how inept your manager is.
Big whiffa – Not a knowledgeable baseball fan? That’s ok. Spend the next few decades watching and learning the game and come back to us with an informed opinion.
Cora sucked. End of story.
Cora cheated. Should have been end of career.
Cora cheated again in Boston. Should have been gone to jail for serial petty larceny.
Cora sucks. If he was a little league coach I would ask that my kid player for a different manager, one with integrity.
Where are all the D Backs fans saying fire tory lovulo now??
yooooooo
Who is Craig Breslow and who are the Red Sox? Who cares?
The Dbacks are going to the World Series!!!!!
I predicted it back in April and of course nobody thought I was serious! Surprise and Awe!
But no one will be watching. This may be the lowest ratings for a WS in the last 3-4 decades. No one cares. Even Diamondbacks fans don’t care because they didn’t sell out any of their home games.
Go ahead. Stick your snobby nose way up into the air. Then stick your head completely up your a$$ so you don’t have to watch two great teams battle it out in an epic matchup of Rangers offensive firepower against the Chaos created by a bunch of 23 year old Diamondbacks who put fun and excitement into the stodgy game of baseball!
Scott, first off, congrats on the Dbacks making the World Series.
But if I may, it’s your screen name that made nobody take your prediction seriously. Naturally people who are a fan of a team are more prone to predict their team to go to the World Series. It gets you written off as just being an eager fan. Some people on here I have a hard time saying who they’re actually a fan of, so if they have a good track record, people will believe their guesses a bit more. But when you’re clearly a diamondback diehard, which for the record there’s nothing wrong with being, predicting your team to go to the World Series will be seen as little more than a diehard fan being hopeful.
brewsingblue. Fair enough comment!
brewsingblue
I’m going to make another prediction. You know how other teams copycat the pattern/strategy of suddenly successful teams? I’m predicting that next year, we will see other MLB teams trying to construct their roster to copy the “Chaos” concept that made the Dbacks so successful this season. Hallmarks are speed and base stealing designed to make the opposing team uncomfortable and make their players try to do things that take their players out of their comfort zones.
Scott- that approach is called Little League lol It’s funny how grown men can still make those same mistakes.
It’s better than Phillies / Astros again. I thought last year wasn’t great; I was hoping Houston got beaten.
Amen to that ! I like Philly the best and Houston 2nd off that list and I’m thrilled they both got beat ! Makes me love baseball seeing 2 teams who weren’t suppose to have a chance in spring training play for WS !!
True fans of baseball will be watching regardless of who is playing. Only 2 fanbases a year will be fully invested in the WS, but playoff baseball is still playoff baseball. And at least the WS games are accessible to most people, unlike the prior rounds where you had to have multiple streaming platforms just to watch most games.
Re: multiple platforms to watch ALL playoff games. The fact that Fubo users had no TBS hence no NL games and YT TV users have no MLB Network so missing some AL games is horrible and needs to be addressed asap. I have MLB TV in regular season but once playoffs started I had to pay $150 for both services to watch all playoff games. They are literally killing ratings and interest when in 2022 streaming overtook cable so if they don’t fix this ratings and interest will continue their decline.
Scott in AZ…does Hartland, VT ring a bell?
teachdad
????
BTW, why do you assume that my name is Scott? You know what happens when you assume!
ahhhh….I’ve got a good friend named Scott who left VT for his home state of AZ a few years ago…and he just sent me a selfie taken at the Snakes’ ballpark last week. So I took a long shot and missed.
You can ignore me and move on…
teachdad
I like your friend already. Tell him I’ll see him at the next (World Series) home game!
Scott – I just assumed your name is Scottsdale.
scottaz
Who is Craig Breslow and who are the Red Sox? Who cares?
============================
We gifted you Hazen. Without him, where would you be?
And Tory L.
JoeBrady and jmi1950
Thank you. We appreciate those contributions. I’m sure your favorite team is all the worse from the loss!
And the whole Dbacks organization is extremely strong, so while those two may have been the principal architect and molders of the team, kudos to everyone from the front office, to the players, to the coaches, to the minor league system, to the employees and staff, etc.
Scottsdale – How can you forget the most important Red Sox contribution to your team this year????
Tommy Pham!!!
My approach to this is that you done well. When you do well, everyone does well, and everyone gets to share the credit.
This is a great hire for the Red Sox as long as Henry and Kennedy are able to keep their fingers out of baseball operations.
Breslow is a baseball rat, a brilliant person, and easy to get along with. That combination should lead to a good leader in the Red Sox baseball operations.
I’m liking these former players getting involved here.
Not related to this but Anthony Rendon has $300,000 World Series MVP bonus in his contract!
Might as well be 3 billion playing for angels. He’d have better luck winning the lottery than going to ws w angels lmao
Aragon – lol
For what little I know about the guy, Breslow seems like a good guy with a level head. He may be just what they need. Now his first issue should be to get Cora fired.
I’m ready to open up….Let’s hope he’s good at evaluation of talent.
DD WAS, but was all in every year.
Chaim was pretty much the opposite.
Craig understands the environment, hopefully he can read between the lines of the last 2.
Go Craig!
I’m hoping Breslow brings back Matt Barnes.
That would make me smile, I’m from Bethel, CT.
Well let’s just say I’m glad they didn’t hire you as GM then if that’s your first pitching move.
As good a choice as any. At least he’s light years smarter than cora, so if he can’t fire the cheat at least he can outsmart him.
Grim – You really set the bar low!! hahaha My neighbor’s 5 year old is smarter than Cora. Breslow brings a different type of smart to Boston. He’s experienced in the game, he’s highly educated and he has hands on experience with player evaluation. That’s a lot more skill than Bloom had. But like Bloom, he isn’t experienced so we don’t know for sure if he can take his extensive skills and turn them into success at being a POBO.
Agreed, troll. At least he played ball at the highest level and understands pitching, unlike bloom and cora. Yeah, cora played ball but he was pretty much a hack.
grnmtnyeti = Cora’s career OPS+ was 72!!! Enough said. 14 years as a bench jockey!!
The Al East is the roughest and toughest and darn tootenist division in all of baseball… all 3 teams were swept in the playoffs again. 2nd year in a row. LOL They sure are a tough division.
Melch – Nice sarcasm but lets be fair. It only takes ONE good team in a division that is not the AL East to unseat an AL East team. The playoffs likely will be populated from only 10 teams in the AL
1 – Houston -West
2 – Randers – West
3 – Minnesota – Central
4 – Cleveland – Central
6 – Baltimore – East
7 – Tampa Bay – East
8 – Toronto – East
9 – New York – East
10 – Seattle – West
The Astros have taken down the AL East a lot in recent years so the sarcasm really applies historically to Houston but I think the Rangers will be that team going forward that creates headaches during the playoffs for AL East teams.
One last minor point. Regular season roster structure can be great for a team but not so great for the playoff format so the Regular Season AL East is dominant but the post season AL East is not due to the make-up of the rosters. Money brings depth that helps a long season but skill still wins short series in the post season.
In a short series, depth is minimalized. During a long season, backup C’s and SS’s matter. Not in the playoffs. 5th and 6th starters matter in the season. They may pitch mop up in a blow out in the playoffs. When only playing your best 9, and going 4 deep on starting pitching, things even out.
Your bench is important in October. Having speed , a pinch hitter, D replacement guys. Those guys are still very valuable in the postseason. The backend starters are of minimal importance in Oct though.
Brian – The bench players are not good players or they wouldn’t be on the bench. If they do well in a post season, it’s just luck. It won’t reflect their regular season numbers. Since you don’t know whether the bench guys will perform above or below their norms, they are a crap shoot in the post season. All you can do is hope for luck from them.
That’s why, given enough luck, a team like the 2021 Red Sox can slip by a better Yankee team and TB team but doesn’t have enough to go all the way because at some point luck runs out.
The same can be said about TB every year. It would take an extraordinary amount of luck for them to beat the more talented teams. A few years their luck carried them to world series but most of the time it runs out in the early part of the playoffs. Teams like LAD and NYY have had the money to buy the most talent during the last 40 years and yet LAD only won a full season ring in 1988 and the Yankees have just won one ring in the last 20 years.
It always comes down to which team has players that get hot at the right time and that often happens when the elite players on a roster show why they are elite. Not always, but often. Unsung heroes happen all the time too. That’s why series MVPs are always the best players, they are simply the hottest players..
I think it’s also helpful to view a team as a snapshot in time. Over a 162 game season, that team can change dramatically…from players coming back who were injured to players added at the deadline, etc. A team could look drastically different in May to what it looks like now. But these current versions of the Rangers & Diamondbacks are what count the most of course, at this precise snapshot in time.
Great hire! I’m satisfied! Smart dude to blend analytics with common sense baseball. My only beef is that the Red Sox doubled down with the dumbest name for a baseball executive, with their previously invented “chief baseball officer”. I friggin hate that! Just call him a president of baseball operations like I dunno, EVERYONE. I could go on about that for days. I digress.
Welcome back Craig “Chief Officer”
Well, I will have to see a couple things play out here before I react to this.
1. Is he really in charge?
2. How does he set up his FO?
3. Who chooses the GM under him and who is it?
4. What is the GMs role with a POBO in place?.
5. What happens to O’Halloran who is VPBO, and what is the role of a VPBO?
6. What happens to the 3 AGMs who aren’t called AGMs but are still AGMs?
7. Does this move apply at all to Veritek, who is always one of the smartest baseball brains in the room? Does it push him from the organization or move him up the ladder (GM Tek?)
What we do know is that a player with a couple years experience that is capped out at AGM was just hurdled to pobo. Is this like the second coming of Theo or is like promoting a pizza delivery guy to regional manager because he once ate a slice of pepperoni pizza?
A lot of questions need to be answered in the coming months and the off season kicks off in a couple weeks. And all of those FO questions need to be addressed before they can even begin to focus on the team.
Good Luck to Breslow. I will be pulling for him.
We need pitching, pitching and more pitching. Now the boss is a PITCHER! Hooray.
Breslow is an interesting balance of intellect & lived experience. As both player & observer he’s an intriguing choice to lead the Red Sox – good luck to Breslow.
Not unlike the Phillies with Sam Fuld or Chris Young with the Rangers. It’s certainly not a trend, but there are now three in some capacity in an MLB front office. I don’t see any complaints for either of those two guys, Breslow will be a fine choice too.
Cubs are gonna miss him. Happy for him though.
To all the Cora haters:
Dombrowski kept coming back to one word: “knowledgeable.” He said every circle he turned to, whether it was mangers Cora worked under (A.J. Hinch’s bench coach on the 2017 World Series champion Astros), played for in the majors (Davey Johnson, Terry Francona to name two) or in college (Jim Morris), Dombrowski heard the same scouting report.
“Anywhere I checked, they always told me he was one of the smartest guys, if not the smartest guy, on the team, going back to college at Miami talking to Jim Morris saying Alex is probably the smartest player he ever had,” Dombrowski said.
why – There’s a difference between intelligence and knowledge.
To be a successful manager, it’s more important to be intelligent.
Why?
Because you need intelligence to know when and how to apply relevant knowledge.
Now you’re just splitting hairs. Cora’s smart. That sure sounds like intelligence to me.
Whyhayzee – No offense but BS to your whole comment on Cora. The man is a moron/con man. He’s the scum of the earth with no morals for the game. You can spray perfume on a pig but that doesn’t make them anything other than a smelly pig. That’s Cora.
I think you’re confusing Cora with 45.
Exactly, troll.
If he’s so knowledgeable, why did he need to cheat not once, but twice?
As opposed to the guy who lied 10,000 times and has how many indictments?
Please get some perspective. We are talking about a baseball manager. In the grand pantheon of baseball managers, how bad is he? Fair to middling, not much of a deal.
hayzee- I agree the dishonorable cheetoh is a much more amazing liar, the best the world has ever seen. They’ll be talking about him for years. They will…they will… Believe me.
But this is a baseball site and maybe he’s a middling manager, he’s an A#1 cheat.
How many thousands upon thousands of baseball people have cheated? He’s just one guy on a massive pile. Not cutting him a break but the hatred is kind of pathetic.
Yeah but the ones that have been caught got banned for life and what he was par of was much worse. And then he did it again…
‘Executive Vice President’ is higher than ‘Officer’ in any corporate structure. So, Breslow will be working for O’Halloran.
Breslow is here to improve the pitching, plain and simple. O’Halloran is running the show, but Breslow will get all the press (aka blame if things go wrong).
I’d like to think the Sox are going to ease Breslow into being the top Exec. Most his experience is in developing pitching and building a system specific to that. I’d believe he’ll bring that here and assume more and more responsibility as time goes on. Not necessarily a bad thing. Say what you want about O’Halloran, Romero, and all the other longtime assistants – they have tons of experience.
RSmith – You are clueless once again with your comments.
O’Halloran took his golden parachute and got put on the shelf to advise and monitor things. It was a respectful move by the owners but not an operational move.
Brewlow reports to Kennedy – end of story. Wow. You always come unprepared.
Breslow is not a pitching coach, he’s the POBO. The writer shortened it to POO but that’s because he’s not clear on the structure of the organization.
Nothing is plain and simple as you suggest. You are so clueless yet you rattle off all this crap that simply isn’t true!!!
NewYorkSoxFan – There is not a need to ease Breslow into being the top executive because HE ALREADY IS!!!!!!!!!! Don’t listen to RSmith’s bad information. He does this all the time.
The O’Halloran, Romero and any other lame Boston executive that has been in the organization so they have moved up over the years does NOT have the experience needed to do the job.
Read up on Breslow. He’s a POBO level thinker, he’s well educated but he’s also played the game extensively as a pitcher, he’s developed pitching approaches based on new technology to assist pitchers and pitching coaches to improve pitchers and he’s been active in the process for recruiting talent including through the draft.
Everything on Breslow’s resume far exceeds ANYONE in the Boston Red Sox organization. The only true question mark is can he perform the job that he is so highly qualified to take? No experience is a big risk but no dinosaur like O’Halloran is going to help him because they have no experience at being successful at it either.
Let Breslow pick a GM then fire Cora and let’s get the show on the road. All this crap about allowing him time to assimilate the situation is bull. This guys can take the reins, fix the holes and put a highly competitive team on the field in the spring if his experience translate to performance.
The current putz brigade sitting on the shelves in the Fenway front offices need to stay the hell out of the way and let the new guy do what he thinks is right.
I sure hope Breslow got ownership to agree to stay out of the way. It’s never been an issue in the past except with Mookie so lets hope they have learned from their huge mistake.
5 years. 35 mill. 8 weeks vacation. 4 PTO. And stock option paid health insurance.
What’s the cubs next Options
So, if some other team offered him a POBO job, is that considered a promotion over CBO?
He just got the job, nobody is offering him a POBO job right now.
Rememberthecoop – Semantics. The actual job is President of Baseball Operations. If ownership wanted him to fill both the POBO and GM spot they may have created a new position of Chief Baseball Officer (CBO) but it’s far more likely that the person reporting the news simply didn’t know the proper title because he did state that he replaced Bloom who was POBO.
As the POBO he builds his own structure below him. It will be his choice to fill a GM position or not by doing it himself. He absolutely DOES NOT REPORT to the worthless O’Halloran and he absolutely can rework the responsibilities of the other VPs underneath him as he learns if they have any skills he can use. Otherwise, he will try to achieve success with his own, hand picked front office people as well as his own hand picked Manager, Coaching staff and all others reporting up through the POBO.
Not sure how I would describe my reaction. Tepid enthusiasm? There is no doubt Breslow is intelligent. The degrees and alumni association mean little to me. I find him to be a student, fast learner, curious and driven. That matters more than the brains, because you need those qualities in any task you have never done. but it helps to know those qualities are in a smart guy. Let us all hope they allow the smart guy to do smart things after he evaluates the sorry state of the team.
I think Breslow is a rational pick out of the candidates that made themselves available. It tells you everything you need to know about the outside perception of the team that I had to phrase it in that way. Not many were scrapping for the opportunity to work for the Sox.
As with any person with no experience at what they are doing, you can only help that they get the best advice from those around them and have the capacity to adept into the role. I hope he does, and I hope the people above him, and under him have his best interests and the team’s best interest at heart. I don’t envy him with what he has to deal with.
He’ll screw it up somehow.
He will get blamed for decisions forced on him by Ownership, Sam Kennedy and the othe r47 VPs (and they will take the credit when things go right).
My wife decided that she is ok with Breslow and we got an offer for $300k more than the listing price on our house. Its a good day!
Unhappy wife = unhappy life.
She said “LFG Red Sox. Fire Cora now!”
What do you Red Sox fans think?
“What do you Red Sox fans think?”
All these post about your wife makes you a cuck!
It makes you muted.
What do you Red Sox fans think?
========================
I think $300k over list is phenomenal. Unless your listing agent misjudged the market.
I would give Cora one more year. From what I heard, he and his coaches were wearing shirts with “we’re the underdogs”. When you undermine your boss like that, the next boss will take notice. And it was just low-class.
Very happy. Neighbors house was on market for 243 days at $10.1 million. About 2k sq ft larger than ours so worth more. We listed at $6.8 million and our first offer was $7.1 million in just 3 weeks. Might be back in Connecticut before we planned to. Thought selling this place would take months.
As you can tell my wife is not a Cora fan.
Lack of inventory in the housing market is a good thing for sellers.
Never much inventory at this end of the market.
I enjoyed your wife comments! Always up for wifey anecdotes even though it’s a baseball page.
She’s a diehard Red Sox fan. How she ever married someone like me that is not is a miracle. The baseball arguments in this house are certainly interesting.
good for Breslow…now hire former Sox catcher Ryan Lavarnway and get the all-Yale battery back together!
CB-> CB (bloom-> breslow) Yale to Yale.
John Henry sure likes them boys from the top tier schools
He is Pres of Baseball Ops or “Chief Baseball” Officer IN NAME ONLY.
He will have to navigate the Matrix that is the Red Sox Front office.
Is he really in charge?!
OR is this just another voice at the table with the 47 VPs?!
Owners Henry and Lerner?!
CEO Sam Kennedy?!
Outside analysts are saying that Boston is now leaning too heavily into analytics
and not taking the Scouting, personal knowledge, experience and human decision-making
elements into consideration.
Time will tell!
See link for another viewpoint that pans this Red Sox Front Office Hire:
Quoting the article
Red Sox Paint New GM as an Out-of-the-Box Hire. He Isn’t.
“Breslow may have been a player, but like Bloom, he’s a Yale grad who is “known for his intelligence and for his familiarity with analytics and technology,” according to The Athletic. He’s a former Major Leaguer, but he’s also a major-league nerd and a big risk for a team that has seemed to have forgotten that baseball games are won on diamonds, not spreadsheets.”
msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/red-sox-paint-new-gm-as-a…
SportsFan0000 – Go to the MLB site and look up Boston’s Front Office
There is no matrix management scheme as you suggest.
There is Henry, then Werner, then Kennedy and some special assistants in Pedro and Papi
Next is Breslow
The equivalent of a board of directors is the Executive Management Team.
Breslow, like Bloom and DD, will be responsible for presenting transactions to the board for approval.
Breslow will be over Baseball Operations.
Also under Breslow are
= A Business Affairs group
– A Corporate Communications group
– An Executive Administration Group
– A Finance group
– An Analytics group
– An Information Technology Group.
All these groups reports up through Kennedy
It’s not a matrix it’s a hierarchical approach to management with the matrix below Breslow. He will evaluate the matrix of talent and redeploy the resources as he sees fit to best maximize Baseball Operations.
Go back and read the discussions we had when the Red Sox were looking for a POB and 10-12 highly qualified candidates rejected interviews with the
Red Sox for this entire reason,
Maybe even more that were not leaked to the Press.
The Red Sox matrix is real.
The Red Sox “Org Chart” is not real.
They have already filled most of the positions that any normal new POB
would traditionally fill like:: Manager, Associate GMs, Coaches, Farm Director etc.
John Henry does his best Arte Moreno imitation by getting to involved in baseball ops.
Sam Kennedy?!
He is a Business Ops side manager
who routinely gets involved in Baseball Ops decisions when he
is not really a baseball guy.
His forte is not building baseball teams,.
It is more on the accounting side of things.
A whole slew of Assistant GMs already in place?!
Cora gumming up the works and undercutting the his new boss same as he did with the old boss?!
For these reasons and others, Breslow gets a title, but has limited responsibilities including “too many cooks in the kitchen interfering in the baseball ops process for the new hire to really have much leeway in the baseball decision making process.
But, Breslow will get the blame and be the designated scapegoat if things go wrong (just like Chaim Bloom).
The best thing the Red Sox have going is that they have been tanking for the last few years and piling up high draft picks and talented young players in the minor leagues.
The pipeline is filling up.
Bloom won’t get credit for the next wave of talent arriving, shortly, in Boston that he scouted and drafted for Boston.
Sportsfan- he won’t deserve credit because he purposely tanked to get those picks, several who fell into his lap. He basically ignored the MLB team in order to get pieces for the farm, a good PoBO knows how to do both.
SportsFan00002 days ago
The best thing the Red Sox have going is that they have been tanking for the last few years and piling up high draft picks
=============================
They are over .500 over the last three years. That’s not what people mean by “tanking”.
bloom couldn’t even tank correctly lol
The Red Sox history over the past 10-12 years or more
has been :
WIN,
STRATEGIC TANKING FOR A FEW YEARS TO RESTOCK THE FARM AND SOME SALARY DUMPING
THEN WIN AGAIN
THEN TANK AGAIN.
IT IS A PATTERN.
IT HAS WORKED FOR THEM.
Yankees and Astros and some others try to Retool and win every year.
Ditto with the Dodgers.
The astros purposely tanked for years to stack their farm before they could move on to the retool stage. The yankees have refused to do a complete rebuild which has kept them from going deep into the playoffs for years.
The Astros did not tank.
The wheels came completely off the last Astros contending team.
Their farm system was in complete disarray.
Their was not short term fix that free agency could have fixed
It was so bad and prior ownership was so cash strapped, that MLB forced the Astros to be sold in US Bankruptcy Court.
New Astros Ownership tore the entire team and franchise down to the studs and rebuilt the: Front Office, the Farm System, Scouting, Team, everything.
It was the only way that they would be able to reasonably compete for the playoffs and championships.
That is what should be done with the Oakland A’s, not forcing a move to a much smaller, poorer market like Las Vegas.
John Fischer is CLEARLY “CASH POORr”, does not have the cash to put a competitive team on the field, mismanaged the A’s, does little or no marketing, makes half handed attempts get get a stadium on the SF Bay Area with empty promises by Fischer
while he is back stabbing officials in the SF Bay Area and loyal A’s fans in that area for over 50+ years.
Fischer was turned down for financing the A’s New Stadium near Jack London Square on the SF Bay as he is a “bad risk” financially to lenders.
MLB should TAKE OVER A’S FRANCHISE, FORCE A SALE OF A’s FRANCHISE TO QUALIFIED OWNERS
by Fischer to well funding local SF Bay Area New Owners who have cash, credit, business respect and expertise to build a new stadium and SUCCESSFULLY MANAGE AND RUN an MLB franchise in one of the largest TV markets in the USA
with a yearly GDP BIGGER THAN MANY COUNTRIES,
OF OVER 500B PER YEAR.
COMPARE THAT WITH LAS VEGAS AND NEVADA YEARLY GDP OF ONLY A FEW HUNDRED MILLION PER YEAR.
IT IS A ‘NO BRAINER”.
OUT WITH FISCHER AS A’s OWNER.
IN WITH NEW LOCAL OWNERSHIP TO KEEP TEAM IN SF BAY AREA.
LAS VEGAS SHOULD COMPETE FOR AN MLB EXPANSION FRANCHISE.
Astros situation was different. The wheels had come completely off their last contender.
The team was sold to Jim Crane.
Crane hired a new Pres of Baseball Ops.
He built a New Front Office, New Farm System, New Coaches, New Manager,. New players etc…
They revamped the organization from top to bottom.
The Astros did not tank.
They did a complete rebuild under New Ownership.
The team and talent they had at that time was so poor at the time that it was apparent at that time that a few free agent signings was not going to move the needle for them and make them instant contenders.
Astros ownership did the smart thing by tearing it completely down: drafts, trades, international signings, better drafting and player development, better scouting and more.
It worked.
After a six year run of losing, the Astros emerged with one of the best young teams in baseball ready to compete for championships.
And then they cheated…