The Red Sox are nearing a deal to hire Taylor Smith for an unspecified analytics-based role in the club’s front office, according to MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam and Chris Cotillo. Smith could be joining the ranks as an assistant general manager, which would presumably also come with some type of VP title like Boston’s other four assistant GMs under chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.
Smith had been working with the Rays as Tampa Bay’s director of predictive modeling. He has been with the organization since graduating from the University of Georgia in 2018, and Smith was initially hired as an analyst in Tampa’s research and development team. He’ll now head to a larger role in Boston, becoming the latest in a seemingly endless line of Rays staffers hired by other teams to try and learn from Tampa Bay’s consistent success in player development.
As McAdam wrote in another piece earlier this week, assistant GM Mike Groopman had been considered the “de facto overseer” of Boston’s analytics operations, but Groopman was being shifted into another role “with more of a focus on player acquisition.” It would seem that Smith will now be filling the gap left behind by Groopman’s role change, and it remains to be seen some more shuffling could be on the way.
Paul Toboni, another assistant GM, has been rumored to be the top in-house name to become Breslow’s official top lieutenant as Boston’s general manager, so if Toboni is promoted, the Red Sox would still have four AGMs (Smith, Groopman, Raquel Ferreira, Eddie Romero) in place. McAdam suggests that promoting Toboni might also be a way of keeping him within the organization, and away from GM vacancies with the Giants and Mets. There are some links between Toboni and other those jobs, as McAdam writes that Toboni is from the Bay Area, and he previously worked with Mets president of baseball operations David Stearns in the Brewers’ front office.
Good luck Boston. Nothing good comes from hiring Rays analytics unless the team is willing to spend the money like the Dodgers. This usually means teams are looking for cheaper production so owners don’t have to pay up. I know that feeling every season.
I wonder if Theo is involved at all. I know he has a small stake in the larger umbrella Boston Sports. But I haven’t heard that he’s involved in mlb at all. He’s familiar with Breslow from their time in Chicago
Breslow said last season that Theo was watching every pitch of every game and that he consults with him. So, I think Theo is quite involved.
nesn.com/2024/07/red-soxs-craig-breslow-explains-t…
Henry continues to try and follow the Ray’s model of low payroll teams
…and ZERO championships to show for it.
The Red Sox are one of many teams trying to be more like the Rays in terms of talent evaluation and player development which the Rays are great at. However, the Red Sox are not following the Rays model as the Red Sox are significantly outspending the Rays.
be more like the Rays in terms of talent evaluation and player development
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Some RS fans are idiots.
Every smart company on the entire planet copies the best-in-industry practices. The idea that the RS shouldn’t have the best scouts, or the best development, or the latest in cutting edge athletic training (or whatever we just hired), is insane.
Except for the fact that we have never had a low payroll.
The Red Sox front office seems quite top heavy with executive leadership & VP personnel. Do any other MLB teams have 4 assistant GMs in their organization? They keep adding to the front office and ignoring the additions needed on the field for this team to be competitive. After the “full throttle” comments from last year, I’m not sure I believe the recent statements that the team will be aggressive in adding players this offseason. Only time will tell, but the Sox need to add/acquire a #1 starting pitcher, add to the bullpen and balance out their lineup this year (more RHH) if they want their fans’ support (and money) in 2025. A lot of fans are growing tired of the “we’re building from within” message from the last 5 years. Adding talent to the front office is fine, but adding talent to the roster should be priority #1 to every executive and the owner as well.
Nice to see you commenting again, D–you’ve always been a voice for sanity. I imagine other teams have “4 assistant GMs” in their org, but probably under different titles. I doubt that the Sox have become truly top-heavy with execs compared to most. The Kyle Boddy situation is very interesting–the one-year charge is to set up a program and then depart (except as a part-time consultant). It’s a lot of interesting movement, but, of course, most Sox followers want to see bigger names on the field. I could go for a #1 myself, although I’ll limit that to Burnes or maybe Flaherty.
Looks like Breslow is continuing to overhaul baseball operations. This can be done at the same time as adding talent to the roster.
This can be done at the same time
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Of course. As I mentioned above, I have no idea why people have any problem with us hiring the best scouts, trainers, beer vendors, etc.
I’d love to see Snell & Roki come here, but paying $150k here and there for trainers and such isn’t even a rounding mistake on Snell and Roki.
“Only time will tell, but the Sox need to add/acquire a #1 starting pitcher, add to the bullpen….”
Dorothy_Mantooth;
Nice to read you again!
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It’ nothing personal, but I read the above here regarding pitchers from fans of more than half the teams in MLB every single year.
Looking over the FA stating pitchers, I see 3 #1 guys:
Corbin Burnes (30 years old, 7.2 WAR)
Gerrit Cole (34, 7.2) — can opt out
Blake Snell (32, 7.2) — can opt out
Those 3 have crackerjack agents that are going to want not just big bucks every year, but want them for multiple years. So they’ll be sort of like Schurzer and deGrom have been the last few years for many years in the future.
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Here are the guys heading the FA relief pitchers:
Tanner Scott (30 years old, 4.5 WAR)
Jeff Hoffman (32, 3.6)
David Robertson (40, 3.1) — mutual option
Aroldis Chapman (37, 2.9)
Clay Holmes (32, 2.8)
They’re older, have track records, and have hardy been consistent – including in 2024.
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Point being that while teams are best to grow their own with position players, they can always sign or trade for them. But pitchers are volatile so it’s best they grow their own. With the epidemic of pitchers injuries in which TJ surgery is now normal – costing a team 12-18 months of salary as well as a hit on their medieval insurance – we can go full circle and understand why teams with no clue about pitching are hiring Rays personnel away hoping the magic fairy dust spreads.
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That leaves trading. But trading for established pitching is just as bad. Teams want multiple quality youngsters with years of control back – which are the largest assets a MLB franchise can have on their 40 man roster.
There is no real alternative to teams growing their own pitchers. And due to injuries and inconsistencies, they have to grow at least 3-4 for every one that’s active and producing at any given time.
Hi Samuel –
I agree with most of what you have to say. Boston now has the prospects to deal for a young, potential ace / solid #1 starter. A package including Casas, one of the big 3 (Mayer, Anthony, Teel) and some additional pieces could be enough to shake free a young, potential #1 starter. (I don’t want them to deal Campbell). The Sox could then sign Alonso to play 1B, helping to balance the lineup. I don’t think they need to spend on a 30 something free agent pitcher to be an ace, but I wouldn’t be upset if they do. The problem with their young talent is that the 3 top prospects I mention + Casas, Duran, Raffy, Abreu & Masa all bat LH. They can’t run a lineup out there with 6-7 LHH most nights, so something needs to be done to even out the lineup and a trade for a big time pitcher would make a lot of sense.
Yup, for all the concern about trading our prospects, if one assumes that Campbell is going to be an outfielder, then we have 5 very good outfielders/prospects, and one pretty decent prospect in Bleis.
Everything is about fit going forward.
Dorothy_Mantooth;
Let’s see if any team is offering a top starting pitcher for trade this year.
Maybe someone in the last year of his contract on a team that’s rebuilding or taking a step back.
C’mon Mark, you know the consistent success with the Rays is teaching the Roger Beshens Football Slider, it all started when Glasnow learned the Roger Beshens Football Slider May 2018 in Pitt and the Rays noticed it in June.
You want to see a picture of Roger Beshens and Strom in the Dbacks clubhouse talking techniques of the RB Football Slider? If you saw that what would that tell you?
The Red Sox should try spending more money on players and less money on executives. They seem to be following the model being adopted by corporate America.
…….and the government.
Bureaucracy be thy name.
To be fair, how many front office execs make more than a desirable free agent these days?
lay – The problem is that under Bloom and now Breslow the admin payroll has soared because so many people are getting paid well to produce data of which 95% is not used and the 5% that is used has often led to the wrong decisions being made.
The Red Sox should try spending more money on players and less money on executives.
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It’s just the opposite, imo. If you added up the entire FO cost for the RS, scouts, etc., it might not be any more the what Giolito cost. The smart money will be on drafting and developing prospects.
Joe – Easier said than done. The hit rate on hiring executives is very low. To me, it’s like spending more money when you are at the tables losing in Vegas. Step away, regroup and come back with a winning strategy for hiring executives, managers and coaches.
From where I am sitting the pitching coaches seem to be the most effective hires in the front office since Dombrowski.
I don’t think any of us know how we got some of our prospects, but 2021-23, we nabbed 4 top-25 prospects, along with some other pieces. That could be 4 different people, but I’d be looking to replicate that process, assuming that it is something more than random.
Joe – That’s a great point. There are hundreds of resources that are within the organization and without more insights into their skills it’s hard to know who talked up the successful prospects versus those not performing as well as they should be. We could have one brilliant skills evaluator who found the group of fast developing players or it may be one prospect for each of 10 or 12 people.
In TB, somebody sat around with Bloom and picked some great players and trades and like in Boston it could have been one or many. All we know is the knowledge didn’t transfer to Bloom because he wasn’t allowed to bring others with him and he didn’t appear to cultivate many while in Boston. Since Breslow arrived, we see improvements in pitching. Whether that’s one person who brought along a group of other pitching coaches to improve the overall program or simply one strong person recruiting a bunch more excellent pitching coaches we don’t know..
Like so many internal facts, we don’t really know where the successes are coming from and the failures. We see a Campbell go from College to dominating all levels in the minors in 2 years. Good scouting? Good Player Development? Good character of the player? All three or some combo? Who knows. Great results, YES. That type of hit doesn’t happen often since we can name on one hand those that flourished during the last 15 years in the Boston system: Pedroia, Bogey, Mookie, Devers and Benny.
So to see the current generation of Duran, Houck, Casas all developing into all-star quality players and the future generation of Abreu, Rafaela, Anthony, Campbell, Mayer and Teel all advancing quickly it’s clear that somewhere in the organization there is at least one if not many more sources for the talent. Let’s hope the ACTUAL smart ones are the ones with authority to make more wise decisions because the decimation of the roster was very complete by Bloom.
The boost that the program has gotten since the 2018 team was disbanded has been excellent. Lets hope the trend continues by maintaining the good resources and making sure they are the leaders going into the future.
PLAYER AQUISITIONS is the most important area to improve on. This is where they need to focus their attention. QUALITY players with skills. Not retreads, cast-offs or injured players. JEEZ cmon this isn’t rocket science.
Oh & one more area……CHECK WRITING….as in sign some stars. I’m done ranting. Enjoy your day.
Fenwayfrank – Excellent rant!!
It seems like I hear way too much about this guy for him just being an assistant coach. I see articles about who he’s voting for and which NFL team he’s backing. (Chiefs if I recall). What’s with that?
The Red Sox don’t need another nerd in the front office, they need an ace starting pitcher for the staff. Time to spend some cash, Henry.