Nightengale adds that while the Red Sox have (as previously reported) interviewed assistant GM Eddie Romero for the position, the favorite to take over for Chaim Bloom as the club’s chief baseball officer could be Phillies GM Sam Fuld. It’s unclear to this point if Fuld has interviewed for the position. He’s under contract with the Phillies through 2025 after signing an extension last winter, meaning the Phillies would have to grant the Red Sox permission to interview Fuld for the role. That being said, it’s somewhat rare for organizations to stand in the way of their personnel interviewing for a potential promotion as this would be for Fuld, who serves as the club’s second-in-command to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who previously helmed the Red Sox from 2015 to 2019.

Other notes from around the league…

• Nightengale adds that the Diamondbacks are expected to offer manager Torey Lovullo a multi-year contract extension this winter. That’s hardly a surprise, seeing as Hazen, who the club recently extended through 2028, previously indicated that the club could look to retain Lovullo beyond the 2024 campaign in the event that Arizona went on to make the postseason. The DBacks, of course, have done far more than that, making it all the way to the NLCS after sweeping the Brewers in the Wild Card series and the Dodgers in the NLDS.
• FanSided’s Robert Murray noted yesterday that Giants bench coach and interim manager Kai Correa has been interviewed for the club’s vacant manager seat. Correa joins third-base coach Mark Hallberg as the only known candidates to interview for the position. Correa, 35, began his coaching career immediately after graduating college in 2010. He spent four seasons with his alma mater, University of Puget Sound, and another four seasons coaching for the University of Northern Colorado. His first professional coaching role came with Cleveland in 2018, for whom he served as an infield coach in the Arizona Complex League. He stayed with the organization in 2019 before joining the Giants ahead of the 2020 season in his current role as bench coach.
• Jon Heyman of the New York Post recently noted that the Angels, who have been reported to have mutual interest with Buck Showalter regarding the club’s managerial vacancy, are seeking a veteran manager for the 2024 campaign. While Showalter certainly fits that description, another candidate Heyman puts forth is Darin Erstad, who played for the Angels in 11 major league seasons and in retirement served as the head coach for University of Nebraska, with whom he spent eight seasons in the role.

12:15PM: It’s now been roughly a month since the Red Sox fired chief baseball operations Chaim Bloom, creating a vacancy atop their baseball ops department. The club has expressed a willingness to take their time in making a decision, but it seems that there’s a building narrative that many potential candidates aren’t terribly excited by the job opening. Sean McAdam and Chris Cotillo, both of MassLive, reported on the search today with each of them relaying that the club has been getting the cold shoulder from many of their targets.

It’s not known which specific candidates are involved, but it’s reported than many of them have declined to be interviewed or have withdrawn their names from consideration for the post. Though running a prestigious large-market club like the Sox might be attractive in theory, there are a few factors listed for the lack of interest. One is the high amount of turnover in the Boston front office of late. Ben Cherington got the position in October of 2011 but was replaced as the club’s baseball decision maker by Dave Dombrowski in August of 2015, despite the fact that the club had won the World Series in 2013. Dombrowski was then dismissed in 2019, even though he also brought a title to Boston the year prior, getting replace by Bloom.

Beyond that, there are reportedly concerns around the established role of manager Álex Cora and some incumbent executives. To an outsider, it would appear there are fears of getting hired, not being given much agency and then getting quickly thrown under the bus if things aren’t going well.

One name the club is targeting is Michael Hill, reports McAdam, though it’s unclear if he has been interviewed or if he even wants the job. He does have plenty of front office experience, as he was a part of the Marlins’ front office from 2002 until 2020. He worked his way up to hold various titles, including assistant general manager, general manager and president of baseball operations. But his contract wasn’t renewed after 2020 and he has since been working for Major League Baseball as senior vice president of on-field operations. His name has frequently popped up in front office searches in recent years, with the Astros being interested in him as recently as January. But Hill withdrew his name from consideration for that job, which ended up going to Dana Brown.

One other name on the list is Josh Byrnes, who currently serves as senior vice president of baseball operations for the Dodgers. Cotillo reports that the Sox have had internal discussions about interviewing Byrnes, but it’s unclear if that’s led to any direct contact. Byrnes has a baseball résumé that dates back to being hired by Cleveland back in 1994, later bouncing to various other clubs, including a stint in Boston as assistant general manager starting in 2003. That led to stints as the general manager of the Diamondbacks and Padres, before he joined the Dodgers in 2014.  Like Hill, his name has also been a popular one in recent front office searches, most recently being connected to the Tigers just over a year ago.

In what is perhaps a more notable development, the club has already interviewed current assistant general manager Eddie Romero, per Cotillo. He has been with the Sox since 2006 and Cotillo reports that he has a strong relationship with Cora.

There’s still plenty of unknowns around the search and the narrative could always change, but it’s interesting that the club seems to be hitting some obstacles to this point. Though they have Hill and Byrnes on their list, there’s been no reporting to suggest the interest is mutual or that any momentum has been gained with either. As Cotillo relays, Romero might have an edge not just based on his existing relationship with the club but also due to the other candidates taking their respective hats out of the ring, though it’s entirely possible that other candidates will emerge in the weeks to come.

Whoever does get the job will have challenges moving forward. The club is generally considered to have a strong farm system but the American League East is arguably the strongest division in the league. The Orioles, Rays and Blue Jays all made the postseason this year and each club is well positioned to continue being competitive. The Yankees had a bit of a down year but haven’t finished below .500 since 1992 and will surely be looking for ways to come back stronger next year.

The Sox have generally been an aggressive spending team but not as much lately. Per Cot’s Baseball Contracts, their payroll was in the top five in the league for much of the century but has fallen out of that tier since the pandemic. They also have some hefty contracts on the books already, especially those of Rafael Devers, Trevor Story and Masataka Yoshida. Thanks to that group and Garrett Whitlock, the club already has close to $80MM committed to just four players as far out as 2026.

Hill, 51, would have brought plenty of experience to the role, having joined the Marlins in 2002. He worked his way up through various positions, including assistant general manager, general manager and president of baseball operations, holding that latter title until his contract wasn’t renewed following the 2020 season.

He has since been working for Major League Baseball as senior vice president of on-field operations. He’s been connected to various front office openings over the past few years, including with the Angels, Mets, Phillies and now the Astros. However, Heyman reports that Hill is happy in his role with the league and would like to stick around as the new rules are implemented. The 2023 season will see the league implementing a pitch clock as well as limits on defensive shifts and pickoff attempts. It seems the Houston job isn’t enough to tempt Hill away from overseeing the transition to this new brand of baseball.

That leaves two known candidates connected to the job in Braves vice president of scouting Dana Brown and former Giants general manager Bobby Evans. It’s possible that owner Jim Crane is considering others that haven’t been reported yet but it seems like Hill can be crossed off the list. Crane himself has seemingly been leading the baseball decision making since his disagreements with Click led to the vacancy a couple of months ago.

The Astros’ offseason got off to a surprising start when the club parted ways with general manager James Click and assistant general manager Scott Powers in November. There were some reported differences between Click and Crane, but it was expected by many that the Astros winning the World Series would be enough to get all parties on the same page going forward.

That didn’t come to pass and the club has been operating without a general manager for the past few months. It seems as though Crane has taken on a prominent role in the baseball operations while conducting a search for Click’s replacement. Crane commented on the matter back in November, saying that he planned to take his time and didn’t expect to make a hire prior to the new year. That has indeed come to pass as it is now mid-January with the position still vacant.

The club has been going about its business regardless, signing free agents like José Abreu and Michael Brantley in addition to agreeing to terms with various arbitration-eligible players. It’s not known if the club has any specific date in mind for a front office decision, but it seems the wheels are at least in motion with these interviews having been conducted.

Hill spent many years in the front office of the Marlins, joining the club in 2002. He would go on to hold various titles in his time with that franchise, including assistant general manager, general manager and president of baseball operations. When his contract ran out after the 2020 season, the club didn’t extend him despite the fact that they qualified for the postseason for the first time since 2003. Since that time, Hill has been connected to various clubs looking to add to their front office, including the Angels, Mets and Phillies. However, he has yet to sign on with another team since leaving the Marlins, spending the past two years working for Major League Baseball as senior vice president of on-field operations.

Brown was drafted by the Phillies in 1989 and spent a few years playing in their minor league system. He has since had various jobs throughout the league, serving as scouting director of the Nationals and a special assistant with the Blue Jays. He was a candidate to join the Mariners’ front office in late 2015 but didn’t land the job. For the past four years, he has been with the Braves, where he currently serves as the vice president of scouting. Much of his career has overlapped with Atlanta’s president of baseball operations Alex Anthopoulos, as they worked together with the Expos before that team became the Nats, were with the Jays at the same time and are now working alongside each other in Atlanta.

Evans was hired by the Giants in 1994 and worked his way up through various titles over the years. He was eventually named the club’s general manager going into 2015, just after the club had won its third title in five years. However, he was “reassigned” from that role in late 2018 after less than four years on the job. He interviewed for the general manager job with the Astros in 2020 before Click was hired. He also interviewed for the Angels later that year, though that job ultimately went to Perry Minasian.

The three candidates each bring different levels of experience and success to the table. The Marlins didn’t find much success while Hill was with the club, but he worked for owner Jeffrey Loria who was known for meddling in baseball decisions and keeping the payroll modest. Brown’s teams have all found much success while he’s worked for them and he’s credited with drafting or signing many great talents, but he doesn’t have any previous work as a club’s top baseball decision maker. Evans was with the Giants during their most successful period in recent years, though his time in the top chair was brief and the club was less successful at that time. It’s unknown if the Astros have any preference among these three, though there are likely other candidates under consideration as well, with more details to come.

Some more front office notes from around the game…

• The Angels have hired Tim McIlvaine away from the Brewers to fill as their new scouting director, Kiley McDaniel and Alden Gonzalez of ESPN report (Twitter thread). McIlvaine, who was previously the Brewers’ assistant director of scouting, worked extensively with current Angels vice president of amateur scouting Ray Montgomery when both were in Milwaukee. Montgomery was one of the first hires by under new Angels GM Perry Minasian last offseason. The Angels removed former scouting director Matt Swanson from his post last week but offered him a position elsewhere in the organization. Swanson was hired by former general manager Billy Eppler and has overseen the Halos’ past five drafts.
• Josh Bonifay is returning to the Rangers organization as their new farm director, Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News reports. Bonifay had been the Phillies’ farm director for the past three seasons but was removed from that role and offered a spot on the team’s pro scouting staff for next season back in August. The son of former Pirates general manager Cam Bonifay, Josh has spent more than a decade in baseball operations, mostly in the Astros organization, but was also the Rangers’ field coordinator and a member of the Major League coaching staff with then-manager Jeff Banister in 2017. Bonifay has also spent time as a minor league coach and manager, a minor league field coordinator and was the Astros’ hitting coordinator in 2018 before being hired by Philadelphia.

Beyond that pairing, the league also has hired former outfielder Rajai Davis as a director of on-field operations, where he’ll share that title with recent retirees Nick Hundley and Gregor Blanco. Davis will focus on rule changes and amateur baseball. Per the league’s announcement, Davis will also focus on “mentorship of minority players as they progress through amateur baseball and the minor leagues.”

Former Astros skipper Bo Porter was also hired by MLB today, the league announced. He’ll serve as a consultant on coaching development — a role in which he will assist with the “identification and development of candidates for coaching positions throughout amateur and professional baseball, with a focus on underrepresented groups.”

12:18pm: SNY’s Andy Martino reports that in addition to Hill, MLB is hiring former big league outfielder Raul Ibanez to work with on-field operations. He’ll also have a VP title, and he’ll bring a more player-focused perspective that the league lost when Young took his post with the Rangers. The 48-year-old Ibanez retired after the 2014 season and enjoyed a very strong 19-year career in the Majors, during which time he hit .272/.335/.465 with 305 home runs. Ibanez had been working as a special assistant with the Dodgers’ front office prior to accepting his new role.

With regard to Hill, Martino indicates that he’d have been a candidate to work in the recently shuffled Mets front office had he not taken this opportunity with the league office.

9:00am: Former Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill will be named Major League Baseball’s senior vice president of on-field operations, reports USA Today’s Bob  Nightengale (Twitter link). Hill will step into the role that was vacated by former big league right-hander Chris Young earlier this offseason, when Young was named general manager of the Rangers.

The league has yet to formally announce the move, but a press release is surely forthcoming. Young, during his time with this role, oversaw “the application of playing rules and regulations, on-field standards and discipline, pace of play and other special projects” and drew praise from deputy commissioner Dan Halem for his ability to explain things from the players’ vantage point.

Hill won’t bring the same playing background to the role that Young, a 13-year  MLB veteran, brought to the table. However, with more than 20 years of baseball operations experience, he’ll have his own perspectives to offer. (Hill did play a few years of minor league ball after being drafted by the Rangers out of Harvard in 1993 as well.)

The Marlins parted ways with Hill back in October. CEO Derek Jeter said afterward that the two sides had discussed a new contract but ultimately weren’t able to come to terms. Hill’s departure didn’t register as a major surprise, as he was a holdover from the Jeffrey Loria era. It’s common for incoming ownership groups to shake up their front office composition, and the Marlins were no exception. Hill finished out his contract, but Jeter and Bruce Sherman eventually went in a different direction, hiring Kim Ng as their new general manager.

Hill, meanwhile, was reportedly considered for the top baseball operations posts with the Phillies, Angels and the Mets following his departure from Miami. It’s certainly plausible that the 49-year-old will be considered for future front office vacancies, but for the time being, he’ll take on a much different challenge within the league.

DECEMBER 11, 8:13pm: The Mets are actually still considering other candidates in addition to Scott, Porter, Owens and Hill, Tim Healey of Newsday reports.

7:52pm: Scott, Porter, Owens and Hill are indeed the Mets’ GM finalists, Joel Sherman of the New York Post tweets. They have all interviewed for the position, according to Anthony DiComo of MLB.com.

5:20pm: Led by the newly minted duo of owner Steve Cohen and team president Sandy Alderson, the Mets are off to an active start this offseason. They’ve already signed reliever Trevor May to a two-year, $15.5MM contract, and they seem to be the front-runners to add catcher James McCann. They’re also surely moving to acquire other players. The Mets have done all their work in recent weeks without a general manager, but that might not be the case for much longer. The club could hire someone as early as next week, Jon Heyman of MLB Network reports.

It’s “likely” the Mets will choose Red Sox assistant general manager Zack Scott, Diamondbacks assistant GM Jared Porter, Athletics AGM Billy Owens or former Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill to become their new GM, according to Heyman. Hill interviewed for the position in the first half of November, but it’s unclear if the Mets have spoken with him again since then. It’s also unknown if (or how many times) they have talked to the other candidates.

Hill’s vast experience as the leader of a front office could give him the leg up in New York, as Cohen said when he took over the franchise last month, “I’m not crazy about people learning on my dime” (via Lou DiPietro of WFAN). That said, Scott, Porter and Owens have plenty of experience in their own right. Scott has been with the Red Sox in various roles since 2004; Porter also started in Boston in 2004, and he has since been a key part of two other front offices (Cubs, D-backs); and Owens has held multiple roles with the A’s since the late 1990s. Owens even worked with lderson for a couple of years when the latter was in Oakland’s front office.

DEC. 4, 10:02pm: Levine is no longer a candidate for the Philadelphia job, per Jon Heyman of MLB Network. He’s content to stay in Minnesota.

3:56pm: The Twins have given the Phillies permission to interview Levine, Darren Wolfson of 5 Eyewitness News tweets.

10:12am: It’s been two months since Matt Klentak stepped down as the Phillies’ general manager, but there’s still no resolution to the team’s front-office search. A group of potential candidates is coming more clearly into focus, however, as NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury reports that Dodgers senior vice president of baseball operations Josh Byrnes and former Marlins president of baseball ops Michael Hill are in line for second interviews. Additionally, the New York Post’s Joel Sherman reports (via Twitter) that Twins general manager Thad Levine is a “significant” candidate for the Phillies.

Per Salisbury, the Phils aren’t seeking a general manager but are instead focused on hiring an executive who could assume the president of baseball operations role in their organization, then hire a GM of his own. By that criteria, each of Byrnes, Hill and Levine fit the bill. Byrnes, in addition to his current role with the Dodgers, is a former general manager of both the Padres and Diamondbacks. Hill, of course, held the president of baseball ops title in Miami.

Levine was an assistant GM with the Rangers before being hired by the Twins as general manager back in 2016. He’s currently No. 2 on Minnesota’s hierarchy behind president of baseball ops Derek Falvey, so if the Twins indeed allow Levine to interview (or have already allowed him to do so), he could be hired away given that the president role in Philadelphia would be a promotion. Of at least minor note, Levine is a Virginia native who played college ball at Haverford College — about 25 miles from Citizens Bank Park. Of course, that was more than 25 years ago, so those local ties may be little more than anecdotal at this point.

There’s still no clear timeline as to when the Phillies might finalize a decision — nor is it even certain that they’ll make a hire this winter at all. Assistant general manager Ned Rice was elevated to GM status on an interim basis while the team conducted its search, and Phillies president Andy MacPhail suggested more than a month ago that Rice could very well hold that title into 2021 if the team doesn’t find a candidate to its liking.

• The Mets interviewed Michael Hill for a front office job early last month, but they don’t appear likely to hire the former Miami executive. The team hasn’t spoken to Hill since president Sandy Alderson said Nov. 23 that it won’t hire a president of baseball ops, Andy Martino of SNY.tv reports. The Mets are still on the lookout for a general manager, however.
• The Red Sox have shown interest in free-agent outfielder Eddie Rosario, Morosi tweets. The Twins non-tendered Rosario on Wednesday as opposed to paying him in the $8.6MM to $12.9MM range in arbitration. The power-hitting Rosario would join Alex Verdugo to form Boston’s tandem of corner outfielders.
• Yankees right-handed reliever Adam Ottavino has come up in trade speculation, though the 35-year-old unsurprisingly said this week he’d like to remain with the club (via Ken Davidoff of the New York Post). “I want to stay on the team. I want to prove my worth. I want to pitch well,” he told Davidoff. “I want to finish what we tried to start these last few years and win that title and all that.” Ottavino had a great first season with the Yankees in 2019 after signing a three-year, $27MM contract, but the former Rockie’s run prevention numbers took steps backward during the previous campaign. He wound up with a horrid 5.89 ERA in 18 1/3 innings, though Ottavino logged a 3.52 FIP (not far from the 3.44 mark he posted the prior year) and 12.27 K/9 against 4.42 BB/9.

Epstein may be an extreme long shot for the Phillies, as he suggested when he resigned from the Cubs on Tuesday that he’s going to take a year away from the game. From the Phillies’ perspective, though, it’s at least worth trying to coax a three-time World Series winner and a future Hall of Famer into leading its front office.

Hill had an 18-year tenure in Miami’s front office before the club parted with him in October. While there wasn’t a great deal of team success during that span, it’s hard to place much blame on Hill, who spent the majority of it working under maligned ex-owner Jeffrey Loria and was at a payroll disadvantage. To Hill’s credit, he did help build a playoff team in his final year with the Marlins. Nevertheless, that wasn’t enough to save his job.

In heading to Philadelphia, Epstein or Hill would grab the reins from current president of baseball ops Andy MacPhail, who has become a placeholder as the Phillies seek a long-term answer. MacPhail plans to retire at the end of the 2021 season at the latest, but if the Phillies are able to find someone to take over for him before then, he’s poised to step aside. He and interim GM Ned Rice are currently running the Phillies’ front office.

It’s an especially interesting time to follow the rarely dull New York franchise. New owner Steve Cohen raised already lofty expectations for his first offseason at the helm in a recent talk with the media, but he’ll first need to add baseball operations leadership before attacking the player market.

Cohen brought back Sandy Alderson in the team president role, with intentions of overhauling the front office. Now Alderson is leading the search for someone to take over his former role atop the baseball ops hierarchy.

It wasn’t long ago that Hill and Alderson were doing battle in the NL East, with the former heading up the Marlins front office. Though Hill survived an ownership change in Miami and helped put together a successful 2020 roster, he ended up departing at season’s end.

No doubt the Mets are strongly considering other candidates as well as Hill, who has also been linked to the Angels. The full slate of candidates isn’t yet clear. It’s quite an appealing opportunity now that the deep-pocketed Cohen is aboard. Alderson has stated that he’ll delegate primary decisionmaking authority to the baseball operations president.

• Former Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill, whom they parted with in late October, continues to look like a serious candidate for the Angels’ general manager job. Hill will have an in-person meeting soon with Angels owner Arte Moreno, according to Jon Heyman of MLB Network.
• Padres left-hander Matt Strahm recently underwent successful surgery on his partially torn right patellar tendon, Robert Murray of Fansided reports. The 28-year-old Strahm logged a 2.61 ERA/4.93 FIP with a career-worst 6.53 K/9 against 1.74 BB/9 over 20 2/3 innings in 2020.
• John Baker looks like the front-runner to take over as the Pirates’ farm director, Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh-Post Gazette reports. The former major league catcher has been working in the Cubs’ front office since 2015.

3:47pm: Ricciardi is not a candidate, Fletcher tweets. Former Giants GM Bobby Evans has received an interview, though, and Mariners assistant GM Justin Hollander (formerly with the Angels) is also in the mix, according to Fletcher. Additionally, they’ve reached out to Eddie Bane, their former scouting director, to gauge his interest in the GM job, Robert Murray reports.

OCT. 29, 11:01pm; Former Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill, Nationals special assistant to the GM Dan Jennings and Cubs VP of player personnel Jason McLeod are also in the running, according to Kiley McDaniel of ESPN.

10:28pm: The Angels have moved slowly to find a new general since firing Billy Eppler at the end of September, but at least a few names have emerged for the job, per reports from Robert Murray, Jon Heyman of MLB Network, Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register, Maria Torres of the Los Angeles Times and Mike Puma of the New York Post.

According to the aforementioned group of reporters, Diamondbacks assistant general managers Jared Porter and Amiel Sawdaye, Athletics assistant Billy Owens and Padres senior advisor Logan White have all interviewed for the job in Anaheim. Giants special advisor J.P. Ricciardi, once the Blue Jays’ GM, is also in the running. The Angels also contacted Cubs vice president of scouting Dan Kantrovitz to gauge his interest in the position, but he’s not a candidate. Kantrovitz turned down the Angels’ overtures and will stay with the Cubs in 2021, Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic reports.

While both Porter and Sawdaye received new contracts with the Diamondbacks just over a year ago, perhaps they’re amenable to taking over another team’s baseball operations. Owens just finished his 19th season in the A’s front office, though he may be open to a change with executive VP Billy Beane possibly set to pursue other interests. And then there’s White, who previously worked for the Dodgers but has been with the Padres since before 2015.

Of course, anyone succeeding Eppler will be taking over a fairly appealing situation. The Angels have missed the postseason six times in a row, but they have the game’s best player, center fielder Mike Trout, as well as a great complement in third baseman Anthony Rendon. Infielder David Fletcher, two-way player Shohei Ohtani, young outfielder Jo Adell and starters Dylan Bundy and Andrew Heaney are also on hand. Plus, owner Arte Moreno has typically been willing to spend, so the budget shouldn’t be a hindrance for the club’s next GM.

• Trevor Bauer had more fun playing baseball with the Reds this season than in any of his prior professional campaigns, per the Athletic’s C. Trent Rosencrans. That bodes well for a return to Cincinnati for the free agent hurler, though the financial component will still have to be figured out by new head baseball decision-maker Nick Krall. Projecting free agent contracts has never been a murkier business than this season following widespread revenue loss around baseball. Bauer figures to be a rare free agent not to have his market diminished all that much, not after a Cy Young worthy campaign.
• The Angels will consider ex-Marlins executive Michael Hill to fill their General Manager vacancy, per MLB Network contributor Craig Mish (via Twitter). By all accounts, Hill’s departure from Miami stemmed from a salary disagreement, which would not be out of character for the cost conscious Marlins. Hill had been with the Marlins in one capacity or another since 2002. The Angels would represent a starkly different challenge for Hill, who has spent years managing slow-burn rebuilds in Miami. Whoever takes over baseball ops in Los Angeles will be pressured to get the team back to the playoffs as soon as possible, lest another year of Mike Trout’s prime pass by without postseason play.

• The Marlins are looking to hire a Team President that can complete their upper leadership group in the player ops department. That means augmenting and supplementing the work of Gary Denbo, their Director of Player Development and Scouting. Derek Jeter and Denbo are close, making it easy to presume that he could be a candidate to fill Michael Hill’s Team President role, but that’s not the case, per Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Jackson provides a quote from Jeter that shines some light on his thinking for the position, as Jeter said, “Gary has done a great job where he is right now. You look at how you build an organization; you have to have a great scouting department and a great player development department. Gary deserves a lot of credit for what we’ve been able to do to this point. Where he is right now is where he is most important.”
• The Cubs and Theo Epstein remain aligned on the current plan for Epstein to play out the last year of his contract before likely departing after 2021. Executive VP and General Manager Jed Hoyer does not share Theo’s exit strategy, however, and it seems right now as if he’ll stay on to fully take control of the Cubs’ baseball ops department after Theo departs, writes The Athletic’s Sahadev Sharma and Patrick Mooney. Hoyer has served as Theo’s partner in the front office for many years, but Theo still steers the ship, as was the case specifically with the Cubs’ rigorous approach to COVID-19 testing this year when they were the only team in the majors without a positive test. Hoyer will preserve a healthy dose of continuity when Theo leaves, but there will be change when the buck officially stops with him.