Who will be CBO?

[Sea Dog 23]

New names this week for a GM and an OPS officer.  First Craig Breslow of the Cubs, scribes are unsure if he would be a GM or the OPS guy.  With the Cubs he is an exec with a specialty of GM of their pitching.  Limited experience as far as hiring and firing if any, and he lives in Newton, Mass and works with the Cubs mostly on Zoom.

Today Alex Speier says that Gabe Kapler has interviewed for the OPS position this week.  Manager of the Phils and Giants.  Before that Kapler was director of the Dodgers farm for three years, 2014-2017.  Certainly Kapler has a little more experience that Breslow, but maybe not what Sox wanted when they fired Bloom and started this search.

Two sources say that Kim Ng has never been under consideration by the Sox.  At the end of the day, I guess they could promote Eddie Romero to take care of the business side of the GM and Kapler/Breslow to do the analytics and player interaction for the club.

[MongoLikeSox]

New names this week for a GM and an OPS officer.  First Craig Breslow of the Cubs, scribes are unsure if he would be a GM or the OPS guy.  With the Cubs he is an exec with a specialty of GM of their pitching.  Limited experience as far as hiring and firing if any, and he lives in Newton, Mass and works with the Cubs mostly on Zoom.

Today Alex Speier says that Gabe Kapler has interviewed for the OPS position this week.  Manager of the Phils and Giants.  Before that Kapler was director of the Dodgers farm for three years, 2014-2017.  Certainly Kapler has a little more experience that Breslow, but maybe not what Sox wanted when they fired Bloom and started this search.

Two sources say that Kim Ng has never been under consideration by the Sox.  At the end of the day, I guess they could promote Eddie Romero to take care of the business side of the GM and Kapler/Breslow to do the analytics and player interaction for the club.

I swear, with every post you put up with the distressing amount of candidates falling off, I would rather see a put up or shut up challenge to the in-house crew with an in-house hire. Something has to give at some point. 

[Sea Dog 23]

New names this week for a GM and an OPS officer.  First Craig Breslow of the Cubs, scribes are unsure if he would be a GM or the OPS guy.  With the Cubs he is an exec with a specialty of GM of their pitching.  Limited experience as far as hiring and firing if any, and he lives in Newton, Mass and works with the Cubs mostly on Zoom.

Today Alex Speier says that Gabe Kapler has interviewed for the OPS position this week.  Manager of the Phils and Giants.  Before that Kapler was director of the Dodgers farm for three years, 2014-2017.  Certainly Kapler has a little more experience that Breslow, but maybe not what Sox wanted when they fired Bloom and started this search.

Two sources say that Kim Ng has never been under consideration by the Sox.  At the end of the day, I guess they could promote Eddie Romero to take care of the business side of the GM and Kapler/Breslow to do the analytics and player interaction for the club.

I swear, with every post you put up with the distressing amount of candidates falling off, I would rather see a put up or shut up challenge to the in-house crew with an in-house hire. Something has to give at some point.

Mongo, several writers said they're done with the first round of interviews.  The follow up interviews start next week.  The two guys above, I think, are still on the list, as well as Thad Levine (Rangers, Twins).  They could talk to the in-house guys again, Romero, Groopman, Taboni.  I don't know if the Pirates/Guardians guy is still in play (Bearington?).   I think they are looking to fill two slots to the FO.

I guess Levine would be a grade C- hire with his experience.  A comical thing about Levine, on his Wikipedia page, the first or second thing in his early background --- Levine was born in Alexandria, Virginia. He played youth soccer with Paul DePodesta."  It is what it is.
One thing I've read seems to indicate they bad-mouthed Bloom post-firing, from Cora to Kennedy.  I'm sure a lot of baseball people took note of that, including the two or three candidates who knew Bloom well.

[elktonnick]

I think the Red Sox Front Office's classless behavior towards ex employees is catching up with them.  I also think that Dombrowski's success in Philadelphia reinforces the point that it isn't them its the Red Sox ownership and Front Office that's the FUBAR.

[MongoLikeSox]

I think the Red Sox Front Office's classless behavior towards ex employees is catching up with them.  I also think that Dombrowski's success in Philadelphia reinforces the point that it isn't them its the Red Sox ownership and Front Office that's the FUBAR.

There are enough ex-Sox front office Management types people out in the wild to start their own division. Arizona, Washington, NY Mets, Chicago Cubs, Philly and Pittsburgh after a quick count. I don't know what that says about us. I know how FSG and Kennedy would spin it. pfffttt

[longgame]

I think the Red Sox Front Office's classless behavior towards ex employees is catching up with them.  I also think that Dombrowski's success in Philadelphia reinforces the point that it isn't them its the Red Sox ownership and Front Office that's the FUBAR.

There are enough ex-Sox front office Management types people out in the wild to start their own division. Arizona, Washington, NY Mets, Chicago Cubs, Philly and Pittsburgh after a quick count. I don't know what that says about us. I know how FSG and Kennedy would spin it. pfffttt

It seems like people who leave do better when they are elsewhere too.

The clock is ticking on the Sox with the WS starting this week.  If it goes 7 the last game is on November 4 so the Sox have about 3 weeks to get someone on board.

[Sea Dog 23]

Myself, I think it's down to two for the OPS job at Boston.  Thad Levine would be the safe hire, as he is the most experienced candidate available.  However he is the #2 man for Twins, he is not the one who went out and signed Correa or solidified Buxton.  But safe isn't what Boston needs.  They should go for a bolder move, much less experience, but more upside if they pick Breslow. 

Breslow is in the Theo Epstein tree.  Theo hired him at Chicago only four years ago.  A Minneapolis writer described him as the 'smartest man in baseball.'  A Yale grad, New England native, he has a degree in molecular biophysics of all things.  Certainly still wet behind the ears, but the guy understands pitching, which is the heartbeat of baseball these days.  And again, a really smart guy.  Yogi said, 90% of baseball is mental, the other half is physical ! It would be cool for Breslow to take the GM slot and work under Levine, but that is sort of a lateral move, and he wants the top spot, period.

Cut to the chase, the Sox have put themselves in a terrible spot with only a handful of applicants who show only a parting interest in FSG.  Breslow would be an up and coming new exec the way I see it, with what little they have to work with.  It would be cool for Breslow to take the GM slot and work under Levine, but that is sort of a lateral move, and he wants the top spot.

[SeaBeachFred]

On a lesser note for sure, I'm beginning to compare the futility of Boston's search for a competent head of Baseball Operations to the Republican's bungling of trying to elect a speaker.  Having said that, on this board Red Sox concerns take a front seat and we see how Prune Face's dangling the dummies behind the curtain has led once again  to a possibility of another rotten season in 2024. For Pete's sake Henry , sign a top notch baseball man this time and soon and stop screwing around with the well being of our team.  We should have done more by now with the WS soon about to be begin that dancing in place.  Bade enough we had to endure the bungling Bloom for the better part of four and a half seasons; we need to turn the corner and become relevant again instead of the plethora of ignoramouses we've become.

[MongoLikeSox]

The clock is ticking on the Sox with the WS starting this week.  If it goes 7 the last game is on November 4 so the Sox have about 3 weeks to get someone on board.

Indeed! The early off season dates for certain things are below. 

• Teams can talk to Free Agents 1 day after the World Series.
• All teams can sign Free Agents 5 days after the World Series.
• Most team & player options are decided 3-5 days after the world series. (Sox have Kluber and Joely options, and a dual option sort of thing for Turner.)
• Not much goes on, but the trade market starts 1 day after the WS.
• Qualifying Offers have to be made no later than 5 days after the WS. (I don't think the Sox have any QO's to make this year.)

Non-Tenders must be made by November 17th.[/li]
[/list]
We also have the protected rosters deadline sometime by the end of November for the Rule-5 draft.
The 'Sox could be behind the 8-ball for 2024 season from the very beginning if they don't act soon. To miss out only because we wanna be anal and/or analytic about it seems assinine to me.

[Sea Dog 23]

According to Speier in the Globe, Thad Levine was not invited to this weeks talks.  Breslow is "widely believed" to be among those in Round 2 of talks.  (The parsing of words still goes on)

Some conclusions from other sources also leave Huntington, Kapler, Romero, Taboni and Groopman still under scrutiny.  Still thinking they are looking at filling two slots.

[elktonnick]

None of the names mentioned are impressive.  This will be a status quo hire.

[markj]

Looks like it'll be Breslow.

The Red Sox have a new leader of baseball operations.

According to multiple industry sources, the team offered the job to Cubs assistant GM and former Red Sox pitcher Craig Breslow. He has accepted the offer and will succeed Chaim Bloom as the next Red Sox head of baseball operations.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/10/24/sports/sources-red-sox-believed-have-offered-craig-breslow-job-head-baseball-operations/

(Right click on the link and choose Save Link As. Let it download and then read it.)

[elktonnick]

Breslow another Yale grad.  I can't say I am surprised, if true.

[Sea Dog 23]

Breslow another Yale grad.  I can't say I am surprised, if true.

So Yale Philosophy or Yale microbiology.  Which translates to a career in baseball?  I'm not really sure.  But one thing sticks out, Breslow was a player, just five years ago. 

Funny thing about Breslow, he attended the Winter festival at Springfield last year when Henry was booed by the fans.  I guess anybody else would have turned and run, but he was bold enough to decide to join the Sox, for whatever reason.  Maybe cause his family lives only 20 miles from Fenway.

[longgame]

A Jewish guy with the initials CB who went to Yale?  Wait, didn't we just live through that? 

I like the idea of a former player in this role and we all know Breslow is smart.  It will be interesting to see where the "Chief" will fall in the hierarchy of decision making.

I'm quite happy they came to a decision rather quickly.  I was worried they'd drag this thing out and we'd be behind once again.