The Red Sox on Wednesday announced a trio of front office promotions, beginning with the promotion of former big league right-hander Brian Bannister to a newly created position: director of pitching analysis and development. He had previously been serving as a pro scout for the Sox. Additionally, amateur scout Chris Mears was bumped to pitching cross-checker, and Gus Quattlebaum was moved up from assistant director of professional/international scouting to director of pro scouting. Quattlebaum will replace former pro scouting director Jared Porter, who reportedly took a job with the Cubs late last month in the wake of Ben Cherington’s resignation.
More front office chatter from around the league…
- D-Backs senior vice president De Jon Watson and Red Sox assistant general manager Mike Hazen have surfaced as candidates for the GM vacancy in Boston, reports Jon Heyman of CBS Sports. Brewers VP of amateur scouting Ray Montgomery’s name has also come up in connection to the Sox, Heyman adds. As Heyman notes, Watson has previously worked under Dave Dombrowski with the Marlins. Frank Wren’s name is still very much in play as well, Heyman hears, but there’s no clear-cut favorite at this point.
- The Brewers have received permission from the Athletics to interview assistant general manager Dan Kantrovitz, per Ken Rosenthal and Jon Morosi of FOX Sports (Twitter link). Kantrovitz is in his second stint with the Athletics and served as the Cardinals scouting director in the interim. Those interested in learning more about Kantrovitz will want to check out his interview with Fangraphs’ David Laurila from last October.
- Rosenthal also reports (Twitter link) that the Brewers are expected to request an interview with Rays vice president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom. Tampa Bay promoted Bloom from director of baseball ops to VP of baseball ops last offseason after Andrew Friedman joined the Dodgers organization. A graduate of Yale, Bloom has a background in player development, contract negotiation and international scouting.
some solid non-wren names there for boston
Well for those who say Dombrowski is going to clean house and install his own guys this would suggest the complete opposite, promoting 3 of Ben’s guys.
Honestly, how can he not admire the work that front office has done with regards to it’s farm system and young core?
Nothing against Hazen personally (since I know nothing about him), but Theo has some bad moves in the latter half of his Sox tenure and Cherington, his apprentice, was only good when he got lucky, so why stick to that chain of people?
Well you could always hope they learn from history. Theo and Ben’s best moves for the Sox weren’t their big free agent signings but their more subtle moves.
That and pretty much any GM under Dombrowski will probably be more of a yes-man than anything else.
Not sure why Dombrowski doesn’t just take the GM chair himself? Afterall, he will be making most of the moves and decisions himself.. The future Sox GM will have less power than Dipoto had with the Angels.. Perhaps someone like Wren wouldn’t be such a bad choice since he will pretty much just be doing Dombrowski’s bidding.. The damage he can do should be minimalized..
Why do all the work yourself when you can hire someone to help you do it. Dombrowski still will call the shots, but he won’t be responsible for everything.