Red Sox Progressing In GM Search, Will Interview Astros’ Quinton McCracken

It’s been more than a month since Dave Dombrowski was appointed president of baseball operations for the Red Sox, prompting Ben Cherington to step down from his post as the general manager. To this point, a number of names as GM replacements have been bandied about, including former Major League GMs Frank Wren and Dan O’Dowd as well as current assistant GM Mike Hazen, current adviser Jerry Dipoto, D-Backs vice president De Jon Watson and Yankees AGM Billy Eppler. Obviously, those figure to be just some of the many names the Sox will consider to work under Dombrowski. Here’s the latest on Boston’s search…

• The Red Sox have begun the hiring process, reports Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports, and one of their first interviews will go to Astros director of player development Quinton McCracken (Twitter link). McCracken, if hired, would be the second well-regarded executive picked from the Houston front office, as the Astros have already lost AGM David Stearns, who was officially named general manager of the Brewers just one hour ago. The 45-year-old McCracken has a 12-year playing career under his belt in addition to six years working in the player development departments for the Diamondbacks and Astros.