OCT. 25: The Diamondbacks have announced the hiring of Sawdaye and confirmed that his title will be senior vice president/assistant general manager.
OCT. 24: The Diamondbacks will hire another Red Sox executive as they continue to fill out a new-look front office, according to several reports. Amiel Sawdaye will join the Arizona organization as senior VP and assistant general manager, joining new GM Mike Hazen in making the move from Boston.
Sawdaye had been under consideration for an assistant GM role in Boston, too, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (via Twitter). He had served as the Red Sox’ VP of international and amateur scouting, which was essentially the same role Hazen held before he moved up to AGM and, eventually, GM. Before that, Sawdaye was Boston’s director of amateur scouting, overseeing the team’s drafts from 2010 through 2015.
There won’t be any compensation between the teams for either of the executive transfers. While Hazen technically stayed in the same title, his new role came with a significant increase in responsibility, and Sawdaye’s new job seems clearly to represent a promotion.
It’s not clear at this time what additional plans Hazen may have for building out his front office team, but no further Boston execs are expected to go west, per Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald (via Twitter). Hazen is rumored to be interested in speaking with Red Sox bench coach Torey Lovullo, but Drellich tweets that the D-Backs still haven’t asked for permission to speak with him — preferring to await Sawdaye’s decision first. Presumably, that’ll change soon. In other D-Backs’ front office news, via Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic, the club has parted ways with Ed Lewis, a former veterinarian and long-time acquaintance of executive Tony La Russa who somewhat improbably ran the team’s fledgling analytics department.
Given that the Red Sox were considering Sawdaye only for an assistant GM role, it seems all the more clear that the team likely won’t hire a GM to serve under president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. Instead, perhaps, multiple front office members will receive AGM tags — or, at least, will take on the various responsibilities that typically fall under that general role.
Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald tweeted that the move was expected to occur after Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe reported earlier tonight it was a strong possibility. Nick Piecoro of the Arizona Republic confirmed that Sawdaye would indeed be hired on Twitter.
Great hire. Hopefully good times are coming soon in the desert after the way the old FO ruined them
How much longer before every executive in baseball has served under Theo Epstein at one point?
Hazen, Hoyer, McLeod, Dipota, Byrnes, Sawdaye, Cherington, Rehman, Shipley, Dorey, ect., ect.
If the Cubs win the WS this year? All of them 🙂
Hold up, I never knew this and perhaps I lived under a rock during last years hires.
A former Vet and long time buddy of LaRussa’s got the head of analytics? How doesn’t ownership step in there? That’s worse than Frank Wren I believe, hiring his brother on as a scout when he had little to no scouting expertise. I’m one of the fans that thinks ownership shouldn’t be in too far but yeesh. That explains so much.
That’s awful. They must’ve had a list of names on a dart board and that’s how they picked who got which job.
Frank Wren worked as a scout for almost 20 years.
I guess we know what La Russa thinks of analytics now.
Boston’s letting a lot of the front office just walk, some good personnel too. Cherington and Hazen led the charge.
In my opinion and it’s only that Sawdaye made the correct decision. If he took the job in Boston yes he would have a nice title but absolutely no authority to make any real decisions that rest with Dombrowski and no one else. He doesn’t have the fancy title with the Diamondbacks but what decisions he makes and authority he will have are all his. Plus he’s working with someone who is familiar with him and he is familiar with and that’s pretty important in my book.