In the wake of Mike Hazen’s departure, the Red Sox are likely to hire a new general manager to work under president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, according to Alex Speier of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). Hazen’s successor could come from within, tweets USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, who reports that Red Sox senior vice president of baseball operations Frank Wren is in the lead to take over as GM. Another member of Boston’s front office, pro scouting director Gus Quattlebaum, is also a potential option, per Rob Bradford of WEEI (Twitter link).
The 58-year-old Wren has extensive experience as an executive, including runs as the GM in Baltimore and Atlanta. Both stints ended in firings for Wren, whose tenure atop the Braves (2007-14) was much longer than his reign with the Orioles (1998-99). In Wren’s seven seasons as the Braves’ GM, the club finished over .500 five times and earned three playoff berths. Shortstop Andrelton Simmons, closer Craig Kimbrel, catcher Evan Gattis and left-hander Alex Wood were among the players the Braves drafted under Wren, who later inked Simmons, Kimbrel, first baseman Freddie Freeman and starter Julio Teheran to extensions that have worked out well (of that group, only Freeman and Teheran remain in Atlanta).
Wren’s time as the Braves’ boss certainly had blemishes, including allocating significant money to outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. (five years, $75.25MM), second baseman Dan Uggla (five years, $62MM) and third baseman Chris Johnson (three years, $23MM). Their inability to live up to those deals contributed to Wren’s firing. In 2014, Wren’s final season in Atlanta, the offensively challenged Braves stumbled to a 27-40 second half after going 52-43 before the All-Star break.
While his resume is imperfect, Wren has experience and a long-standing relationship with Dombrowski working in his favor. Wren was previously with Dombrowski in two other cities – Montreal and Miami – and is now Dombrowski’s “right-hand man,” as Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe wrote in July.
Whether it’s Wren, Quattlebaum or another candidate, it seems Boston’s next GM will have a difficult act to follow. Hazen’s exit to Arizona makes this a “sad day” for the Red Sox because of both his contributions to the organization and his likability, a source told Evan Drellich of the Boston Herald (Twitter link). Moreover, Peter Gammons spoke with a high-ranking Red Sox official who favorably compared Hazen to former Boston GM and current Cubs president of baseball operations Theo Epstein (via Twitter).
LOL have fun with that.
Understand something, he won’t be making any decision. He’s a figurehead at best.
you really don’t appreciate how important the GM position is even when a team has a PBO. the GM is still largely in charge of day-to-day operations for the major league team and has a lot of weight in inter-office decision making
if the position was just a ‘figurehead’ one, the position wouldn’t exist. Teams these days have no problem hiring ‘advisors’ and ‘special assistants’ by the dozen if they just want a famous name hanging around the office.
If this was the case then why is there ever a need to higher a new gm?
Sadly he will have to wait a year before reuniting with Melvin Upton. But maybe he could sign someone like Ryan Howard to a five year deal
Implying that anyone other than Dave Dombrowski makes the decisions in Boston
That was definitely MLB generated, Mike will do well in Az, but finger it twisted, Dave made the decisions, even if Wren takes the GM role
Should read, Don’t get it twisted
Hazen probably couldn’t wait to get out of Boston, Dombrowski always had the final say. It would be pretty hard to screw this team up with the talent on this team. The only thing you wonder about is how did this team fall short in the playoffs similar to what happened to Dombrowski teams in Detroit.
Don’t like this, it’s as if all the ppl from early on in the henry/Epstein/Cherrington etc days that came in and did such a good job are no longer staying and ppl coming on that are veterans. Nothing wrong with Dombrowski, but Wren is NOT in the mold of anything modern Red Sox oriented and could be a disaster with his habits.
Would have liked to seen some of the other ex Sox personnel come back than him who were under Epstein’s wing earlier and are familiar with how the Red sox operate.
The Boston front office is suddenly looking a lot older greyer. I’m not sure that’s a good thing.
Hazen was a guy who was “blocked” in a role he wanted
Wren is a guy who’s probably perfectly fine not having that role
Wren-Tin Tin back with the only guy who could keep him from making idiotic moves – Drombowski. As a GM he’s a great figurehead, whipping boy to deflect criticism from Drombowski without having any real impact on the team as long as he keeps his mouth shut.
I wouldn’t let Wren manage anything and for the good of the Red Sox I hope DD doesn;t either
As long as Wren only gets to make trades Boston will be fine. However DD needs to make the calls on FA signings, Wren sucks at that-see Upton,KK,Lowe and his long extensions of Uggla and Johnson.
Good luck Boston lol.
The way other teams are snatching away off field personnel from the Red Sox, if I were a hot dog vendor at Fenway I’d be waiting by the phone for a huge payday.
BJ Upton to replace Ortiz as DH no matter what assets it takes to make it happen.
Nah, it’ll be Frenchy.
Whatever happened to Dan Uggla? Does she still in professional baseball?
All Epsteins guys are being forced out!
I have no problem with Chicago (Theo) or Cleveland (Tito) winning it all.
I vote Tito…The ultimate screw you for the way he was treated on his way out of Boston
I think Frank Wren did more good than bad with the Braves. His major blemish was BJ Upton, and BJ has bounced back since he left Atlanta.