After firing chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom last month, the Red Sox are in the midst of a search for their next baseball operations leader. Team president Sam Kennedy recently spoke to MassLive.com’s Sean McAdam regarding the club’s preferences in their search, and made clear that the club is open to a hire who doesn’t have experience as the top decision maker in a front office.
Kennedy referred to past experience in a front office leadership role as “definitely not a requirement” before referencing GMs from around the league who had success in their first job as a top front office executive, including Yankees GM Brian Cashman and former Red Sox and Cubs executive Theo Epstein.
McAdam goes on to reference Phillies GM Sam Fuld, Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes, and Red Sox assistant GM Eddie Romero as candidates the Red Sox have interest in who have never led a baseball operations department before, though he also notes more experienced candidates the club has been linked to such as Marlins GM Kim Ng (whose contract is up in Miami) and former Astros GM James Click, who currently serves as vice president of baseball strategy for the Blue Jays. The Red Sox had also been previously reported to have interest in Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen, though the possibility of Hazen departing Arizona was squashed by his recent extension with the club. Referencing the potential of a job with the Red Sox following his extension, Hazen acknowledged his ties to Boston before emphasizing that he wasn’t ready to leave Arizona.
Aside from the club’s ongoing GM search, McAdam pushes back against a recent report from the New York Post’s Jon Heyman, which characterizes Boston as “a real threat” to sign two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani this offseason. Despite that, McAdam reports that Ohtani was “not at all a focus” of Boston’s early meetings regarding their offseason plans, and that principal owner John Henry is against the sort of long-term megadeal it would surely require to lure Ohtani to the Red Sox.
To McAdam’s point, prior to the club’s $331MM extension with third baseman Rafael Devers, the club had signed a contract that surpasses $200MM just once by signing left-hander David Price to a seven-year, $217MM pact. With the Devers deal freshly on the books on top of existing deals for shortstop Trevor Story and left-hander Chris Sale, it’s difficult to imagine the Red Sox offering the massive contract it would likely require to land Ohtani.
I don’t see Ohtani coming to Boston because i don’t see Henry giving out more than what they signed Devers for. Add that to the fact that his future as a Pitcher is in doubt and the Sox may be better served not digging that hole
So then where did Heyman get this from? He’d better check his sources.
probably the same people that told him Judge was signing in San Fran
@the coop
Heyman’s mother has a goldfish bowl that doubles as a crystal ball…
Yeah Henry, I bet you’re against any more ridiculous long-term commitments. You gave $331M to DEVERS the Boston Butcher! LMAO. I’d be gun-shy after that as well. He’s shown he’s not that savvy with decision-making, he just happens to have a lot of money. Actually, a lot of the owners in MLB are in the same intellectual vein.
yeah better to keep hunting in the bargain bins because it has worked so well these past 4 seasons
Seems like a planted article to take the focus off the Patriots and their disastrous season.
Yeahhhh no
If you give those types of contracts to players that come to play everyday and who play for the name on the front of the jersey instead of the name on the back, you don’t have to worry about that kind of stuff. Maybe Devers is a great guy, but he sure doesn’t act like he comes to play everyday.
Ohtani isn’t going to Boston anymore than I am. Actually I probably have a better chance.
Can you pitch???
He’ll need to be able to find Boston on a map first 🙂
I could probably gibe them a good inning or two.
That’s more than Ohtani can do right now.
Highest number of championships in this millennium and they might get Ohtani???
That’s a few more rings coming to Boston.
Good times ahead,
I’d like some of whatever you’ve had today
A 2.5 mile walk, a shake, Farmers Market, drive to Pennsylvania, visit mother in law, another 1.5
mile walk, and now getting some tasty chicken biryani.
A pretty good Sunday.
hayzee – Did you do your shake while listening to Taylor Swift’s “Shake it off”?
Probably more like that milkshake song… but he doesn’t want to bring all the boys to the yaaad, just ohtani.
They better decide if they want a company sock puppet or an experienced GM in the next week or two, because they are going to get beaten to the punch on a thin market pretty soon for bats, a super competitive market for pitching, and they need every edge they can get just to be a 4th place team next year.
Pushing mayer to double A was a really poor choice by Boston management. There’s nothing he’s done to make him a must keep prospect yet his trade value was as high as anyone in minors prior to that promotion. there was nothing to gain, yet cost themselves millions in prospect value by rushing him.
Royce Lewis had same trajectory as mayer. His value was sky high and he could have headlined for any player on the trade market then they rushed him to AA, then injuries, and then twins had no option but to ride him out due to his prospect value plummeting.
Yes, after four disastrous years of an inexperienced PoBO, the brilliant move would be to take a much worse chance and hire another one. If that happens I’m putting my money on 2030 being the earliest the Sox are competitive again.
Please hire David Forst.
Sincerely,
Every single A’s fan
This whole article is an oxymoron. Much ado about nothing
Grn – What irritates me about Kennedy’s comments is he brought up past rookies like Theo, totally disingenuous considering Lucky and a bunch of highly experienced former head of baseball ops surrounded Theo and guided him. There is no experienced ops people in the current front office to guide a rookie POBO.
Fever – 100% agree. bloom was their top pick four years ago and what they’re going to go after their second pick from that last search?
grn – Hope I’m wrong, but my Top Two choices – Click and Ng – are probably being used by Henry for nothing more than show. As Pedro said, there needs to be an entire change in culture … that can’t happen if Henry sticks with all internal choices.
And BTW what happened last week, when Cora said the braintrust would be meeting to discuss the future of each coach? Does the silence mean they are all coming back? Good grief, that would be a huge mistake.
Fever – the Red Sox organization is famous for putting on a show so I don’t doubt that that’s what Henry is doing. How many times over the last four years did we hear from bloom, “we were in on (insert big FA name here)?” All window dressing.
Does there really need to be a meeting to decide on coaching? Did they not see the atrocious defensive, all the strikeouts and lack of getting the most out of pitchers ie. Brasier, Perez, etc. who left and immediately turned around their performances? They need to clean house top to bottom starting with the Cheater-in-Chief himself.
grnmt – I was gonna write the exact same thing, all the reports about Bloom acquiring big names …. yeah, if the price dropped down to bargain basement, which it never did.
And let’s not forget all the horrendous baserunning blunders, the games that were lost on ridiculous mistakes by Febles.
Hire a baseball mind with baseball experience – citing rare exceptions to a hard-learned rule is meaningless.
Sox need bang for the buck, which never seems to be what happens very often with free agents of high dollar.
badco44 — You mean like Seager or Semien in Texas? If you have an excellent GM, big contracts should NOT be a fear. It’s the owners profits that shrink if you are wrong but if you are right, the fan base is in heaven.
With the right guy, it’s low risk and high reward. With the wrong guy it’s what we just spent 4 years enduring.
Eovaldi was brilliant! I really hope it’s a Rangers/Twins ALCS.
“With the Devers deal freshly on the books on top of existing deals for shortstop Trevor Story and left-hander Chris Sale, it’s difficult to imagine the Red Sox offering the massive contract it would likely require to land Ohtani.”
Story only makes $23.3m/yr & Sale is going into his last year of his deal (though there’s a $20m club option). I think the Boston Red Sox have plenty of cash on hand to give Ohtani a deal.
With that said, Ohtani might not be the best use of resources for them as they really need pitching more than anything & he won’t even pitch until 2025.
littlerivers 2 – The Sale contract is up at the end of 2024. His contract is meaningless to the future. The Story deal was very Bloom-like because we didn’t need a SS. The Yoshida deal was very Bloom-like because we didn’t need a DH. The Devers deal was very Bloom-like because again we didn’t need a DH making 20% above market
Bottomline, Boston has $90MM under the cap to get 2 SPs and a 3B. They have excess baggage in that they have Yoshida and Devers as DHs so pick one and trade the other and increase the money available above $90MM. If you can trade either of the two DHs for a 3B, then you can sign both Ohtani and the second most expensive SP available and still have money to fill in the minor holes at 2B and left handed set-up man.
Ohtani is an incredible fit to all teams. He’s got the greatest skills we’ve ever seen in a baseball player. If the owners didn’t provide such a toxic environment it would be great to get Ohtani but I can’t see that happening. He chose Trout as the best player in baseball when he picked LAA. Now, he may want to play in LAD to play with Mookie and Freeman. DD surely can find room for him in Philly so he could play with Harper and Trea Turner. I doubt Judge and Cole are a big enough attraction for him but NYY have the money to get him even with the albatross contract to Stanton. Who else boasts a top player in baseball? ATL has Acuna but I don’t think they would spend the money so that leaves TEX where they have the money and the GM to pull it off if Ohtani wants to play with Seager, Semien, deGrom and Scherzer. Texas and Philly have the most complimentary talent but LAD and NYY have the curb appeal of big bucks and over-inflated fame tied to them. NY gives you an automatic route to the HOF and LAD gives you celebrity beyond belief.
It should be fun to see where he goes but don’t count out Boston for money, count them out for their culture. It’s still toxic and that’s why the new GM needs to come in, fire Cora and turn the internal culture to one fans can be proud of again.
Well said, Troll. Good stuff.
Let all the other big payroll teams fight for Ohtani, I’d rather the Sox get the consolation prize … Yamamoto.
BTW – There’s a 2025 option on Sale’s contract that could vest next year.
Fever – The 2025 option is a club option at $20MM. If he pitched well in 2024 I expect them to exercise it but if he’s hurt or ineffective he won’t be extended by the Red Sox. 2024 is very likely to be Sale’s last year with Boston but trading Sale with the $20MM option for 2025 becomes a possibility if the “good” Sale returns at the start of the 2024 season.
Two top pitchers are needed even if we keep Sale. Yamamoto is as qualified as any. There are only a handful of pitchers that are elite so we need to aim high on both spots.
Fun Fact – I was looking at Devers’ stats and I found out he’s been up 6 full seasons and part of a 7th. His 6 times leading all third basemen in errors ranks tied for first with Herb Souell a Kansas City Monarch back in the 40s!!
So for all those saying Devers IS NOT THAT BAD. The facts refute your statement. He is officially the worse of all time by leading all of baseball at errors for 6 years running.
Now I know there will be some out there that think a bit more practice and he could get better but that’s not going to happen. He will continue to hurt the pitching staff at the highest rate in the history of the game until he gets moved to DH or is given the chance to hurt a different pitching staff.
If Ohtani comes to Boston both Devers and Yoshida would need to be gone. Their payroll number is a tad over $47MM. I’d take Ohtani straight up for those two from a payroll and skill standpoint.
The new GM really needs to clear out the trash contracts made by Bloom!!!
Dear Red Sox Fans & Media:
No, Mike Hazen was never a candidate for the Red Sox job.
Ditto for Theo, Dave Dombrowski, Ben Cherrington and more.
An experienced, successful Pres of Baseball Ops or GM who has built his own success with another team(s) will not put up with the micro managing and constant interference of RS Owner John Henry and his “eyes and ears” around the Fenway Park Front Office Sam Kennedy.
Both those guys are not “baseball guys”.
Henry the Owner who has put his money on the line, but should not be micromanaging baseball decisions (like Arte Moreno).
Ditto with Sam Kennedy who is more of a guy on the Operations Management, business side of things and not really a baseball guy who assembles and builds winning teams.
And there lies the Red Sox problem(s).
Guys making final baseball team and roster decisions who don’t understand how to build a winning team and roster and over ruling the experienced baseball guys.
Sports – Before I read your post, I was gonna say Hazen agreed to the extension probably because he wanted no part of becoming the Sox POBO.
I mean it would have been a promotion AND he already has family in Boston. For him to still turn down an interview with the Sox says something, not a good reflection on John Henry.
Let Ed Romero run the show in the interim. Heck put him in the job and see where it goes.
Bobby – This guy is part of the problem not part of the solution. Lets put a real baseball guy in the GM role not some wanna be like Cora who has no background for the job. This guy doesn’t have the brains or the background to be a good GM. If Boston wasn’t trying so hard to build a pipeline to Latin America he wouldn’t have a front office job. He’s a perfect example of a person who gets to a job because of who he knows rather than what he knows.
Romero is a HUGE … NO!!!!!!!!!
Why would Ohtani want to go to a non competitive team like the RedSox?
Sam Fuld?!
Are you kidding me?!
Who is making ALL THE MAJOR BASEBALL DECISIONS IN PHILADELPHIA?!
1000% sure is is not Sam Fuld!
Phillies decisions are made by Dave Dombrowski.
Remember him?!
Sam Fuld was hired by Dave Dombrowski to train under Dave Dombrowski.
If Red Sox called, then I would love to be a fly on the wall when Fuld
asked Dombrowski about working for John Henry, Sam Kennedy and the Red Sox
Front Office LMFAO!
Fuld is a big boy, and I am sure he can make his own decisions. Why would anyone turn down that kind of pay increase for a job that only has 30 openings when it is why you are in that business! LMFAO at your comment!
JC – We can tell you are young by your naive comments. As you grow up you’ll find that money is not everything when it comes to a job/career. Working in a toxic environment just one time makes you realize what your priorities are in life. Fuld would be a fool to step into the Red Sox job without laying down the law like DD did. He told ownership the past mistakes were on them and he was going to spend under the CAP to put an outstanding team on the field. He delivered and Boston won a ring and might have had another in 2017 had Houston not cheated. We’ll never know.
Also, had DD been kept who knows how many more division titles we might have had or how many other rings we might have had. When the CAP went up $30MM those dollars would have been spent far more effectively by DD than Bloom. 2022, even with a not so Sale Sale could still have been a division championship with the right adds to the core group from 2018.
The entire site is LTFAO at your naive comment. SportsFanooooo was right.
I’m not laughing at it … because I have JC muted. Hahahahaha!
TROLL i 1000% disagree with you. Challenging owners/bosses are everywhere in life you work with them or you dont work for them..seems to me DD was no longer working with the red sox ownership one way or another.mlb gm/head of ops are a select group of 30 jobs if you get offered one and turn it down do you really think you will get another offer? Im sure the list of those being offered one of those jobs turning it down then being offered another is very small…that would be pretty arrogant on the part of sam fuld..also. dont forget he interviewed for the manager role already well after DD was let go..so really what changed?
Pool – I’m guessing you must have experienced something similar at some point in your career to go to 1000%.
30 jobs in the industry makes it sound like a small industry but you’ve seen the hundreds of senior positions in the Red Sox organization so multiple that by 30 and you have what the entire industry offers.
Timing is such a big part of life that saying no when the time is wrong and saying yes when it’s right IS AN ACCEPTABLE BEHAVIOR. If the snubbed party wants to bad mouth you there isn’t much you can do about it but in a small industry like baseball, the quality front office people stand=out just like the quality players.
A FAVOR rejected could impact you as suggested but if you are really good at what you do, your value will be maintained even if you say no to an organization or two. Family issues, health issues for you or your family and so many other reasons an excellent exec might turn down a job isn’t going to make you a persona non grata to the entire industry.
If it did happen to you or someone you know I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve turned down jobs in my career for many reasons. Maybe it limited me but I don’t regret any of the choices because they wouldn’t have been good for me or my family.
Timing is such a big part of life. Sometimes the luck of the timing creates a fortunate situation and sometimes it creates a regretful situation but you can’t control it you can only contain it.