Sad News: He Is Back…………

After accepting an offer to manage the storied franchise at Fenway Park, Chicago Cubs executive Craig Breslow is heading back to the Boston Red Sox as their top baseball official, according to people briefed on the hiring process on Tuesday night.

Breslow was the Cubs’ senior vice president of pitching and assistant general manager prior to this. The 43-year-old former pitcher gave the Cubs’ pitching development new life, which is something the Red Sox had been lacking for years. He also helped the Red Sox win the 2013 World Series.

Following Chaim Bloom’s dismissal on September 14, Boston conducted a search that resulted in the interviews of eight individuals both inside and outside the company. Last week, Breslow emerged as the front-runner. Although Mike Groopman, Eddie Romero, and Raquel Ferreira are still assistant general managers for the Red Sox, it is currently unknown if Breslow will have a second-in-command. Romero was reportedly one of the finalists for the top position, where Groopman and Romero had conducted interviews. Breslow’s job offer was first revealed by The Boston Globe.

Breslow would also take over from Alex Cora as manager, who has a year remaining on his present deal and whose job security is publicly guaranteed through 2024.

Cora’s teammate on the 2006 Red Sox was Breslow, who played for the team in 2006 as well as again from 2012 to 2015.

The Red Sox ownership has a recent history of giving short leashes to people who accept the top job in Boston. None of the three former baseball operations chiefs—Ben Cherington, Dave Dombrowski, or Bloom—were retained for more than four seasons before being let go. The Red Sox contacted a number of candidates, but some of them declined to interview at all, so that disclaimer began to cast a shadow on the interview process. Breslow will have to deal with this reality after taking the top position.

However, Breslow also meets very specific needs that the Red Sox have. For the previous ten years, the Red Sox have struggled to produce starting pitchers from scratch. Despite the fact that Bloom strengthened the Red Sox farm system and elevated it from a bottom five to a top five system after his hiring in 2019, the industry felt that pitching depth was still lacking in the farm system. It appears like the Red Sox are ready to alter that by pursuing Breslow.

Although Bloom improved the farm system, the big league team struggled for the most of his four years in charge, with trips to the American League Championship Series in 2021 interspersed with three last-place finishes.

Breslow would be expected to lead the Red Sox to their previous heights in the AL East in addition to continuing to improve the team’s minor league system.

Breslow is unquestionably a quick learner. Despite his lack of experience managing a complete baseball operations department, his diverse duties with the Cubs allowed him to maintain connections with the farm system, draft room, manager’s office, and trade deadline. When Breslow was hired by the Cubs, he was seen as a possible fast-mover. He rapidly lived up to those expectations, moving from the vague position of director of special projects in 2019 to managing the Cubs’ pitching development and earning promotions to vice president and assistant general manager in the ensuing years.

Breslow pitched in the major leagues for twelve years. During that time, the left-handed reliever tried to prolong his career by using cutting-edge techniques. These techniques, which have been widely used in the game over the past ten years, provided him with a foundation for what he would begin to do when the Cubs’ player development program was being led. Breslow, a Yale graduate who double majored in molecular physics and biochemistry, had gained so much power inside the company that, in today’s terms, he already operated like a general manager. This gave him considerable clout in his Red Sox interview process.

Despite being a remote worker from Massachusetts, Breslow had integrated himself into the Cubs’ inner ring.