Article: Craig Breslow Will (Finally) Search for a General Manager This Offseason

[Maddie Landis]

The song “Right Hand Man” in the groundbreaking Broadway musical Hamilton introduces George Washington, then the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. In the midst of the New York and New Jersey Campaign, he laments about his “dire need for assistance”. Subsequently, Alexander Hamilton, the titular protagonist of the musical, is appointed Aide-De-Camp to the Commander-in-Chief. Much like Washington, Craig Breslow, the Red Sox’s Chief Baseball Officer (CBO), is looking for his right-hand man. Rob Bradford of WEEI reported that Breslow will focus on hiring a general manager in the offseason. Since hiring Breslow in October 2023, the Red Sox have operated without a GM for nearly two years. Now, it looks like things will change this offseason. 

Baseball’s hiring cycle starts towards the end of the regular season and concludes shortly after the Winter Meetings in December. Glancing at an MLB job board in mid-September, you’ll see hundreds of entry-level job postings. On the other hand, executive-level front office roles are spread through word of mouth. If a team fires its GM in the middle of the season, one can surmise that the team will fill the position in the offseason. 

Corporate hierarchy lingo has always befuddled me (Succession was my first and only introduction to C-suite roles in corporate America). Titles vary between teams across the league. Throughout my life, the Red Sox have utilized varying degrees of corporate jargon to designate the person steering baseball operations, including General Manager, President of Baseball Operations, and Chief Baseball Officer. For the current structure of the Red Sox’s front office, the General Manager will work under Craig Breslow.

Baseball operations executives wear many hats, managing finances, engaging in negotiations to secure deals, and delving into baseball analytics to field a winning roster. After almost two years as the Red Sox’s CBO, it’s evident that Breslow excels in player development. Under his leadership, the Red Sox acquired Aroldis Chapman, a veteran reliever who was seemingly past his prime, but he has rejuvenated his career with the team this year. He also threw caution to the wind and shipped top prospects to the White Sox in exchange for Garrett Crochet, an elite ace the team desperately needed. Crochet’s strong performance in his first season with the team has garnered attention about a potential Cy Young Award.

The new GM’s role will likely involve administering player acquisitions and roster turnover, areas of weakness for Breslow. He’s whiffed on some moves, ex. trading Chris Sale for Vaughn Grissom in December 2023 and receiving James Tibbs III (later dealt for Dustin May), Kyle Harrison, and Jordan Hicks for Rafael Devers this past June. Trade deadlines have been another weak spot for Breslow. According to Fangraphs, the Red Sox currently hold a 95.6% chance of making the playoffs. While Steven Matz (1.62 ERA in 16 2/3 IP) has quietly been a solid reliever for the Red Sox, the team should’ve done more to strengthen their rotation at the deadline. After the Joe Ryan deal fell through, the Red Sox didn’t have a backup plan. Having another person primarily focused on contingency planning would have prevented the team from scrambling at the last minute to acquire Dustin May.

While some CBOs/GMs excel at player development and roster transactions, Breslow has not yet proven he’s one of those guys. Acknowledging your shortcomings is the first step to solving them. Will Breslow break out in a song to kickstart his search for a GM? Probably not, but this is a good step for the organization’s future.

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Who do you think the Red Sox should consider for a GM? Let us know in the comments!

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[TedYazPapiMookie]

Wow, adding another level of bureaucracy is always a wise move!  NOT

The Devers deal was a godsend.  Breslow should be extended by several years for that move.  The results speak for themselves.  The cancer was removed, and they paid us $260 Million for it.  That was brilliant!!!

The team has been dog crap for 5 years and Breslow radically improved it and you speak of him as if he failed.  Bloom failed as badly as Devers played defense.  Breslow has been a breath of fresh air, but he needs to get his own manager to put the team at the top of the division in 2026.  Cora is the albatross that destroys the chances for success in Boston.  With the talent this year, he should be several games ahead of Toronto not barely holding on to the last WC spot like he will be in two weeks.

[Duran Is The Man]

you forgot to mention that he traded starting pitcher Quinn Priester for a couple of low-level minor leaguers and a draft pick. Priester is currently 13-2 with a higher WAR than Bello. stupid doesn't begin to describe the trade. nice job, Brez.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

It's really unbelievable that Cora can't just order all his talent to touch the freaking ball with a baserunner on third and less than two outs.

[illinoisredsox]

2 hours ago, Duran Is The Man said:

you forgot to mention that he traded starting pitcher Quinn Priester for a couple of low-level minor leaguers and a draft pick. Priester is currently 13-2 with a higher WAR than Bello. stupid doesn't begin to describe the trade. nice job, Brez.

I must have missed all the posts you made back in April objecting to this trade.  Or the ones from spring training where you said Priester would have this kind of year.

[illinoisredsox]

My question on this is who would even take the job.  Breslow’s current job was toxic when he took it; wasn’t he the 10th or 11th person they approached with all or nearly all  of the earlier choices declining to even interview?  I’ve heard he isn’t liked by subordinates in the Sox front office and does not have good relationships with peers with other clubs (which might explain part of the inaction at the trade deadline).

[moonslav59]

Maybe his search ends with Cora.

The next question would be, who do Cora & Brez hire as the next Manager?

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

...

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

...

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

9 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Maybe his search ends with Cora.

The next question would be, who do Cora & Brez hire as the next Manager?

Skip Schumaker?

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

2 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Skip Schumaker?

Since 2004 what do 1st year Sox managers have in common?

[moonslav59]

9 minutes ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

Since 2004 what do 1st year Sox managers have in common?

All but Valantine won a ring. (Roenike doesn't count, right?)

[mvp 78]

I agree with Breslow going this route. I think he needs another guy in there helping him out. Hopefully it's someone that has a little bit more experience. Seems like having Theo in there hasn't been the silver bullet we all wanted as there's been several missteps along the way that I don't think Theo would have found himself in.

[notin]

On 9/13/2025 at 11:56 AM, illinoisredsox said:

I must have missed all the posts you made back in April objecting to this trade.  Or the ones from spring training where you said Priester would have this kind of year.

Did you at least see mine?

[notin]

1 hour ago, mvp 78 said:

I agree with Breslow going this route. I think he needs another guy in there helping him out. Hopefully it's someone that has a little bit more experience. Seems like having Theo in there hasn't been the silver bullet we all wanted as there's been several missteps along the way that I don't think Theo would have found himself in.

Wait.  So are you saying I shouldn’t get my resume ready?

I will definitely NOT be using you as a reference…

[mvp 78]

1 hour ago, notin said:

Wait.  So are you saying I shouldn’t get my resume ready?

I will definitely NOT be using you as a reference…

Are You Experienced? 

[notin]

2 hours ago, mvp 78 said:

Are You Experienced? 

An excellent album…

[illinoisredsox]

8 hours ago, notin said:

Did you at least see mine?

Probably (I’m not going back to look), but then you don’t use 20-20 hindsight on everything.  So if you didn’t like it or predicted it at the time, I’ll believe you.

[moonslav59]

Hasn't the talk been about Cora moving up into the front office?

Is 2026 that time?

[TedYazPapiMookie]

On 9/13/2025 at 9:52 AM, Duran Is The Man said:

you forgot to mention that he traded starting pitcher Quinn Priester for a couple of low-level minor leaguers and a draft pick. Priester is currently 13-2 with a higher WAR than Bello. stupid doesn't begin to describe the trade. nice job, Brez.

I agree.  Two bad moves by Breslow.  Sale and Priester.  Nobody is perfect but are we better off than when we had Bloom.  Absolutely.  We can do so much with $260 Million.

[notin]

1. 14 hours ago, illinoisredsox said:

   Probably (I’m not going back to look), but then you don’t use 20-20 hindsight on everything.  So if you didn’t like it or predicted it at the time, I’ll believe you.

   Thought the Sale trade made sense but the Priester one didn’t.  Go figure…

[moonslav59]

46 minutes ago, notin said:

1. Thought the Sale trade made sense but the Priester one didn’t.  Go figure…

When they made the trade, they had already placed Newcomb ahead of him on the depth chart and others, too- like Fitts & Dobbins. They expected Giolito (1st start 4/30) , Sandoval and Crawford back, later in the season and still had Criswell, Winck and others maybe behind Priester.

I'm not defending the trade: the statement "You can never have enough pitching" is true nearly every season. As it turned out Early and Tolle joined the depth chart, as did Harrison after a later trade. We still ended up needing to trade for another SP'er (D May) and have had 3 pen games, this year.

Had we kept Priester, we might be leading the AL East, so the hindsight call is a big bust for that trade- same with the Sale one, except I doubt Sale gets us into the playoffs in 2024.

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

7 minutes ago, moonslav59 said:

I doubt Sale gets us into the playoffs in 2024.

... but even if he did, don't doubt Sale gets hurts right before the postseason. 

The only thing more predictable was that Paxton would get hurt again if Bloom didn't trade him at the deadline. 

And then right after Breslow traded for him the next deadline.

[Duran Is The Man]

4 hours ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

... but even if he did, don't doubt Sale gets hurts right before the postseason. 

The only thing more predictable was that Paxton would get hurt again if Bloom didn't trade him at the deadline. 

And then right after Breslow traded for him the next deadline.

the Sox front office has a healthy obsession with signing unhealthy players.

 

[Maddie Landis]

4 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Had we kept Priester, we might be leading the AL East, so the hindsight call is a big bust for that trade- same with the Sale one, except I doubt Sale gets us into the playoffs in 2024.

Call me crazy, but I'm not that pressed about the Priester trade. The Brewers have a phenomenal player development system. They turned Andrew Vaughn (White Sox: 47 OPS+, Brewers: 141 OPS+) into a stud. 

Priester posts a 56.8% GB rate (95th percentile). Given how volatile the Red Sox's infield defense has been, I don't think Priester would have achieved the same level of success in Boston as he has with the Brewers. Looking at Savant's Fielding Run Value Leaderboard with the infield split applied, the Brewers (9) rank 9th, and the Red Sox (-16) are 28th. 

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

39 minutes ago, Maddie Landis said:

Call me crazy, but I'm not that pressed about the Priester trade. The Brewers have a phenomenal player development system. They turned Andrew Vaughn (White Sox: 47 OPS+, Brewers: 141 OPS+) into a stud. 

Priester posts a 56.8% GB rate (95th percentile). Given how volatile the Red Sox's infield defense has been, I don't think Priester would have achieved the same level of success in Boston as he has with the Brewers. Looking at Savant's Fielding Run Value Leaderboard with the infield split applied, the Brewers (9) rank 9th, and the Red Sox (-16) are 28th. 

Good point, Maddie, and also why I didn't think Max Fried was the answer for Boston last winter (that was before we signed Bregman, of course... but even then, the over-under on Story games played was about 55).

A groundball pitcher with bullfighters behind him is probably a bad combo. Ole!

[SPLENDIDSPLINTER]

As for the Sox defense on the left side of the infield I'll argue that because of the range of both Bragman and Story, there will be more errors. Errors by themselves is just another meaningless number.

[mvp 78]

16 hours ago, SPLENDIDSPLINTER said:

As for the Sox defense on the left side of the infield I'll argue that because of the range of both Bragman and Story, there will be more errors. Errors by themselves is just another meaningless number.

Bregman is an average to below average range guy at 3b. With his injury, it's only been worse this year. 

Story's range is also way down this year. He'll be 33 soon and it's only going to trend the wrong direction. 

[Old Red]

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Bregman is an average to below average range guy at 3b. With his injury, it's only been worse this year. 

Story's range is also way down this year. He'll be 33 soon and it's only going to trend the wrong direction. 

 

3 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Bregman is an average to below average range guy at 3b. With his injury, it's only been worse this year. 

Story's range is also way down this year. He'll be 33 soon and it's only going to trend the wrong direction. 

The 1B whomever it was save both more than a few throwing errors this year also.