The Red Sox are leaving no stone unturned of their seek for new baseball operations management.
In half as a result of apparently, they should.
There’s a bevy of choices, however the talk-to-strikeout ratio isn’t balanced in Boston’s favor. With Kim Ng formally taking herself out of the working, the record of “No’s” balloons to at the least 10. (That’s not together with former GM Theo Epstein, both.)
While Mike Hazen and Amiel Sawdaye obtained extensions from the Arizona Diamondbacks, and former Astros GM James Click dropped out after his interview, Ng and the opposite six identified candidates turned down the Red Sox within the interview invitation stage.
In the hours following their firing of Chaim Bloom on September 14, group president and CEO Sam Kennedy stated that he anticipated “a broader search” this time round. One that, frankly, might take some time,” he cautioned.
But did the brass count on this stage of disinterest? Red Sox assistant GM Raquel Ferreira is considered one of a number of executives who cited household causes when turning down the membership’s invitation, however different inner choices are amongst at the least seven candidates at the moment in consideration. Assistant basic managers Eddie Romero and Michael Groopman, and VP of novice scouting and participant growth, Paul Toboni, are within the combine, together with present Minnesota Twins GM Thad Levine and former Pittsburgh Pirates GM Neal Huntington.
Likewise for 2 of Boston’s World Series champions.
Craig Breslow, who pitched for Boston in 2006 and 2012-15, is taken into account a high candidate. He’s at the moment a Chicago Cubs assistant GM and vice chairman of pitching, and he’s reworked their minor league pitching growth, an space wherein the Red Sox might definitely use some assist. His genius additionally goes far past baseball; nicknamed “the smartest man in baseball,” he majored in molecular biophysics and biochemistry whereas main the Ivy League with a 2.56 ERA in his senior yr at Yale.
Breslow, who lives in Newton, Ma. and sometimes works for the Cubs remotely, is a pure match for the Red Sox in some ways. The stunning, controversial identify that popped up late this week is Gabe Kapler, who brings a various resumé with a number of suboptimal highlights to the desk.
Kapler, who performed for the Red Sox from 2003-06, has management expertise at each subject and entrance workplace ranges. He’s spent the final six seasons managing the Philadelphia Phillies (2018-19) and San Francisco Giants, who fired him over the past week of the season, however his first skilled managing gig was with the Red Sox. When he retired for the primary time in December 2006, he managed their Single-A affiliate Greenville Drive for the 2007 season. He un-retired and spent the 2008 season with the Milwaukee Brewers, and the next two with the Tampa Bay Rays, then he retired for good in 2011 when the Los Angeles Dodgers launched him on the finish of spring coaching.
Over the final decade and alter, Kapler has achieved all the things from coach Team Israel within the World Baseball Classic to working as a tv analyst for FOX Sports and writing for Baseball Prospectus.
But throughout and after Kapler served because the Dodgers’ director of participant growth from 2014-17, his tenure was marked by accusations – together with from Nick Francona, Terry Francona’s son and former assistant director of participant growth, reporting on to Kapler – that he mishandled assault allegations. In February 2015, a 17-year-old woman first accused two Dodgers prospects and two older ladies of home violence in a 3rd Dodgers participant’s resort room close to the group’s spring coaching complicated in Arizona.
Every week later, the woman advised police that she had additionally been sexually assaulted by one of many gamers, one thing Kapler maintains he was by no means made conscious of. In lieu of conventional punishment, “Kapler required (the players) to undergo training for “being a good teammate,” reported Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim in 2019. “Specifically, the players were assigned to write essays about Dodgers history, take nature walks, practice yoga and meditation, clean the team’s weight room and watch motivational videos.”
The membership later launched the participant, however he was by no means charged. (Alex Verdugo was amongst these current on the first incident, however cleared of wrongdoing.)
Less than a yr later, one other Dodgers minor leaguer was accused of sexual assault on the similar Arizona resort. Once once more, the participant was launched. The following spring, a number of Dodgers gamers, together with a high prospect, had been caught on surveillance tapes harassing feminine visitors on the similar resort.
Throughout, Kapler reported up the chain of command, one thing confirmed by the league’s investigation and the Giants’ further vetting earlier than hiring him. But Major League Baseball solely grew to become conscious of those incidents when regulation enforcement knowledgeable them in April 2017. The league investigated Kapler, and by the next month, had quietly cleared him of wrongdoing.
In basic, Kapler is a curious candidate to captain Boston’s baseball operations. He’s gained a plethora of expertise in his post-playing years, however little success to this point, and it’s been over half a decade since he labored on the baseball operations aspect. With the Dodgers, he was identified for a novel management model, “instituting no rules, but rather expectations,” wrote Wertheim.
Would that work for the Red Sox?
Source: www.bostonherald.com