In the 17 months since the Boston Red Sox hired Craig Breslow as chief baseball officer — their fourth leadership change within the past 10 seasons — the organization has undergone sweeping changes, particularly behind the scenes in the front office. Under Breslow’s direction, longtime employees have been fired, while others have left on their own, frustrated with the direction of the organization. The scouting department, in particular, has seen deep cuts.
Many that remain in the roughly 275-person front office paint a previously unreported picture of uncertainty and unease, though others see opportunity and optimism, particularly in the rapid revamping of the organization’s pitching infrastructure and player development methods, and in a promising big-league team. Some indicate it’s created an odd juxtaposition between those eager to initiate change and those trying to adapt to new roles under new leadership.
Breslow does not apologize for changes he believes will finally snap the organization out of a years-long stretch of mediocrity. He was hired for this purpose. The team has made the postseason once since their last World Series title in 2018 and has posted a record at or below .500 in four of the past five seasons. Red Sox ticket prices remain among the highest in baseball.
Breslow recently spoke to The Athletic about the restructuring that resulted from an internal audit conducted last year that helped reshape the front office, noting that they “tried to pick off the highest leveraged opportunities first.”
“There are times where maybe it makes sense to bulldoze through things and then kind of pick up the pieces afterward and there are times where being a little bit more intentional and patient ends in the best outcome,” he said, standing outside JetBlue Park. “I think ultimately, what we’ve been trying to instill is the idea that what is most important is what happens on the field, and we need to work backwards from that.”
Change is not new in Boston. Far from it. Just two years ago under Chaim Bloom, the Red Sox underwent a different front-office overhaul. But Bloom wasn’t around long enough to see those changes make an impact.
So, how will Breslow’s restructuring be different? After so many years of upgrading and updating the front office structure under previous leadership, is this new setup the right one? Will ownership give Breslow enough runway to see the changes through or — given that his predecessors were each fired within their first five years on the job — is he already nearing the halfway mark of his tenure in Boston?
Sources within the team acknowledge that baseball’s increasingly competitive landscape necessitated swift change. Yet too much change can create instability.
Breslow is clear that he believes it’s important to be transparent and he is mindful of the organization’s culture and staff morale. But he also has a strong vision of how the Red Sox can improve.
“Our goal is not to make everyone happy,” he said.
Craig Breslow was introduced as the Red Sox chief baseball officer on Nov. 2, 2023. (Charles Krupa / Associated Press)
Within a few months of joining the Red Sox, Breslow hired New York City-based Sportsology Group to conduct an internal audit of all baseball operations employees.
One goal was to get all of the front-office departments on the same page so that they could collaborate and communicate more effectively, ultimately benefitting the major-league team. The audit also laid out an objective evaluation method for Breslow to utilize when identifying employees who would best fit his vision for the franchise.
“The one thing I’m committed to, is doing what’s best for the organization and that requires taking a hard look at the processes that we have in place, the systems we have in place, and the people that we have in place,” Breslow told The Athletic in June amid the audit.
“Sportsology is not the decision-making group. They are not evaluating people, we are evaluating people,” he added. “They’re helping us create the frameworks that allow us to do that and certain benchmarks against which we want to evaluate and how to calibrate the information that’s coming in. But the evaluations are being done by us.”
During the audit, there was a natural undercurrent of anxiety within the organization about just what the evaluations would suggest, according to multiple employees who spoke on a condition of anonymity. After the audit was completed, there were widespread changes, not just in scouting, where people with decades of experience were let go, but in creating new department heads in research and development, and reorganizing player development and the medical department.
“The result of an audit was not some drastic kind of headcount-cutting measure,” Breslow said. “It was understanding who our people are, what type of work they’re doing, what we’re really good at, what opportunities there are to improve.”
The scouting department had the biggest turnover — and those departures created the most angst. On the amateur side, a 34-person staff last year was reduced to 22 following departures and layoffs. Four people were added in their place, increasing the amateur staff to 26. Among the most notable layoffs were longtime scouts Mark Wasinger, Paul Fryer and Willie Romay, a group with decades of collective scouting experience. Tom Kotchman, a scout for nearly 50 years, including 14 with the Red Sox, retired at the end of 2024.
Changes in the scouting world have become ubiquitous over the past decade with the evolving landscape of how the game is evaluated, particularly as advances in technology enhance — and at the same time challenge — traditional scouting methods. Breslow admitted emerging research methods have allowed teams to collect information differently and often more objectively.
“But it has not eliminated the value in the role of the scout,” he said. “I think in certain cases, we’re asking our scouts to take on slightly different responsibilities in order to ensure that we are continually positioned at the industry’s leading edge. But it isn’t that scouts are less important. It isn’t that we’re looking to diminish the voice or the role of the scout. It’s that the job of the scout has changed, and we have to provide the support for people to make sure that they’re going to do their jobs every day.”
All of the scouts who were let go had significant impacts on the club, but Romay, in particular, was directly responsible for uniting the Red Sox with key pieces of the current clubhouse, signing Triston Casas, Kutter Crawford and Roman Anthony. One employee noted that Romay being part of the cuts in the fall was “incredibly disheartening for everyone.”
“Like anything, like friends that get traded, like anyone that gets released, you never want to see that happen to someone and it’s sad,” said Anthony, whose relationship with Romay was a key reason he didn’t forgo signing with the Red Sox to play at Mississippi. “I still stay in contact with him. He still texts me and still roots for me. I understand it’s a business, and I understand that teams have to do whatever they think is right. And people may not always agree with that.”
Mike Rikard, who’d previously served as amateur scouting director and most recently as vice president of scouting, was moved to a special assistant role last fall before he left the organization in January to join the Arizona Diamondbacks as senior advisor in the scouting department. The Diamondbacks have several former Red Sox employees in their front office, including GM Mike Hazen. Rikard led the team’s drafts from 2015-19 when they selected Andrew Benintendi, Tanner Houck, Jarren Duran, Casas and Crawford. He later transitioned to VP of scouting where he helped in the evaluations of Mayer, Anthony, Campbell and Kyle Teel.
On the international side, 12 scouts were let go or reassigned to different departments with eight additions, shifting the 40-person group to 36.
Assistant general manager Eddie Romero, who had focused on the club’s international scouting and player development efforts, remained an assistant GM but with a role more centered on the big-league club in acquisitions and player development. Over the past 20 years, Romero has helped revitalize the organization’s Dominican Academy and led efforts in signing and developing players such as Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, Brayan Bello and Ceddanne Rafaela.
A batting cage at the Red Sox Dominican Academy. (Jen McCaffrey / The Athletic)
On the professional scouting side, five pro scouts on an 18-person staff were fired and their spots were filled with a mix of external and internal moves, including shifting international amateur scouts Kento Matsumoto and Won-Sang Lee, based in Japan and South Korea, respectively, to the pro side.
Several inquiries about these changes were left unanswered and those who did discuss changes asked not to be identified or quoted, citing ongoing questions about their job security. Some scouts who were fired have said they’re happy with their new teams and didn’t want to discuss the matter.
The industry has taken notice of the changes to the Red Sox scouting department. In a recent Baseball America poll of more than two dozen scouts, the Red Sox ranked among the least “scout-friendly” teams.
Breslow wouldn’t address specific departures, but defended what he deemed difficult decisions in order to keep the organization at the forefront of the game, noting “that there are a number of people who have contributed to the success of this organization, and that will not change.”
“We have to evaluate where we currently are and where we think this game is headed,” he said. “In some cases, that means the set of responsibilities that our scouts take on has changed and in certain situations it hasn’t at all. We need to find the best people and put them in the right places.
“Fortunately, and in a lot of ways and as a result of a pretty comprehensive audit, we found that we do have a lot of great people here. And there are maybe people who decide that the direction that we’re going is not for them, and that’s OK. But again, all of this is rooted in trying to put the best team we possibly can on the field and give ourselves the best chance of making great decisions.”
Boston is not the only team reorganizing their scouting structure. The Chicago Cubs, a team for which Breslow previously worked, is in the midst of its own front-office changes. As teams shift more toward Driveline-type methods, others have gone a different direction. The Philadelphia Phillies scaled back “Driveline-ification” efforts of their front office in recent years. In 2023, the Red Sox hired former Phillies director of minor-league hitting Jason Ochart.
At the same time the Red Sox have cut from the scouting department, they have added to others, including research and development, which is now the second-largest department in the front office, behind only international scouting. The R&D department was reorganized under four directors — baseball sciences, baseball systems, baseball technology and baseball analytics. Early in the offseason, Breslow hired Taylor Smith, former director of predictive modeling for the Tampa Bay Rays, as an assistant general manager tasked with overseeing R&D. Mike Groopman, an assistant GM who’d previously overseen R&D, moved to a role focused on acquisitions. The new structure created a heavy emphasis on data-driven analysis and sought to streamline a growing department that had increased to 33 people, up from 30 last year.
Although R&D grew, there were departures, including Joe McDonald, a former director of analytics, who joined the New England Patriots as senior analyst of football strategy. A few analysts were moved to scouting roles. In all, there were six additional hires, including one Breslow specifically highlighted at his end-of-season presser, former Driveline employee Kyle Wasserberger, a biomechanist with an extensive background in injury prevention and rehabilitation.
The Red Sox now employ nine former Driveline employees, the most of any team in baseball, including Driveline founder Kyle Boddy, who serves as a special assistant to Breslow. Breslow said there has not been a directive to hire Driveline employees but he values the way they approach the game.
“I think people who have gone to work at Driveline have taken on a specific set of experiences that typically lends itself to a way of thinking and a curiosity and open-mindedness,” he said. “Yeah it’s data-driven decision-making, but it’s understanding and having evidence and having support for decision-making rather than just blindly working through different possibilities of outcomes and solutions. It’s doing a lot of the work beforehand, before you take a suggestion or a recommendation to a player. It’s being grounded in evidence and information.”
This analytical approach has paid dividends in many areas, particularly in developing several top position player prospects, including Anthony, Mayer and Campbell, who’ve excelled at the plate thanks to a revamped hitting philosophy implemented over the past few years on the minor-league side, a process that began under Ochart at the end of Bloom’s tenure.
It has also created tension with traditional coaching methods. The Boston Globe recently reported on a “heated conversation” Hall of Famer Jim Rice, a former hitting instructor who now serves as a special assignment instructor for the Red Sox, had with an unidentified staffer after a player approached Rice for hitting advice. Rice was told by the staffer his advice “didn’t align with the team’s approach.”
“There are little tips of the iceberg that have revealed themselves,” one employee noted about the culture of the organization.
Despite that rift and the obvious shift toward more data-driven methods, the Red Sox are not foregoing hands-on instruction. As they seek to strengthen ties between their farm system and their major-league team, another notable change was the addition of Chris Stasio, formerly the assistant farm director, who will work in a player development role on the major-league coaching staff.
Traditionally, the Red Sox player development group was solely involved in development in the minor leagues, but now, via Stasio’s new role, it will also focus on continued development at the big-league level. Stasio will be in uniform and travel with the major-league team. Stasio’s new position was part of a larger restructuring of player development that saw eight people fired and four moved to different positions, including former minor league hitting coordinator Dillon Lawson, who was promoted to big league assistant hitting coach.
There have been changes in the medical department, too. Dr. Larry Ronan, who’s been the team’s lead physician for 20 years, stepped into an advisory role this season. Dr. Peter Asnis, who’d been the team’s head orthopedist for more than a decade, was elevated to head physician, leading a staff of multiple specialized doctors. On the field, strength coach Kiyoshi Momose moved to a Boston-based strength role, rather than traveling with the club, while two strength coaches were added to their staff of roughly a dozen trainers, rehab specialists, massage therapists and physical therapists.
The vast number of changes across the Red Sox organization has empowered some employees while leaving others feeling diminished in their roles. Some understood the cutthroat nature of working in a billion-dollar industry where the bottom line is what matters most. Others saw years of loyalty and hard work wiped clean.
The Red Sox have not won in recent years and that, in turn, means change. Once again.
Breslow and his leadership team acknowledge the painful moves but remain steadfast that in a competitive industry, this type of restructuring is par for the course and that the organization is re-evaluated after every season. This was, however, a larger and deeper reorganization.
“Without a doubt, we had to make really difficult decisions,” he said. “My hope is that whether people agree with those decisions or not, they understood that we were making the best decisions that we could in order to further this goal we have of competing for World Series championships year over year.
“I don’t know that there’s a finish line,” he added. “We need to constantly evolve, track our progress, reevaluate. I think that’s what good organizations do.”
(Top photo: Charles Krupa / Associated Press)
