<p>The Boston Red Sox have finally found somebody to head their baseball operations department.</p>
<p></p>
<p>With the team well out of the playoff race in the middle of September, the Red Sox fired Chaim Bloom to seemingly get a head-start on finding his replacement. Over the next month, a handful of highly-qualified names declined interviews with the Red Sox, <a href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/report-blue-jays-vp-james-click-wont-pursue-red-sox-front-office-position">including Blue Jays VP of Baseball Strategy James Click</a>.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">Craig Breslow deserves a chance to thrive. This search, though, will be remembered much more for who said no than for who said yes — and it should serve as a massive wake-up call to the Red Sox. </p>
<p>Column: <a href="https://t.co/X9XMtuABNV">https://t.co/X9XMtuABNV</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisCotillo/status/1717201396234063983?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 25, 2023</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>Their new Chief Baseball Operator will be Craig Breslow, a Yale graduate who made 576 appearances as a relief pitcher across 12 seasons in the Major Leagues.</p>
<p>He spent five seasons with the Red Sox and won the World Series with the team in 2013. After concluding his playing career in 2018, Breslow joined the Chicago Cubs as their Director of Strategic Initiatives for Baseball Operations, an oddly long way of saying Stats Guy, and was later promoted to Assistant General Manager.</p>
<p>Breslow&#8217;s first kick at running a Major League organization will see him tasked with turning around a middling version of the Red Sox, who have finished 78-84 in back-to-back seasons. Given the team&#8217;s last playoff series win came back when they won the World Series in 2018, it&#8217;s hard to imagine the Red Sox will be keen on Breslow going into a rebuild situation. The plan from ownership will likely be for him to retool the Sox to be competitive fairly quickly.</p>
<hr />
<figure id="attachment_57011" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-57011" style="width: 1024px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-57011" src="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2022/08/USATSI_18815504_168383996_lowres-1024x682.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" srcset="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2022/08/USATSI_18815504_168383996_lowres-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2022/08/USATSI_18815504_168383996_lowres-300x200.jpg 300w, https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2022/08/USATSI_18815504_168383996_lowres-768x512.jpg 768w, https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2022/08/USATSI_18815504_168383996_lowres-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2022/08/USATSI_18815504_168383996_lowres.jpg 2015w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-57011" class="wp-caption-text">Aug 3, 2022; San Diego, California, USA; San Diego Padres right fielder Juan Soto (22) bats during the fourth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports</figcaption></figure>
<hr />
<h2>New York Yankees and San Diego Padres have reportedly had discussions about Juan Soto&#8217;s trade availability</h2>
<p>Moving along to the second-worst team in the American League East, the Yankees are apparently looking to solve their offensive woes by trading for Juan Soto.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sny.tv/articles/sources-yankees-padres-preliminary-juan-soto-conversation">Andy Martino of SNY reported</a> that the Yankees and Padres have had preliminary discussions about the star outfielder&#8217;s availability. He said that it&#8217;s the &#8220;strong expectation of rival executives&#8221; that San Diego would make Soto available in &#8220;the right deal.&#8221;</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Yankees and Padres have had a preliminary conversation about Juan Soto, league sources say. What it does and does not mean:<a href="https://t.co/O6VORcGpd2">https://t.co/O6VORcGpd2</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Andy Martino (@martinonyc) <a href="https://twitter.com/martinonyc/status/1717284676065177816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 25, 2023</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>The Yankees went 82-80 in 2023 and saw a significant chunk of those losses come while Aaron Judge was out of the lineup with a foot injury. New York&#8217;s lineup was among the weakest in baseball without its captain. The next-best qualified on-base plus slugging numbers on the Yankees behind Judge at 1.019 were Gleyber Torres at .800 and DJ LeMahieu at .718.</p>
<p>The Padres acquired Soto from the Washington Nationals during the 2022 season and he helped the team reach the National League Championship Series in the fall. San Diego was expected to again be a contender in 2023 but the team fell flat and missed the playoffs with an 82-80 record.</p>
<p>That result wasn&#8217;t the fault of Soto, who put together an excellent season for the Padres at the plate. He suited up in all 162 games and slashed a .275/.410/.519 line with 35 home runs and more walks than strikeouts. The 25-year-old has one more year left of team control before he can hit free agency.</p>
<hr />
<h2 class="mb-5 text-2xl font-bold" style="text-align: center;"><a class="text-accent" href="https://gml-grp.com/C.ashx?btag=a_24038b_2065c_&amp;affid=7966&amp;siteid=24038&amp;adid=2065&amp;c=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ARTICLE PRESENTED BY BETANO</a></h2>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61491" src="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2023/04/Betano_ON_Base_727x404-1.png" alt="" width="727" height="404" srcset="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2023/04/Betano_ON_Base_727x404-1.png 727w, https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2023/04/Betano_ON_Base_727x404-1-300x167.png 300w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 727px) 100vw, 727px" /></p>

The Boston Red Sox have finally found somebody to head their baseball operations department.



With the team well out of the playoff race in the middle of September, the Red Sox fired Chaim Bloom to seemingly get a head-start on finding his replacement. Over the next month, a handful of highly-qualified names declined interviews with the Red Sox, <a href="https://bluejaysnation.com/news/report-blue-jays-vp-james-click-wont-pursue-red-sox-front-office-position">including Blue Jays VP of Baseball Strategy James Click</a>.

https://twitter.com/ChrisCotillo/status/1717201396234063983

Their new Chief Baseball Operator will be Craig Breslow, a Yale graduate who made 576 appearances as a relief pitcher across 12 seasons in the Major Leagues.

He spent five seasons with the Red Sox and won the World Series with the team in 2013. After concluding his playing career in 2018, Breslow joined the Chicago Cubs as their Director of Strategic Initiatives for Baseball Operations, an oddly long way of saying Stats Guy, and was later promoted to Assistant General Manager.

Breslow's first kick at running a Major League organization will see him tasked with turning around a middling version of the Red Sox, who have finished 78-84 in back-to-back seasons. Given the team's last playoff series win came back when they won the World Series in 2018, it's hard to imagine the Red Sox will be keen on Breslow going into a rebuild situation. The plan from ownership will likely be for him to retool the Sox to be competitive fairly quickly.

<hr />

[caption id="attachment_57011" align="aligncenter" width="1024"]<img class="size-large wp-image-57011" src="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2022/08/USATSI_18815504_168383996_lowres-1024x682.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="682" /> Aug 3, 2022; San Diego, California, USA; San Diego Padres right fielder Juan Soto (22) bats during the fourth inning against the Colorado Rockies at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports[/caption]

<hr />

<h2>New York Yankees and San Diego Padres have reportedly had discussions about Juan Soto's trade availability</h2>
Moving along to the second-worst team in the American League East, the Yankees are apparently looking to solve their offensive woes by trading for Juan Soto.

<a href="https://www.sny.tv/articles/sources-yankees-padres-preliminary-juan-soto-conversation">Andy Martino of SNY reported</a> that the Yankees and Padres have had preliminary discussions about the star outfielder's availability. He said that it's the "strong expectation of rival executives" that San Diego would make Soto available in "the right deal."

https://twitter.com/martinonyc/status/1717284676065177816

The Yankees went 82-80 in 2023 and saw a significant chunk of those losses come while Aaron Judge was out of the lineup with a foot injury. New York's lineup was among the weakest in baseball without its captain. The next-best qualified on-base plus slugging numbers on the Yankees behind Judge at 1.019 were Gleyber Torres at .800 and DJ LeMahieu at .718.

The Padres acquired Soto from the Washington Nationals during the 2022 season and he helped the team reach the National League Championship Series in the fall. San Diego was expected to again be a contender in 2023 but the team fell flat and missed the playoffs with an 82-80 record.

That result wasn't the fault of Soto, who put together an excellent season for the Padres at the plate. He suited up in all 162 games and slashed a .275/.410/.519 line with 35 home runs and more walks than strikeouts. The 25-year-old has one more year left of team control before he can hit free agency.

<hr />

<h2 class="mb-5 text-2xl font-bold" style="text-align: center;"><a class="text-accent" href="https://gml-grp.com/C.ashx?btag=a_24038b_2065c_&amp;affid=7966&amp;siteid=24038&amp;adid=2065&amp;c=" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">ARTICLE PRESENTED BY BETANO</a></h2>
<img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-61491" src="https://publish.bluejaysnation.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2023/04/Betano_ON_Base_727x404-1.png" alt="" width="727" height="404" />

MLB Notebook: Red Sox hire Craig Breslow as Chief Baseball Officer, Yankees apparently trying to acquire Juan Soto

Instant Reaction: Blue Jays overcome five-run deficit in 13-9 win over Reds

Toronto Blue Jays designated hitter Anthony Santander (25) hits a two-run home run against the San Diego Padres during the fifth inning at Rogers Centre.

Recent articles from Cam Lewis

Breaking News