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Red Sox hire Frank Wren as Senior VP of Baseball Ops

By Matthew Loper |

Just one day after promoting Mike Hazen to Red Sox VP and GM, a move that showed he still valued some of what was already in place on Yawkey Way, Dave Dombrowski announced the hiring of Frank Wren as senior vice president of baseball operations on Friday. Wren, who served as the Braves GM from 2008-2014, will report directly to Dombrowski.

Wren’s name was originally brought up by multiple media members to possibly take over as general manager when Dombrowski was first brought on earlier this season due to their history working together in the Expos and Marlins organization. When Hazen was named GM on Thursday, many assumed that Dombrowski just decided to stick with what was in place. That changed on Friday.

Apparently, Dombrowski wants as many intelligent minds and voices in on talent evaluation going forward as possible. According to Travis Durkee of the Sporting News, Wren, Dombrowski discussed how Wren will be primarily involved in scouting and analyzing available talent: “That’s why he came on board. At the major league level, when we talk about making trades or talk about signing free-agent players, we really want him actively involved in that. He’ll be one of a couple of other individuals that we have in those positions. Their titles may be different, but basically they’re going to be responsible for scouting the major leagues and being those main guys for me.”

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It sounds like Dombrowski wants to get a variety of opinions in order to make his final decisions. It’€™s clear that Mike Hazen has a grip on what they currently have in the organization, but Wren can offer his analysis on the future of the organization as far as free agent signings, trades, etc.

Per Pete Abraham in the Boston Globe, Dombrowski went on to say,

“I think one thing about Dave, he wants to hear a lot of different voices. He’s not afraid to have people differ from him. He’s not afraid to get everyone in the room and hear them out.”

“It’s something that I really want changed. A lot of that change is taking [place] behind the scenes. We’re getting closer to announcing what those changes will be. Frank is part of that change. We’re going to put more emphasis on people scouting the major leagues strictly . . . but also supplemented by another group of individuals that will be very strong in their [minor league] coverage.”

I think Hazen and members of the old regime may be focusing on the minor league side, while Wren and Dombrowski are going to focus on the major league scouting. But it’s also about Dombrowski utilizing all of skills and tools to gather as much information as possible in order to make the best decisions going forward. On Friday, Wren said, “I think one thing about Dave, he wants to hear a lot of different voices. He’s not afraid to have people differ from him. He’s not afraid to get everyone in the room and hear them out.” There’s nothing wrong with that.

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