8 times Craig Breslow stated the obvious in his first Red Sox press conference
The Red Sox introduced Craig Breslow on Thursday. We didn't here much that we didn't expect to hear unfortunately.
The Boston Red Sox introduced their new chief baseball officer, Craig Breslow, on Thursday after a highly publicized search that saw multiple top level candidates decline to even pursue the opportunity. Before coming to the Red Sox to take their top job, Breslow was a journeyman pitcher including multiple stints with the Red Sox before joining the Cubs' front office.
Breslow has a bit of a mess to fix and quickly in the wake of Chaim Bloom's firing. Fortunately, he took a lot of questions from the media along with president Sam Kennedy where he provided at least some insight into how he is going to run things.
Here are 8 takeaways from Craig Breslow's introductory press conference
Breslow is only just now getting his feet under him in Boston, so it probably isn't fair to assume that he would have the answers to every roster, prospect, and organizational question right now and he was certainly towing the company line throughout the press conference. There were still some interesting tidbits here and there, though, so here is a quick rundown of some takeaways from the press conference.
Boston's search for a new front office lead was close up until the end
Breslow was adamant during the presser that he was interested in the Boston job opening from basically the moment Bloom was fired. He mentioned several times that his connections to the Red Sox organization were a big, big factor in his decision to pursue it.
However, Sam Kennedy shared an anecdote that is worth mentioning given the trouble the Red Sox had in attracting top level executive talent. Rather than saying that Breslow was a favorite throughout the process, he intimated that it was a very competitive search and it wasn't until the final couple of meetings that Breslow was going to be their choice.
Breslow is not ready to commit to hiring a general manager just yet
Breslow was asked as to whether or not he was going to hire a general manager at some point and he was entirely non-committal. Right now, he wants to focus on getting to know the organization a bit better before making any decisions about top level front office personnel and it doesn't sound like he is bringing in anyone in particular to assist him just yet.
So when the Red Sox sign/don't or trade/don't trade someone early in the offseason, fans can safely place the blame on him (and of course ownership).
Breslow is not afraid to make trades even if they are his kids' favorite players
Later in the press conference, Craig was asked about a rumor that he had traded one of his kids' favorite players. First, that is a hilarious question and second, Breslow was candid in saying that he did, in fact, play a role in trades that his kids were less than happy with.
The good news here is that he sure made it sound like he wants to be aggressive, his kids be damned. The downside is that he is replacing Chaim Bloom who traded Mookie Betts away for pennies on the dollar which was...less than ideal. Hopefully if he makes his kids mad, it will be at least for a move that was right to make.
He is taking time to evaluate the organization before making wholesale changes
A common theme throughout the press conference was that Breslow wants to take his time in working through the organization to see where changes need to be made. This was evident in his response to front office, player development, and roster questions.
Taking time to make informed decisions isn't usually a bad thing and he was probably always going to say that. However, it will be interesting to see how active Boston is early in the offseason vs. how the rest of the league approaches it. If the rest of the league goes wild in November and the Red Sox are quiet, it could be a problem.
Breslow believes in front office involvement in on the field decisions
One question that came up was how Breslow was going to relate to manager Alex Cora and who would be ultimately responsible for in-game decision-making. He was very clear that he thinks that the front office should play an important role in those decisions, but his position was more nuanced than that.
Breslow pointed to the fact that all of the information that the front office has at their disposal needs to be synthesized with the info that the coaching staff has to make the best possible decisions, so there isn't going to be any front office railroading happening. He also pointed to his long-standing relationship with Cora from his playing days as a source of confidence that the arrangement will work out great for everyone.
Expect Breslow to overhaul the Red Sox's pitching development and acquisition
There were a lot of questions about Boston's pitching situation and, unsurprisingly, Breslow agreed that it was certainly an organizational need. It seemed like every third response he gave referenced the fact that he is well-aware that the Red Sox are going to need starting pitching going into next season.
That shouldn't shock anyone, but it was heartening to see him mention his success in overhauling the Cubs' pitching development and that he was very confident that he can get the pitching staff back into shape.
Don't expect much to change in Boston on the ownership side
Another common theme throughout the press conference was that Breslow emphasized over and over again how everyone, including ownership, wants to win. He feels confident that Boston will be able to make moves to make that happen and that is admirable.
However, that also sounds an awful lot like what was said when the Red Sox brought in Chaim Bloom. In this very press conference, Sam Kennedy said that ownership's role is to provide Breslow and co. with the resources they need to build a winning roster. However, actions speak louder than words here and ownership's track record of consistently hamstringing the Red Sox's payroll is going to need more than lip service to ignore.
Breslow is going to lean heavily on analytics, but also understands that it is only part of the picture
By all accounts, Breslow believes strongly in the value of analytics when it comes to game-planning, player development, and player acquisition. Frankly, he is right because the vast majority of the best teams in the league use data to gain competitive advantages big and small.
However, he also correctly noted that as a former player himself, it is how that data is used to communicate and execute a gameplan that separates the best teams in MLB. His goal is to take all the information at his disposal from data to coaches' input to the players themselves to make the best decisions possible for the club. Again, that is certainly the safest answer to give, but it did seem genuine at least.
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