Craig Breslow ‘Most Intriguing Candidate’ for Red Sox, Just Maybe Not as President

We’ve been following the reports about Craig Breslow‘s potential move from the Cubs to the Red Sox for a few weeks now, so this will just be more of an update. The first rumblings came from Peter Gammons and indicated a more lateral move for the assistant GM and VP of Pitching, then came word that Breslow had interviewed for the top baseball ops gig in Boston. The latest information from Sean McAdam of MassLive basically splits the difference and makes a transition seem inevitable.

Rather than taking over just the pitching infrastructure or making a huge leap to running the whole show, McAdam posits that the Red Sox are more likely to hire Breslow as the GM and install a more experienced exec as president of baseball operations. They have already interviewed several candidates for front office positions and are reportedly waiting to hear back on other requests, so the process might play out for a while yet.

McAdam wrote that Breslow is “the most intriguing candidate on the board” and that it “would seem the Red Sox primary focus, for now, is to determine how he might be best utilized.” That comes off as much stronger than mere conjecture, especially when combined with those previous reports. And, as we’ve noted previously, Breslow and his family live just outside Boston in Newton, Mass.

I’ll be very surprised if the Cubs aren’t in search of someone to fill his role this winter.

Update: The number of people willing to accept a job with the Red Sox is apparently lower than the number of those who’ve turned them down. Per McAdam and Chris Cotillo, only seven known interviewees remain while at least 10 have declined or pulled themselves from consideration for the open position(s). Kim Ng became the latest in that latter group when she opted not to interview, joining Phillies GM and former Cub Sam Fuld, Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes, former Marlins exec Michael Hill, former Rangers GM Jon Daniels, Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey, Diamondbacks GM Mike Hazen and assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye, Red Sox assistant GM Raquel Ferreira, and Astros GM James Click.

That seems like an awful lot of declinations for a prestige gig, but the glitz of working for a flagship franchise carries plenty of baggage. The pressure to win was enough to make Theo Epstein don a gorilla suit to leave Fenway Park, and that’s when ownership was willing to throw tons of money at winning. Not that Boston is in danger of dropping to mid-market levels or anything, but expectations aren’t always going to meet reality.