Red Sox's path to '24 success begins with hunt for new baseball ops leader

BOSTON -- For the Red Sox, the offseason begins with finding a new leader of baseball operations.

So where does that stand?

“The search for the next leadership within baseball operations has begun,” Red Sox president/CEO Sam Kennedy said on Monday. “I want to make sure everyone understands that this is going to be a much different process than the last time we had a change of leadership. And what I mean by that is we plan to take our time, plan to be very deliberate. We're going to have internal candidates. We're going to have external candidates. We're going to have a consistent, robust process that hopefully leads us to the right person or people.”

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When Chaim Bloom was hired as the team’s chief baseball officer four years ago, he was the team’s clear target from the outset.

This time around, the Sox plan on casting a wide net to find a successor for Bloom, who was relieved of his duties on Sept. 14.

“We've started. We've been underway since announcing the change, and we don't have any set deadline or timeframe,” Kennedy said. “We're going to go through this process this offseason, and we'll have an announcement when it's appropriate.”

Kennedy said that the club has requested permission from other clubs to speak to other candidates, and he added that the interview process will start either later this week or early next week.

The GM Meetings begin on Nov. 7 in Scottsdale, Ariz. Would the Red Sox like to have their next baseball operations leader in place by then?

“Yeah, you'd love to have clarity as soon as possible, but we're not going to let any deadline or timeline put constraints on the process,” Kennedy said.

Here are some other takeaways from the season-ending press conference at Fenway Park that included Kennedy and manager Alex Cora.

What do the Sox want from their next baseball ops leader?
Reading between the lines, Boston is looking for someone who can continue to build up the farm system like Bloom did while having more success at the Major League level. The Red Sox finished last in the American League East three times in the past four seasons.

“At the end of the day, that's understanding that the standards here are incredibly high and winning games at the Major League level, putting yourself in a position to be busy in October, is the goal. We should be playing right now,” said Kennedy. “That said, we think that you can also build a sustainable organization at the Minor League level at the same time. It's hard. It's difficult. Sometimes those two things are in conflict with each other, but we think that the right leadership will emerge. And that's not taking anything away from people that have been here.”

Pitching, pitching, pitching
The Red Sox ranked 21st in the Majors in team ERA this season, and that ranking improved with a strong finish in games that didn’t mean much over the last couple weeks. The new baseball operations leader will spend long hours looking to upgrade the pitching staff.

“Obviously, this game is about pitching. At the end of the day, we need to improve in that area,” Kennedy said. “That certainly does come to mind. That's a fair criticism to point out, but we'll attack it all in the offseason.”

Cora also thinks the club needs to find a way to keep the staff healthier. Injuries have been a big issue the past two years.

“I agree with Sam, and I agree with the group. To win championships, you have to pitch,” Cora said. “That's the bottom line. We haven't been able to get to that point yet. The last time we had a healthy rotation was in 2021. The other time we were healthy, it was '18. That's something that the group knows.

“Maybe we have to make adjustments as far as the things we do with them, preparing them, their offseason workouts, but as of now, you see the talent. Whoever is going to run the organization is going to decide which route we're going to go.”

Coaching improvement
Cora thinks the Red Sox can win in 2024 with the same coaching staff. But the team needs to make major fundamental improvements, particularly on defense.

Cora had a candid meeting with his coaching staff on Monday, telling the group it needs to collectively find new methods to improve the team, particularly on defense. The manager put the onus on himself as well.

“The way we talked about it today -- I’m always honest with you guys -- us as a coaching staff, we have to get better,” said Cora. “We have to push these guys to be a lot better. It’s on us to do this in the offseason, do it in Spring Training and do it throughout the season next year. That’s my challenge next year. Me and the coaching staff, we have to do better.”