Boston Red Sox hire Craig Breslow as head of baseball operations

BOSTON -- The Red Sox have found a new leader for their baseball ops. department: Former reliever Craig Breslow.

Breslow accepted the position Tuesday evening, as first reported by Alex Speier and Michael Silverman of the Boston Globe and later confirmed by WBZ-TV's Dan Roche. No official announcement has been made by the Red Sox, but Breslow is set to take over for Chaim Bloom, who was fired by Boston in September.

The 43-year-old Breslow is no stranger to Red Sox fans, as he was a key piece to the Boston bullpen when the team won the World Series in 2013. The lefty had a 2.45 ERA across 10 postseason appearances that year, and a 1.81 ERA during the regular season.

The Connecticut native and Yale graduate spent five seasons with the Red Sox across two stints. He pitched in 13 games for Boston in 2006 -- his second season in the big leagues -- and won a ring in 2007 despite never pitching for the Red Sox at the big league level. Overall, Breslow had a 2.80 ERA over 211 appearances for the Red Sox.

He spent 12 seasons in the Majors across his 17-year playing career, with stints for the Padres, Indians, Twins, A's, Diamondbacks, and Marlins. Breslow retired as a player in 2018, and then made a move to the front office.

Breslow quickly rose up the front office of the Cubs, where he started under Theo Epstein in 2019 as Chicago's director of strategic initiatives for baseball operations. He was promoted to director of pitching/special assistant to the president and general manager in 2020, and then named assistant GM/vice president of pitching in 2021.

Now he has a baseball ops. department of his own in Boston. Breslow will bring his expertise in pitching to an organization that desperately needs to start developing young arms on the mound, and a fresh voice to the Red Sox front office.