SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Craig Breslow was already plenty familiar with the area around this year’s general managers’ meetings, less than 15 miles down the road from the Cubs’ spring training complex in Mesa, Arizona. But as the new voice of the Red Sox’ front office, standing in the middle of a scrum of reporters from Boston, he was venturing into new territory.
Amid the tumult of the Cubs hiring of manager Craig Counsell and firing of David Ross, Breslow’s presence Tuesday in a media session for American League baseball operations officials was a reminder of the work the Cubs still have to do in filling out their front office after the Red Sox named Breslow their chief baseball officer on Oct. 25.
Asked what he was most proud of in his time leading the Cubs’ pitching department, Breslow focused on relationships.
“It would be easy to maybe point to the on-field progress that a number of those arms have made,” he said. “[But] the more powerful and more meaningful thing for me is the number of players and coaches and people in the front office that reached out just to express some combination maybe of gratitude and excitement for me, recognizing that this was a great opportunity and just generally being happy for me. And the authenticity of those notes is what really struck me.”
Breslow, whom the Cubs hired in 2019, helped reinvent their pitching infrastructure, rehabbing their reputation for developing homegrown arms. When the assistant general manager/senior vice president of pitching left for the Red Sox, the Cubs felt good about what he left behind.
Breslow echoed that sentiment.
“The organization, I think, is in great hands,” he said. “This is a great opportunity for people to step up and take more influential and greater responsibility in certain roles. I’m excited to see how that goes from afar.”
As the Cubs fill out their operations staff this winter — they’ve lost two assistant GMs in two years — they aren’t boxed into naming a new AGM with a pitching background. To replace Breslow, they could look both outside the organization and within. Ryan Otero, assistant director of pitching, and Casey Jacobson, senior pitching coordinator, could be promising internal candidates if the Cubs want to continue along the path Breslow started.
Meanwhile, Breslow also is working to fill out his staff in Boston, so the Cubs face the possibility of losing more employees.
“I haven’t really had a chance to think about that,” he said when asked if there was anyone he hopes to bring with him. “I’m still trying to get caught up to speed here and maybe in due time would entertain those conversations. But I also think it’s really important for those guys to see this as an opportunity for themselves [in Chicago] as well.”
Breslow started with the Cubs as director of strategic initiatives. By this time last year, he was taking the lead on recruiting right-hander Jameson Taillon in free agency.
He spoke highly of the guidance he received from the Cubs presidents and GMs he worked with: Theo Epstein, Jed Hoyer and Carter Hawkins.
“It was hard to envision when I first got there that Jed would say, ‘Hey, why don’t you go try to meet Taillon and see if you can make them a Cub,’ ” he said. “But nonetheless, there we found ourselves. And so I am grateful for those opportunities, but mostly for that trust.”
