The Boston Red Sox officially promoted Mike Hazen to general manager Thursday, the team confirmed. Hazen takes over for Ben Cherington, who resigned shortly after Dave Dombrowski was named president of baseball operations.
Hazen has been with the organization for roughly a decade after becoming the director of player development in 2006. He was currently serving as assistant GM. Yahoo Sports' Jeff Passan sees the hiring of Hazen having little impact on the Red Sox in terms of front-office turnover:
In addition to rewarding Hazen for his past work, the Red Sox likely wanted to ensure he remained with the team in the long term. The Los Angeles Times' Mike DiGiovanna reported earlier in the month Hazen was a candidate for the Los Angeles Angels' GM opening, and last year, he interviewed with the San Diego Padres when they were looking for a new GM.
ESPN.com's Gordon Edes wrote on Sept. 10 that Hazen was the best person to assume the role as Boston's new general manager, citing the continuity his hiring would provide:
Like Cherington, Hazen has championed the team's young players, and the Red Sox are now clearly enjoying the fruits of their labors. Hazen can serve as a valuable bridge to the past while helping Dombrowski navigate the future. He has intelligence, expertise and drive, works well with Farrell and the baseball operations staff, and is an asset Dombrowski should not allow to get away.
Marc Normandin of SB Nation noted that Hazen's hiring further cemented just what kind of role Dombrowski will have with the team:
One aspect of Hazen's style that many baseball followers love is his blending of both scouting and statistical analysis, a point he discussed in 2007 with David Laurila for Baseball Prospectus:
(Statistical analysis) is a resource that goes into the evaluation. It's not something that's a hard and fast guideline for us in terms of player promotion or what we consider to be success or failure for a player. We have a lot of good people who evaluate our minor league teams, and not just player development staff. It's Ben (Cherington), Craig Shipley, Allard Baird, and we have people coming through who have tremendous scouting experience like Jason McLeod. They evaluate the players from a scouting standpoint as well.
While the last few seasons of Cherington's reign didn't turn out well, the franchise did win a World Series under his stewardship. Like Hazen, Cherington was an in-house choice to succeed the previous general manager—Theo Epstein.
Continuing to rely on the minds who have helped shape the franchise's success in the last decade and change proved a fruitful decision then, and there's no reason Hazen can't keep that trend going.
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