BOSTON — There’s no denying the Red Sox need to add more pieces in order to avoid a third straight losing season in 2016, and Dave Dombrowski and Frank Wren want to be the guys to do just that.
The Red Sox announced Wren’s hiring as senior vice president of baseball operations ahead of Friday’s game against the Baltimore Orioles, and Dombrowski said Wren will be the first of many to work primarily as talent evaluators.
“His main responsibility is talent evaluation,” Boston’s president of baseball ops said. “That’s why he came on board. At the major league level — when we talk about making trades, or we talk about signing free agent players, really want him actively involved in that. And he’ll be one of a couple of other individuals that we have in those positions.”
Wren most recently worked as the Atlanta Braves’ general manager, but he’s been a player, a coach, an assistant GM, a scout and a vice president through his nearly 40-year career in Major League Baseball. And that’s a huge part of why Dombrowski wanted Wren on board.
“He’s a real good baseball man,” Dombrowski said. “ … He really did a lot of things. He played in the minor leagues, worked his way up in the organization when I was with (the) Montreal (Expos). He was in a position where he was involved in evaluating talent in Latin America. He was involved with the expansion draft going back to then when he recommended us to draft a guy that nobody heard of by the name of Jeff Conine.”
Wren worked under Dombrowski as a player and a coach in Montreal, where the Red Sox president was general manager at the time. Dombrowski became the first general manager of the Florida Marlins in 1991, and Wren followed him there as his assistant GM.
That’s something that makes Wren’s move to the Red Sox a lot simpler.
“It’s a real comfort with me,” Wren said. “It’s been interesting because in spring training the last 15 years, we’ve lived very close to each other, with (Dombrowski’s former) Detroit (Tigers) being in Lakeland (Fla.) and us being in Kissimmee with the Braves, we’ve had the opportunity to get together a lot, talk baseball and continue to stay on the same page. I think that makes it a much easier transition for both of us.”
And if there’s one thing Wren and Dombrowski already agree on, it’s that Boston has a talented young team that could be destined for greatness with proper talent evaluation, which is exactly what they plan on continuing to do.
“The biggest key is being able to invest in player development and scouting, and that’s what the Red Sox can do like very few clubs can,” Wren said. “And they’ve done a very good job of assembling a great stable of young players, and that really helps build a major league team that can sustain winning for a long time.”
Thumbnail photo via Robert Mayer/USA TODAY Sports Images
