Believe it or not, the world didn’t top spinning when the Chicago Cubs won the World Series.
Major League Baseball’s offseason officially began early Thursday morning after the Cubs won Game 7 to end their 108-year championship drought. The Boston Red Sox didn’t take long to get things rolling, as Dave Dombrowski announced a series of personnel moves in the team’s baseball operations department.
There were 15 moves in total, but here are the most notable ones:
— Jared Banner promoted to Vice President, Player Personnel (Previous position: Director, Player Personnel)
— Frank Wren promoted to Senior Vice President, Player Personnel (Previous position: Senior Vice President, Baseball Operations)
— Brian Bannister promoted to Vice President, Pitching Development and Assistant Pitching Coach (Previous position: Director of Pitching Analysis and Development)
— Ben Crockett promoted to Vice President, Player Development (Previous position: Director, Player Development)
— Gus Quattlebaum promoted to Vice President, Professional Scouting (Previous position: Director, Professional Scouting)
— Mike Rikard promoted to Vice President, Amateur Scouting (Previous position: Director, Amateur Scouting)
— Zack Scott promoted to Vice President, Baseball Research & Development (Previous position: Director, Major League Operations)
— Dave Bush hired as Pitching Development Analyst
— Brad Pearson promoted to Director of Sports Medicine Service & Head Athletic Trainer (Previous position: Head Athletic Trainer)
— Blair Henry promoted to Major League Scout (Previous position: Amateur scout)
These moves mostly are expected promotions after Mike Hazen left for the Arizona Diamondbacks and Dombrowski announced the team wouldn’t directly fill his general manager role.
A couple notable names on this list include Bannister, who was added to Boston’s coaching staff midway through the 2016 season to help improve the Red Sox’s pitching, and Wren, who spent seven seasons as the Atlanta Braves’ GM from 2008 to 2014 and now will report directly to Dombrowski as senior VP of player personnel.
The team’s one new hire, Bush, will assist Bannister and work with Boston’s minor league pitchers. The 36-year-old had a nine-year Major League Baseball career and last pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays in 2013.
Thumbnail photo via Jonathan Dyer/USA TODAY Sports Images
