Sam Kennedy Outlines Search Process For New Red Sox Leadership

The Boston Red Sox 2023 MLB year has officially concluded with the end-of-season press conference at Fenway Park on Monday.

With the book closed, the work begins by Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy and other members of the organization to find a new chief baseball officer.

“I want to make sure everyone understands that this is going to be a much different process than the last time we had a change in leadership,” Kennedy said. “And what I mean by that is we plan to take our time, we plan to be very deliberate.

“We’re going to have internal candidates, we’re going to have external candidates. We’re going to have a consistent, robust process that hopefully leads us to the right person.”

Kennedy added the organization had begun the process of finding the next member of the leadership group when they relieved Chaim Bloom of his duties on Sept. 14. but they haven’t set a deadline or timeframe to make a decision.

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Kennedy added he doesn’t expect potential candidates to be wary of coming to the organization even though several top executive for the Red Sox in Ben Cherington, Dave Dombrowski and Bloom haven’t lasted four seasons in Boston.

“At the end of the day … this is the Boston Red Sox,” Kennedy said. “If you want to run a baseball organization, this is where you want to be. You want to be in Boston. Why? Because it matters here more than anywhere else. So, if you’re not up for the challenge, thanks but no thanks.”

The GM winter meetings will take place Dec. 4 to 7 in Nashville, Tenn., and while the Red Sox would love to have filled the leadership role prior to that date, Kennedy said the club would not speed up the process because they already have a group of “great leadership” including executive vice president of baseball operations Brian O’Halloran, senior vice president assistant general manager Michael Groopman and executive vice president assistant general managers Eddie Romero and Raquel Ferreira dedicated to the organization.

“You’d love to have clarity as soon as possible,” Kennedy said. “But we’re not going to let any deadline or timeline put constraints on the process.”

The Red Sox anticipate formal interviews to start by the end of this week or the beginning of next week.

So what are the Red Sox looking for?

“Someone who shares the organizational values that we’ve come to be known for in our team here,” Kennedy said. “At the end of the day, that’s the understanding that the standards here are incredibly high and winning games at the major league level, putting yourself in a position to be busy in October is the goal.”

Kennedy added the club doesn’t necessarily have a predetermined set of qualifications they are looking for but has a “targeted list of individuals” they believe will help get the Red Sox back to the top of the American League East.