Red Sox Reportedly Make Notable Front Office Addition

It appears Craig Breslow wanted to start his second offseason as the Red Sox chief baseball officer by addressing Boston’s front office.

Breslow made a notable move this week when he lured Taylor Smith away from the Tampa Bay Rays and hired him as a Red Sox executive, according to MassLive’s Sean McAdam and Chris Cotillo. The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier confirmed the news Wednesday.

Smith served as Tampa Bay’s director of predictive modeling and it is expected that he will serve in a vice president/assistant general manager role on Breslow’s staff.

Smith would become the fifth assistant GM the Red Sox employ, joining Raquel Ferreira, Eddie Romero, Michael Groopman and Paul Toboni. According to MassLive, Smith could take over much of Groopman’s responsibilities as he looks to become more involved in the acquisition of players.

Smith comes to the Red Sox with plenty of experience under his belt as upon graduating from the University of Georgia in 2018, he immediately went to work for the Rays and spent the past seven seasons with the organization. Smith started as a research and development analyst and was promoted to lead analyst. He became the team’s director of predictive modeling in December 2021, in which he “oversees the organization’s player valuation models and provides mentorship and oversight to baseball research and development staff,” according to the Rays’ media guide.

The Red Sox made another front office move this week by giving Kyle Boddy, who served as special advisor to Breslow this past season, a new title. Boddy will be Boston’s interim director of baseball sciences, which he confirmed via a social media post.