McAdam: Promotions in Red Sox' scouting department send mixed signals

On Monday afternoon, the Red Sox announced a flurry of changes and promotions to their Baseball Operations staff.

Among other moves, the Sox revealed that Mike Rikard, who has been the team's amateur scouting director, will now serve as vice president of scouting and be responsible for the entire scouting department. Additionally, Paul Toboni was elevated to director of amateur scouting, essentially filling Rikard's former position.

Meanwhile, two others -- Devin Pearson was named to assistant director, amateur scouting and Stephen Hargett was promoted to amateur crosschecker.

Most of those names -- other than perhaps Rikard, who has run the last five amateur drafts -- are far from household names to the most avid baseball fans. That's not to suggest that they're bit players. To the contrary, the scouting staff is the lifeblood of any good organization.

And end-of-season promotions and changes are hardly rare in baseball front offices as teams prepare for the offseason. In fact, they're fairly standard.

But what's interesting about the changes is the timing.

The Red Sox, of course, are without a head of baseball operations, having fired Dave Dombrowski earlier this month. With the regular season not yet over, it's a safe bet that they haven't conducted interviews, though they may have reached out to some potential candidates to gauge their interest.

And yet, the Sox have been making moves for the last couple of weeks, which is unusual for a team without a general manager or a president of baseball operations.

The firings have been easier to understand. Longtime respected scouts Eddie Bane and Gary Hughes were informed that their contract wouldn't be renewed, and that makes some sense. It would be odd to offer new contracts without knowing if the incoming GM wanted to work with them.

The same goes for senior vice president Frank Wren, who was brought in by Dombrowski and closely linked to him. It's understandable that a close associate of Dombrowski's would be dismissed, even if it meant having to pay off the final two years of his contract. No new GM would want to inherit his predecessor's most trusted confidant.

But Monday's announcement fits into a different category.

By elevating a number of people to oversee an important area like scouting, the Red Sox are already filling out some key spots in the Baseball Operations department before choosing someone to oversee the entire department. Now, whomever the Sox hire will be told that the scouting department is already in place -- with new titles and contracts to boot.

Ordinarily, an incoming executive would be given the opportunity to put his choices in those roles. The next GM/President of Baseball Operations will not have that luxury.

That suggests one of two scenarios:

1. The Red Sox plan to promote someone from the Gang of Four currently running Baseball Ops on an interim basis -- Eddie Romero, Brian O'Halloran, Zack Scott and Raquel Ferreira.

That would ensure a smooth transition for the new GM -- likely Romero -- since there is already a familiarity and comfort level with those promoted Monday.

2. Ownership and upper management is so impressed with the work of the current scouring department that they will insist on the current group being retained by anyone coming in from the outside.

In the immediate aftermath of Dombrowski's firing, numerous baseball sources indicated that the Sox would be aiming high and looking to land a big name executive -- someone like Theo Epstein, Andrew Friedman or Jeff Luhnow -- to take over the club.

The distinct impression within the industry was that the Red Sox wanted someone with experience and a track record of success, feeling that the job would be too much for someone who hadn't run an organization.

In the wake of Monday's moves, is this a signal that that thinking has changed? Or are the Red Sox merely putting people in place and making the job a turnkey operation?

At this point, there would seem to be far more questions than answers.