McAdam: Settle in - finding the Red Sox' new baseball executive will likely take a while

The Red Sox aren't yet sure whether their next hire will be a president of baseball operations or a general manager. Or, eventually, both.

Nor have they interviewed anyone for the position, or for that matter, asked for permission to interview potential candidates under contract elsewhere.

But that's coming.

Monday, however, served as a reminder that the process could take a while.

Team president and CEO Sam Kennedy will conduct the search, which will entail compiling a list of potential candidates, seeking permission from their current employers and ultimately, recommending his choice for the position to ownership.

"Where we are is (in the) early days,'' said Kennedy. "We've had an opportunity to do a lot of due diligence. (Dismissing Dave Dombrowski when we did) gave us an opportunity to get a head start on the thinking and research that we wanted to conduct and helped us established clear-cut roles and responsibilities for the current leaders of the Baseball Ops team.

"We're engaged in this, but the search is underway.''

Because the Red Sox have publicly stated that their clear preference is to hire someone who has run a Baseball Operations department before,



the process will almost certainly involve getting permission to interview general managers or presidents of baseball operations.

Of the organization's three top choices in a preliminary list, only one -- Andrew Friedman of the Los Angeles Dodgers -- is working without a contract for 2020 in place. Houston's Jeff Luhnow and the Chicago Cubs' Theo Epstein also at the top of the list, though both have multiple years committed on their current deals, making the hiring of either problematic.

But no matter whom the Sox seek to lure away, there will be issues. As Kennedy noted -- and ownership observed last Friday -- in the last decade or so, only two top baseball executives have gone directly from one team to another. Epstein famously left the Sox for the Cubs in 2011 and Friedman moved from the Tampa Bay Rays to the Los Angeles Dodgers are the 2014 season.

Of the three top candidates, two have teams just now beginning the postseason. Undoubtedly, there will be other candidates who are also employed by playoff teams, slowing the search further.

Kennedy said the Sox would "prefer'' to have somebody in place when the GM Meetings begin in Scottsdale, Az., on Nov. 10. But he added that was far imperative.

No matter who is hired -- or what title that person is given -- the expectation is that he will work in conjunction with ownership, the support staff of the Baseball Operations department, and not incidentally, Kennedy himself.

"I think the best structure for a sports organization is to ensure that the president and CEO has a seat at the table,'' said Kennedy, "and has a voice in baseball operations ... and can work collaboratively with the general manager or president of baseball operations. That's the way it's worked here since 2002. Theo and Larry (Lucchino) worked closely together; Ben (Cherington) and Larry worked together; Dave and I worked closely together.

"I don't think it's appropriate for a president and CEO to make player personnel evaluations or judgments. I have a very important voice in baseball operations because I'm accountable for the operations of the club and there's a lot of financial decisions that go into the construction and operation of a baseball department.''

In the meantime, the Sox have their Gang of Four -- Eddie Romero, Brian O'Halloran, Zack Scott and Raquel Ferreira -- running things on a daily basis. Of that quartet, three date their association with the club back to 2002 while Romero joined in 2006.

"Given Eddie and Raquel, and Zack and BOH and their experience and talents, which are many,'' said Kennedy, "we have the luxury of time to examine what will work best for us and be most strategic as we go forward.''