Craig Breslow accepts the job of Red Sox president of baseball operations

SportsCenter 5 confirms that the next president of baseball operations for the Boston Red Sox will be Craig Breslow, a former player who was with the organization during two World Series seasons.

Breslow, 43, has appeared in 12 major league seasons as a left-handed pitcher, spending the past five seasons working in the Chicago Cubs’ front office.

The Connecticut native and Yale graduate has been the Cubs’ assistant general manager and vice president of pitching since November 2020. He is also a former teammate of current Red Sox manager Alex Cora.

The Red Sox offer to Breslow came more than a month after the club fired Chaim Bloom as chief baseball officer on September 14. And in four seasons under Bloom, Boston finished below .500 and in last place in the American League East three times — except for the 2021 season, in which the Sox finished second in the division with a 92-70 record, reached the AL Championship Series and were two wins shy of reaching the World Championship.

Breslow made his debut with the San Diego Padres in July 2005 and joined the Red Sox on a minor league contract in February 2006. He appeared in 13 games with Boston in 2006 and was a Triple-A star for the Pawtucket Red Sox in 2006 and 2007. Added To Boston’s roster for the 2007 postseason as the Sox went on to win the World Series, giving him a championship ring without pitching in a major league game that year.

In March 2008, Breslow was claimed off waivers by the Cleveland Indians and pitched to the Minnesota Twins (2008-09), Oakland Athletics (2009-11) and Arizona Diamondbacks (2012) before being traded back to the Red Sox on July 31, 2012.

For the rest of the 2012 season, Breslow went 1-0 with a 2.70 earned run average in 23 relief appearances with the Red Sox, earning him a two-year contract with Boston.

Breslow went 5-2 with a career-best 1.81 ERA over 59 2/3 innings in 2013, limiting opponents to a .228 batting average in 61 games. He appeared in 10 of 16 games during the playoffs, posting a 2.45 ERA as the Red Sox won the 2013 World Series.

After the 2014 season, Breslow re-signed with the Red Sox for another year before joining the Miami Marlins in free agency in February 2016. After spending part of the 2016 season with the Marlins and the remainder in the Texas Rangers’ minor league system, he played parts of the 2017 season with Minnesota and Cleveland. He spent 2018 in the Toronto Blue Jays’ minor league system in what ended up being his final season as a professional player.

Theo Epstein, who was the Red Sox’s general manager during the 2004 and 2007 championship seasons, hired Breslow to be part of the Cubs’ front office in January 2019 as director of strategic initiatives for baseball operations.

The Cubs would promote Breslow to director of pitching and special assistant to the president and general manager in October 2019 before promoting them to assistant general manager and vice president of pitching role just over a year later.