WORCESTER—Every Major League Baseball boss — they all have different titles these days — preaches the value of player development. Some of them actually mean it.
Nobody has more experience with that part of the game than Craig Breslow, the Red Sox’s new boss of bosses. His experience is mostly as a player developee, not developer.
Breslow, whose title is Chief Baseball Officer (CBO, perhaps?) made his first visit to Polar Park Saturday night as part of the WooSox Foundation gala and was impressed with the facility, as almost everyone is. Beauty remains skin-deep though. What about preparing players for the major leagues?
“It’s beautiful,” Breslow said of the ballpark. “I have to be careful with the words I use…Triple A today is significantly upgraded as to my time, and that’s from a lot of experience.
“Arguably too much experience.”
Breslow spent parts of five seasons pitching in Boston, parts of four seasons with Pawtucket. As one of those southpaws who seemed to have a tireless arm, he pitched a lot for a lot of different teams.
“This is a first class operation here,” he said. “It makes me want to put the uniform back on.”
There have been player-managers before, although not for a long time. A player-general manager….that would make baseball history.
Breslow is the first Red Sox baseball boss since Haywood Sullivan to have played professional ball. His experience is more than statistical and analytical. Time will tell if that makes a difference. He thinks it should be a plus.
“I spent a lot of time in the minor leagues,” he said. “I spent a lot of time across multiple organizations in the minor leagues, so I think I’ve got multiple perspectives in terms of how organizations do things, how they treat people, the level of information they are willing, or not willing, to expose.
“You can draw on those experiences but also have to recognize that player development has evolved tremendously since I was in the minor leagues”
Breslow came to the Red Sox from the Cubs organization but is a native New Englander. He grew up in southern Connecticut — one of those rare Mets fans — and settled in Newton with his family after his career ended.
His neighbors, of course, have some thoughts on what he might do to improve the Red Sox. They are not the only ones.
“I think everyone in this region is an advisor,” Breslow said, “and that’s great. The passion that fans have in this area is exceptional.”
Given how much information is out there these days, Breslow did not arrive in Boston without some knowledge of how the organization has faltered in recent years, and why his immediate predecessors Ben Cherington, Dave Dombrowski and Chaim Bloom had short shelf lives.
The new man has historically been a quick learner. He will have to be in this market.
“I’ve been on the job for 30, 31 days so I’ve essentially got a month’s worth of interactions, so there’s still plenty for me to learn,” Breslow said. “I can see the things we do remarkably well, and also see areas that deserve some attention.
“I think we can align behind an over-arching philosophy around pitching development and that’s something that’s been a focus of mine over the first month or so.”
Now that Breslow has experienced the creature comforts of Polar Park, might he be a frequent visitor to town this summer?
“I think it would be silly not to take adavntage of the proximity of this situation,” he said, “and that’s one thing that’s fairly unique to the Red Sox, multiple facilities easy to commute to for an up close and personal perspective.”
Breslow will enjoy the view from behind home plate when he comes. Sox fans are hoping he enjoys the results, as well.
Bill Ballou covered the Red Sox for the Worcester Telegram from 1997 through 2018. He has covered pro hockey in Worcester since 1994 and currently does a weekly column for the Worcester Red Sox. Ballou can be reached at vetgoalie@aol.com
