(670 The Score) Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow landed in Boston after a tenure in the Cubs’ front office and has since led that franchise through major moves. The latest came Sunday evening with the Red Sox's trade of star slugger Rafael Devers to the Giants.
Breslow's move has been widely scrutinized in Boston after the relationship between Devers and the Red Sox soured. Devers was upset with Breslow after being moved from third base to the designated hitter role and refused to play first base in early May when Triston Casas was injured.
Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer admires Breslow’s courage to make an unpopular trade, he explained on the Spiegel & Holmes Show on Tuesday. He also credited Breslow for being open about his need to better communicate with players in the future.
“(Breslow) is a pretty incredible executive and an incredible mind,” Hoyer said. “He’s going to be really good at his job for a long time. But it’s good to hear that he’s still learning. This was a very complicated situation in a lot of ways and not an easy one to deal with.
“Ultimately, trading the (Cubs’ World Series) core in 2021, it was brutally hard. I was here when we won the World Series. I know how much those players meant to the organization. I also felt an incredible conviction that we needed to move forward and acquire some young talent for the organization. So, I had the conviction to do it, but that doesn’t mean the backlash wasn’t difficult. There were a lot of really difficult days after those trades. And that’s the job. You have to make those hard decisions. (Breslow) felt really convicted that he had to make those decisions. I give him a ton of credit.
“I look at it the same way when I look at Nico Harrison with the Mavericks. Like, whether or not he made the right or wrong decision, that’s not for me to argue. But having the strength to make the decision and believe in it, that to me is very impressive, because you know you’re going to face a tremendous backlash. Ultimately, I know he believed he was doing the right thing for the Mavericks, and I think that takes tremendous strength.”
The Red Sox landed right-hander Jordan Hicks, left-hander Kyle Harrison and two prospects from the Giants in the deal for Devers, who's playing on a 10-year deal worth $313.5 million that he signed in Boston. San Francisco will pay the remainder of the contract.