I wondered if the Cubs would be looking to fill the Assistant General Manager slot vacated by Randy Bush, or if they would simply let it stay open for a while. Turns out, they were looking to fill it almost immediately.
Sahadev Sharma has the front office scoop:
With Randy Bush stepping back from his role as assistant GM, the Cubs are expected to add another executive to their front office, this one with experience with both the Dodgers and Astros. https://t.co/wVSfHUHhSu
— Sahadev Sharma (@sahadevsharma) October 22, 2021
The Cubs waste no time in beefing the front office right back up, and with the arrivals of Ehsan Bokhari and Carter Hawkins, they immediately have two new faces at the highest levels of the front office to support Jed Hoyer.
Bokhari comes from the Astros organization, having previously worked as an analyst with the Dodgers. Here’s his Astros bio:
Ehsan Bokhari (first name pronounced Es-sen; last name Bo-kar-ree) joined the Houston Astros as Director of Research and Development in November 2018. A year later, Ehsan was promoted to his current role as Senior Director, Player Evaluation.
In his current role, Ehsan contributes to amateur, professional and international player evaluation. Ehsan previously oversaw all projects coming out of R&D, ensuring their quality and making certain that all baseball operations’ consumer needs were met. Ehsan previously spent four seasons (2015-2018) with the Los Angeles Dodgers’ R&D team as a Senior Analyst–he was one of the original members of the Dodgers’ R&D staff.
Prior to joining the Dodgers, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Illinois for the 2014-2015 academic year. While at the University of Illinois, Ehsan completed an MS in statistics in 2011 and received his PhD in quantitative psychology in 2014.
Ehsan received his undergraduate degrees in psychology and mathematics at the University of Arizona, in 2009.
On an initial read there, it sounds like Bokhari – in addition to doing player evaluation work – is a statistical analysis/R&D guy who is skilled at porting that scary math over to other humans (scouts, players, coaches, etc.) in a way they can actually use it. It’s funny, because that’s a subject I was just writing about from Carter Hawkins’ recent comments.
That said, you can and should read Sharma’s piece for more background on Bokhari’s well-rounded skill set, how he helped the Astros and Dodgers succeed, and what he theoretically brings to an evolving Cubs front office. Oh, and yes, you’re allowed to also have the superficial reaction that poaching from the Astros/Dodgers is … probably a good thing. Heh.
UPDATE: It’s officially official, as announced by the Cubs:
The #Cubs today named Ehsan Bokhari as Assistant General Manager. pic.twitter.com/6xAAW2MPm1
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) October 25, 2021
More from Bokhari here: