NEWSLETTER
When the Chicago Cubs started remaking their scouting and player development infrastructure four-ish years ago, bringing in Craig Breslow was a key part of that process. That’s why he ascended so quickly to the dual role of Assistant GM and VP of Pitching. But what the Cubs needed to make sure is that they were building out processes and institutional knowledge that would long survive any one individual employee’s departure.
Will that be the case in a post-Breslow world? Will the Cubs keep taking the massive steps forward that they did on the pitching side the last few years?
“The truth is, honestly, Bres is probably not going to take one person to replace all of the things that he was doing,” Cubs President Jed Hoyer recently told the Tribune, “so we’ll probably look for a multiprong approach to replace him. He left us in really good shape. I’m confident that the guys going forward can continue with that infrastructure and do a great job. There’s no doubt he had a big impact on all of our pitching decisions and in that regard he’s always going to be hard to replace.”
In theory, the Cubs now have a number of exceedingly talented execs in place who can step up to buttress what Breslow was doing – maybe not lose TOO much there – and the Cubs also have an opportunity to hire from the outside and bring in some new perspectives. I won’t spin Breslow leaving into a positive, but maybe it can at least be lateral?
The good news is that Breslow’s departure won’t directly sting the Cubs, at least not for a year.
From Andy Martinez at Marquee: “According to sources close to the Cubs front office, Breslow isn’t allowed to take any Cubs front office personnel for a year with him to Boston, meaning the personnel and pitching infrastructure will remain intact, just without Breslow at the top. Other front office members could take greater roles, too, allowing the Cubs to continue to have the framework of a pitching base that Breslow helped build.”
That’s great news, because that had been a pervasive fear of mine. Now the Cubs have a year not only to do even more institutional work, but also maybe to figure out promotion plans and new contracts that could make staying with the Cubs just as attractive as moving over to the Red Sox next fall.
