Craig Breslow leaves Cubs for chief baseball officer job with Red Sox

The Cubs are losing one of their highest ranking baseball officials, as the Red Sox announced Wednesday they’ve hired Craig Breslow to be their chief baseball officer.

Breslow spent the 2023 season, his fifth in the Cubs’ organization, as an assistant general manager and senior vice president of pitching. He’ll take over for Chaim Bloom, whom Boston fired on Sept. 14.

The Cubs hired Breslow in January 2019 as director of strategic initiatives. In his five seasons in Chicago, he worked his way up the ladder in the front office. Before being given his latest title with the Cubs this past season, he was elevated to assistant general manager and vice president of pitching in November 2020 after being named director of pitching/special assistant to the president and general manager in October 2019.

Breslow became a trusted voice in Jed Hoyer’s baseball operations department. In a press release announcing his initial hiring back in 2019, the team said Breslow would “help to evaluate and implement data-based processes throughout all facets of baseball operations. He will also support the organization’s pitching infrastructure in player development and the major leagues.”

Since then, he has been credited with helping the Cubs revitalize their pitching infrastructure throughout his tenure. The last competitive window saw them struggle to develop homegrown pitching, but in 2023, some arms who’d spent their entire professional baseball careers in the organization were major contributors to the Cubs’ late-season playoff push:

• Justin Steele, a 2014 fifth round MLB Draft pick, had a breakout season that had him firmly in the National League Cy Young conversation throughout the second half of the year.
• Adbert Alzolay, signed in 2013 as an international free agent, emerged as a trusted late-inning reliever and thrived in the closer’s role.
• Jordan Wicks (2021 first round pick) and Javier Assad (2015 international signee) provided valuable innings in the rotation down the stretch, with Assad also having success as a multi-inning reliever.

That’s not to mention some minor league pitchers who look well on their way to Wrigley Field in the near future.

Cade Horton, the Cubs’ 2022 first round pick, has developed into one of the best overall prospects in baseball (No. 29 on MLB Pipeline’s top 100). A healthy and effective Ben Brown, acquired from the Phillies at the 2022 trade deadline and currently MLB Pipeline’s 86th-ranked prospect, should be ready to make his big league debut in 2024.

With Breslow’s help, the pitching infrastructure has moved into a healthy place. His leaving is a blow to the organization, but the Cubs’ should be confident that the strides they’ve made can be sustained moving forward.

Breslow, 43, spent 12 seasons pitching in the major leagues. Five of those came in Boston, including the Red Sox’s 2013 World Series championship season. Breslow graduated from Yale University in 2002, where he earned a degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry.

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