The Red Sox fired chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom on Thursday, and announced they would move general manager Brian O’Halloran to a “senior leadership” position, leaving two open roles among the front office.
Could Theo Epstein return to Boston? Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy ruled out an Epstein reunion while speaking to the media on Thursday.
“I can rule out Theo Epstein as a candidate for one of these two positions,” Kennedy said.
“I know there’s speculation, there’s professional history, there’s an even longer personal history, but I can rule Theo Epstein out as a candidate for one of these two positions,” Kennedy continued.
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Epstein served as the Red Sox’ general manager from 2002-11 and helped break the franchise’s 86-year World Series drought in 2003. Epstein became MLB’s youngest general manager in 2002 and in 2004 became the youngest to win a World Series.
Theo Epstein left the Red Sox in 2011 to take over as president of the Chicago Cubs. In 2016, he helped the team win its first World Series in 108 years. He departed the Cubs in 2020 and joined Major League Baseball as a consultant in January 2021.
The Red Sox created the position of chief baseball officer when they hired Bloom in 2019 and promoted O’Halloran from assistant general manager to general manager at the same time.
Bloom was the third top executive to have the job with the Red Sox since Epstein left. Ben Cherington took over for Epstein, and he was replaced by Dave Dombrowski during the 2015 season. Dombrowski was fired in September 2019, and Bloom replaced him as the Red Sox’ top executive.
Emma Healy can be reached at emma.healy@globe.com. Follow her @_EmmaHealy_.