When Craig Breslow was hired by the Red Sox just over six months ago, he wasn’t charged simply with improving the team. As chief baseball officer, he oversees the entire baseball operations department — hundreds of front-office members responsible not just for short-term results but the long-term health of the team, everything from player development and the draft to analysts and members of the medical and sports science departments.
With that in mind, the Red Sox have hired the Sportsology Group to conduct an audit of the organization and offer recommendations to Breslow about potential changes.
“We are using an outside consulting firm to help me wrap my arms around this operation,” said Breslow. “It’s big. It’s grown a ton in the last three or four years. And with that comes the need to understand: Who are our people? What work are they doing? Is it impacting our on-field outcomes in a meaningful way? Do we have inefficiency and redundancy or are we operating in a really efficient and effective manner?
“I think we are capable of doing that work ourselves. It would just happen on a time horizon that we can’t tolerate here. Relying on expertise that is unbiased and impartial and has a ton of experience in doing these types of things is, I think, the best way to accelerate that timeline.”
By his own admission, Breslow is a “systems-builder first,” someone trying to create a decision-making environment and process to impact not just one player but many. He believes overarching organizational structure will determine whether the big league team endures the sort of roller-coaster performance that has characterized the past 12 years (two World Series and five playoff appearances, six last-place finishes) or more consistent success.
“I think the development of sound systems and efficient processes is the difference between boom or bust cycles — which will have a run of success at times — and long-term organizational health,” said Breslow. “Very rarely are organizations successful because they get a single big decision right. They’re successful because they get a number of marginal or incremental decisions right. And I think a sound, efficient infrastructure is what allows that.”
In that pursuit, he is trying to get a feel for how the Red Sox have been running, how they are now running, and whether the objectives and key performance indicators are in synch with his desired structure.
Team officials dived into infrastructure questions as soon as Breslow was hired, particularly the pitching program. However, there are corners Breslow wants to understand more thoroughly, and the rhythm of the season, particularly as it pertains to the big league roster, makes it difficult to tackle an internal audit.
“In-season, there’s a certain amount of crisis response that pops up,” said Breslow. “In a lot of ways, we’re kind of playing Whack-a-Mole. That can distract from the bigger-picture structural organizational attention. The thought here is that if I can articulate and lay out the vision that I have for a front office, then I can employ an unbiased executor to help achieve that.”
Breslow said the audit started in the last few weeks, and that he requested it. Sportsology is a New York- and London-based consulting firm that has advised a number of professional teams in the US and abroad. Clients identified on its website include the 49ers, Rams, and Eagles in the NFL, the Mavericks and Wizards in the NBA, and Inter Miami, Cincinnati FC, the Chicago Fire, and LAFC in MLS. Red Sox CEO/president Sam Kennedy also said on NESN that Fenway Sports Group had worked with Sportsology to evaluate the Liverpool soccer team.
“This is a unique industry, so I think a management/leadership/consulting group that has experience working in sports was attractive,” said Breslow. “They’ve worked across all sports, so it’s not just skewed or biased toward baseball. I think they can help us establish best practices.”
The arrival of Theo Epstein as an FSG senior adviser provided Breslow with a trusted source of counsel who is more than a decade removed from his original Red Sox tenure. The hiring of Driveline founder Kyle Boddy as a special adviser has likewise brought in someone who can offer perspective on Red Sox systems and programs.
Breslow himself represents the organization’s interest in bringing in outside perspectives as it tries to move beyond the disappointing recent seasons. He was empowered to change the baseball operations department as he sees fit.
But while he remains open to changes while trying to strike a balance between preserving institutional wisdom, building on existing strengths, and introducing new people and ideas from outside, he believed an evaluation of current practices made sense.
“Candidly, I can’t be afraid to upset the apple cart if that’s what’s required, but I don’t want to upset the apple cart for the sake of upsetting the apple cart,” Breslow said. “I need to be intentional and deliberate around the change I intend to implement.”
Breslow recognizes that change — whether it’s an external audit or his own hiring — can be unsettling given that it raises questions about roles or even employees’ futures with the Red Sox. He sees the external audit as a way of getting beyond that transitional discomfort as quickly as possible and expediting those decisions about organizational structure and members of the front office so that the Red Sox can arrive at a more settled state.
“I’m new here, so there is uncertainty and a certain level of unsettling that I’m going to bring,” said Breslow. “I’m not looking to compound those sentiments, and that’s why I think it’s important to get this done early so that we can understand where we’re going, start to act on that, and then ensure that where we land gives people some sense of certainty and stability, as opposed to having an exercise that drags out for months and months or even years.”
As the audit proceeds, Breslow said the work he’s doing in his first season has been both consuming and rewarding. The team’s on-field performance (17-13 at the end of April despite many injuries) has been encouraging.
“It’s all of the things that I thought it would be,” he said. “It’s challenging. It’s exhilarating. It’s gratifying. I enjoy coming to work every day. I enjoy the challenges that are in front of us.
“I think when we have this efficient, effective baseball operation and we’re putting a competitive team on the field every season — one that vies for the postseason and deep postseason runs — it’s all going to be unbelievably rewarding and worthwhile.”
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.