Red Sox promote from within to fill top scouting role, naming Mike Rikard VP

The Red Sox are changing up their scouting department after firing Dave Dombrowski.Barry Chin/Globe staff

While the Red Sox have yet to determine who will lead their baseball operations department, they nonetheless are embracing the idea of change among the decision-makers.

On Monday, the Sox announced changes within their scouting operations department. With senior vice president of baseball operations Frank Wren and special assistant Eddie Bane having been let go last week, the team is elevating Mike Rikard — formerly the VP of amateur scouting who directed the team’s draft efforts since 2015 — to the position of vice president of scouting.

Rikard will enjoy an expanded profile, remaining involved in the draft but also heavily scouting the system. In so doing, the organization hopes for greater perspective in its evaluations, given the opportunity to put eyes on players from the time of their amateur careers through their time in the minors.

Additionally, Rikard will be involved in virtually every facet of the organization’s scouting efforts — including international amateur and professional scouting.

Related: In what shape did Dave Dombrowski leave the Red Sox farm system?

With Rikard’s portfolio broadening, the Red Sox will elevate Paul Toboni, the assistant director of amateur scouting, to amateur scouting director. Toboni, a graduate of UC Berkeley (where his playing career was cut short by injuries) and the MBA program at Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business, has been assistant director of amateur scouting since November 2016. Prior to that, he spent a year as a Red Sox area scout in North Texas and North Louisiana.

Devin Pearson, also a UC Berkeley grad who has been in the Red Sox scouting department since 2017, was elevated to the position of assistant director of amateur scouting.

The team announced other promotions, among them the elevation of North Florida area scout Stephen Hargett — whose signees in recent years have included 2015 eighth-rounder Logan Allen and 14th-rounder Bobby Poyner, 2016 third-rounder Shaun Anderson, and 2018 fifth-rounder Thad Ward — to a regional cross-checker position.