Gasper: Billy Beane should be the next Boston Red Sox GM
The Boston Red Sox fired Chaim Bloom on Thursday as their Chief Baseball Officer and say they will begin their search for a replacement right away. On Friday’s Felger and Mazz, Chris Gasper of The Boston Globe let the guys know who he wanted for a replacement for Bloom.
Audio
Gasper wants Billy Beane in Boston….
Felger: Gasper, who’s your GM? Who’s your next Red Sox GM?
Chris Gasper: Billy Beane.
Jim Murray: Boooo!
Chris Gasper: Billy Beane is the guy.
Mazz: Booo!
Felger: Why? Why Boo?
Jim Murray: He’s the chief nerd of all. Eff him. He’s the one that started all this crap.
J-Stew: He’s ruining baseball. Billy Beane did.
Mazz: He ruined it. Past tense.
Felger: You’re not going to get a non nerd. It’s over. There are no not nerds left to hire. There’s only a degree of nerd. And it’s gotten so nerdy that I think he’s probably more of a throwback than most of the nerds now. But anyway. Where is Billy being right now, Chris? And why is he your guy?
Chris Gasper: First of all Felger, thank you. You’re right. He is more of a throwback at this point. He’s in his sixties. He’s in Oakland. They sort of put him out to pasture a little bit. They made him a senior advisor to the owner out there. It doesn’t seem like that’s exactly what he wants to do. And remember now, Mazz, I know you remember this well, John Henry pursued Billy Beane back in 2002 before they promoted Theo Epstein. He really wanted him. They offered him a then unprecedented deal. And I think that when rich people get turned down by someone that sticks with them and they want to turn around and see if they can eventually get that person to do what they wanted them to do. Billy Beane is somebody who can win in a cost effective manner in terms of making the playoffs. Between 2000 and 2020, when he was involved in baseball ops over there, they made the playoffs 11 times and Billy Beane is sort of a pop culture icon. He’s a name. He has the type of buzz that I think the Red Sox need right now. And also, what’s the one thing missing from Billy Beane’s resume?
Mazz: World Series.
Felger: Yeah, Championship.
Chris Gasper: World Series. You come to the Red Sox, if you build it and it’s good, you get to keep it. You don’t have to break it up after two years like he did in Oakland. And the first time he didn’t come here because he wanted to stay in proximity to his daughter who now is an adult. She works in Chicago. He has two children now. He has twins. They’re in their teens, but they could move out here. He has a relationship with Henry. Mazz, do you remember this a couple of years ago when Redbird Capital, which was co-founded by Beane, tried to buy a stake in FSG?
Mazz: Yes.
Chris Gasper: It fell through. They wanted to take FSG public. I think baseball had sort of an issue with being having the ownership stake in the A’s and also doing this thing, anyways, if John Henry put an ownership stake in the Red Sox on the table for Beane, do you think he says no to that? I would make a push for him. And as Felger pointed out, I know he’s the guy who started this all, but Billy Beane didn’t invent the opener. Billy Beane wasn’t doing crazy shifting. Billy Beane is a throwback at this point. He’s just efficient.