The Blue Jays have added a former general manager to their front office. Shi Davidi reports that the club has hired Ben Cherington, most recently of the Red Sox.
#BlueJays on verge of hiring former #RedSox GM Ben Cherington as VP of baseball ops, per sources: https://t.co/2h5nkHq64a
— Shi Davidi (@ShiDavidi) September 14, 2016
Some fans will remember Cherington from his ill-fated 2014/15 offseason, when he signed Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez to large contracts, and then watched as they had awful season. The Red Sox fired him after the 2015 season and replaced him with Dave Dombrowski. Davidi’s article goes on to say that Cherington’s focus with the Jays will be on player development, which is excellent news for the Jays, given the embarrassment of riches that Boston has in young talent, especially in position players. A lot of the core players suiting up for Boston now were acquired or drafted during Cherington’s tenure: Jackie Bradley Jr, Mookie Betts, Sandy Leon, Travis Shaw, Rick Porcello (though he was a big leaguer already), and Steven Wright are among the players Cherington brought to the team, along with top prospects Yoan Moncada and Andrew Benintendi who recently joined the squad as a playoff race reinforcements (Benintendi got hurt). Cherington was also around for the development of young players like Xander Bogaerts, but was brought in under Theo Epstein.
Cherington started out as an advance scout with Cleveland in 1998 before being hired by the Red Sox. He served in various scouting and player development roles for a while, was co-GM with Jed Hoyer during Theo Epstein’s brief vacation at the end of 2005, and went back to player development before becoming general manager full-time in 2011. He served that role until the end of the 2015 season, before being replaced by Dombrowski.
This will have no impact on the Jays for this season, but for those with an eye to the future, this is a great move. Adding another smart voice in a front office that already has a lot of them can’t hurt, and someone with a strong focus in player development will hopefully help the Jays continue to build a strong farm system, and maybe graduate some full-time position players for the first time since Aaron Hill and Adam Lind were taking regular at-bats.
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