To date, the most significant obstacle to the Boston Red Sox’s success next season may be the Washington Nationals.
In late September, the Nationals dealt a major blow to Boston’s front office by hiring former Red Sox assistant general manager Paul Toboni as their new president of baseball operations. Toboni had been widely seen as a rising star within the organization and a likely candidate to become GM and serve as chief baseball officer Craig Breslow’s top lieutenant. His departure leaves a notable gap in Boston’s leadership structure.
However, the talent drain doesn’t stop there. On Tuesday, the Nationals poached another promising Red Sox executive.
Devin Pearson leaves Red Sox for Nationals
According to multiple reports, the Washington Nationals have continued to poach talent from the Red Sox front office, hiring Boston’s amateur scouting director Devin Pearson as their new assistant general manager under recently appointed president of baseball operations Paul Toboni.
Alex Speier of The Boston Globe was first to break the news of Pearson’s departure, while Joe Doyle of Over Slot reported that Jake Bruml, previously the assistant director of amateur scouting, will step into Pearson’s role as scouting director.
Pearson played a key role in leading Boston’s last three amateur drafts, a stretch that yielded several promising players. Among them are Payton Tolle and Connelly Early, both of whom ended the season on the big-league roster, as well as Kyle Teel and Braden Montgomery, two major components in the trade that brought Garrett Crochet to Boston. That group also includes rising prospect Kristian Campbell.
Pearson played one year of college baseball at the University of California with Toboni, so their bond understandably goes back much farther than their time with the Red Sox. Pearson joined the Red Sox organization in 2017.
Bruml has been with the Red Sox since 2019, beginning as a scouting intern, so the pipeline of fast-rising front office executives continues even in the absence of both Toboni and Pearson.
The Nationals certainly have plenty of knowledge of the Red Sox’s farm system now, which could become relevant if the two sides align on any potential trades. But there’s no sugarcoating what tough losses these are, and Boston will need the rest of the front office to step up in their absence.
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