Baseball Notebook: Front offices have Red Sox flavor – Boston Herald

TORONTO — This round of baseball’s playoffs has displayed an almost strange jumble of executive movement across the game with a strong Red Sox influence.

“Certainly in the front office there (in Chicago),” Cubs general manager Jed Hoyer said yesterday. “You have Theo (Epstein) and me and Jason (McLeod), and (scouting directors) Jared Porter and Matt Dorey, all Red Sox guys. I think from the front-office standpoint, you know, in these jobs, trust is sort of everything. And you want to hire people you trust . . . and you know they have the same basic philosophy.”

In the National League Championship Series, Andrew Friedman, who used to run the Rays and now is the Dodgers boss, is squaring off with Epstein and Hoyer.

Friedman is up against his former field manager, Joe Maddon of the Cubs. And Alex Anthopoulos, who used to compete directly against the Sox and Rays as the general manager of the Blue Jays, is part of Friedman’s front office in Los Angeles.

The executives themselves don’t see a rivalry rekindled, necessarily.

“I don’t look at it that way,” Anthopoulos said. “You look at it, it’s a great team, it’s the Cubs. In the East, you just felt like, all those teams are contending every year. They’re all competing, they’re all very well-run. . . . It’s all kind of moved around.”

The Jays-Indians American League Championship Series was set up as a more direct confrontation.

Mark Shapiro, the president and CEO in Toronto, spent nearly a quarter century with the Indians before joining the Blue Jays ahead of this season. He brought Ross Atkins with him from Cleveland to be his general manager.

The Indians and Shapiro are looked at as the premier tree now. How does Shapiro view the Sox’ influence?

Shapiro echoed Hoyer.

“I mean, John Farrell, I brought out of Oklahoma State (where he was a coach),” Shapiro said. “Mike Hazen started with us (in Cleveland). I think it gets to a point where it’s not — they’re just relationships. It’s not Indians or Red Sox.

“In a game of 30 teams, having the relationships are kind of where we gain (an understanding of) who we trust, who we respect, who we go to for, ‘Hey, who are the guys out there that are the difference-makers?’”

General meaning

As the Sox search for a GM (they likely will fill the job from the inside) it’s important to remember how unique the role can be in organizations where it is not the top baseball job.

Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, of course, runs the major league operation.

But in Toronto, Shapiro said he’s not getting involved in a day-to-day baseball move like a minor league call-up.

“Dave’s only baseball. I’m overseeing both here, business and baseball,” Shapiro said. “So Ross is a true GM. I’m a president that has an understanding of, the largest lever is baseball. I’m more involved in baseball than probably someone who would have no involvement in baseball, but like Theo, (Indians president of baseball operations) Chris Antonetti, Dave, they’re the lead baseball executive. I would just call it — that’s what they are. The No. 1.”

With Tito from start

One of the Indians’ staffers has been with manager Terry Francona from the very beginning of his coaching career.

Mike Barnett, the Indians replay coordinator and a staff assistant, was in the White Sox system as a hitting coach from 1990-97 and met Francona in 1991.

Francona’s last year as a player was 1990.

“When he first came over, he was the hitting coach in the Gulf Coast League, and I was the hitting coach in (Single-A) Sarasota,” Barnett said. “The next year, he managed (Single-A) South Bend, and the year after that we were together ’93, ’94 and ’95 in (Double-A) Birmingham. Won a championship in Birmingham. Had Michael Jordan (as a player). We did Team USA together. It’s been a great ride.”

From the start, Barnett saw how well Tito handled people and pitching staffs.

“The thing that always amazed me is he let the game take shape, and by the time we got to the fourth or fifth inning, he knew what he was going to do,” Barnett said. “Up a lot, down a lot, up a little, back a little. He was formulating that. The way he handles pitching to me is amazing.

“The other thing, the way he handles people. He just has the unique style to be able to get the best out of everybody.”

Barnett’s been a major league coach, for the Blue Jays (2002-05), Royals (2006-08) and Astros (2011-12).