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Chicago Tribune
3 hours ago
- Sport
- Chicago Tribune
Chicago White Sox place starter Davis Martin on the 15-day IL with a right forearm strain
TORONTO — The Chicago White Sox placed starter Davis Martin on the 15-day injured list with a right forearm strain, the team announced Friday. The IL stint is retroactive to Tuesday. It was one of five moves by the Sox before their weekend series against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Reliever Cam Booser went on the 15-day injured list with a left shoulder strain. Booser appeared in Game 1 of Thursday's doubleheader against the St. Louis Cardinals at Rate Field, allowing three runs (two earned) in two-thirds of an inning in the 5-4 loss. The lefty is 1-4 with a 5.11 ERA, one save, seven holds and 27 strikeouts during 30 relief outings. The Sox called up pitchers Wikelman González from Triple-A Charlotte and Jake Palisch from Double-A Birmingham. González, 23, one of the four players the Sox acquired from the Boston Red Sox this offseason in the Garrett Crochet trade, is 5-0 with a 2.75 ERA and 18 strikeouts in 12 relief appearances since joining the Knights on April 29. He began the season at Birmingham. Palisch, 26, is 4-1 with a 1.19 ERA, 0.92 WHIP and 35 strikeouts in 15 appearances (seven starts) with Birmingham. He leads the Southern League in ERA and WHIP. Palisch was named Southern League and White Sox Minor League Pitcher of the Month for May after going 2-1 with a 0.75 ERA, 0.54 WHIP and 22 strikeouts during five outings (four starts). The White Sox also designated pitcher Caleb Freeman for assignment. The right-hander had a 5.40 ERA and three strikeouts in five relief appearances during two stints with the team this season. Martin is 2-7 with a 3.79 ERA and 53 strikeouts over 14 appearances (13 starts). He was slated to start Friday's series opener. Grant Taylor will start instead.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Triston Casas ‘living (his) worst nightmare' as he sets goal for return to Red Sox after knee injury
BOSTON — A month and a day after suffering a gruesome knee injury that ended his season after just 29 games, Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas didn't sugarcoat the impact of having a second consecutive year cut short by a significant injury. 'I'm living my worst nightmare right now,' said Casas, on crutches in Boston's clubhouse Tuesday. 'This is the worst-case scenario for any type of player, to go through a recovery that's double digit-months long. But going through it now, I feel like I'm gonna be better as a consequence of it.' Advertisement On May 2, Casas was trying to beat out a dribbler down the first base line when his left foot planted awkwardly on the base line and he immediately crumpled to the ground in pain. Unable to get up, Casas called for a cart and was immediately taken to an area hospital. The diagnosis was a significant one: a full rupture of the patellar tendon in his left knee. Within 48 hours, Casas had surgery and began a rehab process that'll take multiple months. He hopes to ditch his crutches in a couple weeks before starting to do mobility training, likely at the Sox' complex in Fort Myers. He has one goal in mind when it comes to a return date. 'I've heard different amount of months,' Casas said. 'I haven't heard anything over a year though. As of right now, our goal is Opening Day next year. Just gonna take it slow. 'I'm gonna spend the winter in Fort Myers, rehabbing, and until then, just try to stay in a positive mindset. I know there's a lot of healing that's done that's outside of the training table. Just trying to take it one day at a time, be positive and maintaining a good head space is gonna be important as well.' Advertisement Patellar tears are unusual for baseball players and are seen more often in offensive linemen in football. Casas noted that former Red Sox pitcher Garrett Richards, who suffered a similar injury on the Fenway Park field as a member of the Angels in 2014, has provided support from afar. Casas is confident he will be able to make a full recovery in time. 'They're very confident,' Casas said, referencing his medical team. 'I talked to my surgeon and he said it was almost the best-case scenario, just with how everything almost completely detached. Once you're dealing with having to mend back tendons together, you're dealing with microfibers. To have a complete rupture is almost the best-case scenario. They said that I'm gonna make a full recovery." Casas has watched the video of the fateful play and has no regrets. 'I looked at the video and, obviously I didn't mean to kick Ty France,' he said, referencing Minnesota's first baseman. 'That's something playing first base I'd never do. So my foot slipped on that step before. I think I went to a range of motion I wasn't comfortable with and I never came down. Tried to catch myself with that foot after the step after the bag and just didn't. Advertisement 'It's just part of the game. It's part of running hard down the line. It's part of just playing the game how you feel like it should be. I wouldn't have changed anything about it. That was just a move that I've done thousands of times. I can't say I would've done anything differently or I have any regrets about it. It's just onward from here.' On impact, Casas feared his season was over. 'I (knew) pretty much immediately,' he said. 'It felt somebody hit me with a sledgehammer as I was running by ... I knew something happened. I didn't even really wanna move from that laying down position. I just asked our trainer to get me a cart. I knew something wasn't normal. I tried to stay calm, but I knew it was pretty severe.' For now, Casas — on pace with his recovery — is taking his work one day at a time, doing range-of-motion exercises with his hips and quads and getting treatment from the medical staff at Fenway Park. With nearly 10 months to go before Opening Day, he knows there are obstacles ahead of him. Making things more difficult is that the Red Sox have struggled in his absence and enter Tuesday four games under .500 at 29-33. Advertisement 'Physically, it's gonna be the toughest thing that I've gone through so far in my career,' Casas said. 'A lot of anger, a lot of frustration. I had a lot of goals for myself this year that I'm not gonna be able to accomplish. So back to the drawing board. I'll have a full offseason to recover and get back to the caliber of player I hope on being and let's try to attack it next year.' More Red Sox coverage Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
After Rafael Devers trade, here are five big roster questions facing Red Sox, Craig Breslow
BOSTON — Rafael Devers is no longer a member of the Red Sox. That sentence, nearly a full day after news broke that Boston had dealt the slugger to San Francisco for a four-player package that includes pitchers Jordan Hicks and Kyle Harrison, remains as jarring as it was the second the news broke. The main story remains the messy divorce between the club and an All-Star who was made the highest-paid player in franchise history just two years ago. But both sides have to move on, so it's worth looking forward a bit. Advertisement The Devers-less Red Sox, before seeing their old friend over the weekend at Oracle Park, have three games in Seattle, starting Monday night. Here are five questions that will be answered — and some soon — in the wake of the Devers deal: 1) Who will take DH at-bats? The Red Sox have long been a club that has a full-time designated hitter, with stars David Ortiz and J.D. Martinez assuming the role for years before stop-gaps like Justin Turner, Masataka Yoshida and Devers in more recent years. In the interim, though, it's possible manager Alex Cora will get to mix and match at DH. Before the Devers deal, one of the stories of the weekend was how Cora could mix in all of his position players when he only had nine lineup spots to work with. Rookies Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer each sat twice against the Yankees, who started three lefties in a row. Now, there's more at-bats to go around. Advertisement In Seattle, before right fielder Wilyer Abreu is activated this weekend, the Red Sox might use a bench bat like Rob Refsnyder or Romy Gonzalez at DH with Abraham Toro, Mayer and Anthony all expected to start. Things will get more crowded over the weekend in San Francisco when Abreu returns but there's now an answer to the outfield logjam. Cora can start Jarren Duran, Ceddanne Rafaela, Abreu and Anthony all at the same time. How much the Red Sox will want to sacrifice outfield defense to potentially stall Anthony's defensive development is the big question there. The eventual healthy return of Alex Bregman will further shake things up, and at that point, the Sox will try to ride the hot hand in deciding who stays and who goes. Bregman will return to third base, so Mayer could get DH at-bats or shift to second base if it's decided that Kristian Campbell needs some time at Triple-A. Those decisions, though, remain a few weeks away. In a few weeks, Yoshida — who is finally feeling better after a slow buildup following labral repair surgery — will join the mix as well. The Red Sox, with Devers in tow, have said all year that they want Yoshida to be able to play the field when he returns. That might no longer be the case. Boston is never going to replace Devers' production at DH with anyone on the current roster. But they have to find ways to fill the hole regardless. Advertisement 2) How will Alex Cora make up his lineup? In all 73 games this year, Devers has hit second for the Red Sox. Cora will need to shake up his batting order immediately. Duran is the obvious leadoff man against righties, but there are some options for the No. 2 spot. Could Cora entrust a rookie like Anthony or Mayer to do so? He might need to, at least in the interim. Abreu could be a factor, too, after hitting second 44 times in 2023. A lineup that was already featuring Toro and catcher Carlos Narváez in the No. 3 and No. 4 spots was thin to begin with. Now, it's at DEFCON levels. The guess here is that Cora builds a lineup around Duran, Abreu and Bregman as his top three when Bregman returns, then mixes and matches in the cleanup spot depending on who's hitting well. Right now, though, the Red Sox are without four of their top five projected hitters with Devers gone, Triston Casas out for the season and both Bregman and Abreu hurt. Advertisement 3) How will the new pitchers factor in? Both Hicks (48.2 innings) and Harrison (23.2 innings) have pitched for the Giants this year. Hicks was moved from the rotation to the bullpen in late May after struggling and Harrison is a starter who has pitched in both the big leagues and Triple-A. Neither will be available to the Sox immediately, though. Hicks has been out since June 3 with right toe inflammation, which he could soon return from. Harrison is healthy but after being scratched from a Sunday Night Baseball start against the Dodgers, was optioned to Triple-A Worcester. The plans for htem are unclear at this point. Boston's rotation just completed a great turn with Lucas Giolito, Walker Buehler, Hunter Dobbins and Brayan Bello all making good starts behind ace Garrett Crochet. Tanner Houck, who begins a rehab assignment at Worcester on Wednesday, is also close to coming back. Ultimately, the Red Sox will go with their best arms in the starting five. For now, though, Hicks might become a high-velocity arm at the back end of an injured bullpen after pitching in relief four times for San Francisco. He was a reliever (and a good one, too) with St. Louis and Toronto from 2018 to 2023 before San Francisco signed him and made him a starter last year. Advertisement Just like with Quinn Priester last year after he was obtained in a deadline trade, it seems the Sox want Harrison's organizational onboarding to take place at Triple-A. He will serve as rotation depth this year, sure, but adding him was more about the future. 4) How will the Sox spend the money? There's another shoe to drop — and it's not dramatic to posit that it will truly reveal whether the Red Sox are actually still committed to trying to win or not. According to MassLive's calculations, Boston just saved more than $270 million by shipping Devers to San Francisco, including more than $16 million off the competitive balance tax for the rest of this season (and $29 million in each of the next eight seasons). After trading the highest-paid player in franchise history, the Red Sox don't have a ton in the way of big commitments down the road. Bregman, Walker Buehler, Lucas Giolito and Aroldis Chapman, who are all making good money this year, are either free agents or have options/opt-outs. The Red Sox are really only committed to big numbers for Garrett Crochet ($28 million CBT hit), Trevor Story ($23.33 million) and Yoshida ($18 million) for 2025. They have plenty of money to spend, especially after the early extensions for Kristian Campbell, Ceddanne Rafaela and Brayan Bello lowered future CBT numbers on those players. Advertisement So how will they spend it? Breslow and Co. might not have much time to figure that out. The Devers deal opens the door for a major trade deadline addition of a controllable, high-dollar player and a high-ranking source indicated Sunday that the Red Sox, at 37-36 after a big weekend sweep of the Yankees, still wholeheartedly intend to buy at the trade deadline and shop aggressively. That, obviously, could change with a bad few weeks in the wake of the Devers move. For now, though, the club's eyes are on additions. 5) What's the long-term outlook at first base? For now, it's Toro and Gonzalez at first base on an everyday basis. Devers wasn't moving there in the middle of the season but things change as time goes on and there was always the possibility that he'd return to the field as a first baseman at some point in the distant future. Now, that possibility is gone. Casas' injury is so severe — and the recovery is so long — that the Red Sox shouldn't count on him being a lock to play every day in 2026. There's a real question of who projects as Boston's long-term first baseman and there's no perfect fit on the roster (or in the system). It's too early to know exactly who will be available at the deadline. But in Boston's search for a big bat, the club should look for a big-name, everyday option at first, and one with control, too. More Red Sox coverage Read the original article on MassLive.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
MLB Notebook: What will it look like if the Red Sox are sellers at trade deadline?
It goes without saying that this was not how the Red Sox envisioned the 2025 season unfolding. After showing a renewed aggressiveness last offseason in the free agent market (Alex Bregman, Aroldis Chapman, Walker Buehler and Justin Wilson) and trade market (Garrett Crochet), the Sox pushed past the first CBT (competitive balance tax) threshold for the first time in several years. Advertisement And what hasn't it gotten them? An underperforming roster with multiple holes, some familiar shortcomings (errors, RISP issues), and a sub-.500 record. Surely, at the start of the year, the Sox anticipated augmenting their roster at the trade deadline, armed with an overflow of desirable prospects who could fetch established major leagues to round out their roster with an eye toward the franchise's first playoff visit since 2021. And now? The possibility exists, if the team doesn't rebound and soon, that the Sox may be reluctant sellers on July 31, focused on shedding veterans who could fetch still more prospects as the Sox continue their rebuild. That wasn't the plan, of course. It could be argued that the Sox haven't been in full sell mode since 2014, when they auctioned off Jon Lester, just nine months after he had helped pitch them to another World Series title. Advertisement (They probably should have been sellers more often, including 2015 when, on their way to a second-straight last place finish, they unloaded only outfielder Shane Victorino). Obviously, the Red Sox don't wish to be sellers next month. The hope is that the team rights itself, gets improved performance from both the rotation and the lineup, and plays well enough to climb back into contention. There are plenty of recent examples of teams rallying in mid-summer, including the 2019 Washington Nationals, the 2023 Arizona Diamondbacks, to name two. As it is, the Sox enter their weekend series in New York just four games out of the last wildcard spot. That's hardly an insurmountable number. Advertisement But what if there's no improvement coming? What if, high hopes and all, this is who the Red Sox are? In that case, there would be an auction. Which players would become available and who would have the most value? A look: STARTING PITCHERS At first glance, this would seem an unlikely place from which to deal since the rotation has been among the biggest weaknesses — Garrett Crochet aside. But contending teams are desperate to bolster starting rotations every July, and just because a pitcher has failed to meet expectations doesn't mean there aren't teams still interested, believing that they can figure things out – if only for a few months. Advertisement Walker Buehler would be the most sought-after, if mostly for his resume rather than his 2024 performance to date. Buehler has a ton of postseason experience, with 18 starts in either the NLDS, NLCS or World Series. As recently as last year, he won one game in the World Series and closed out the Dodgers' clinching game. His 4.44 ERA may not be sterling this year, but there have been a few outings in which he's put everything together and showed flashes of his younger self. That will be enough for teams to have interest, especially since Buehler is on what is effectively a one-year deal. He would cost about $7 million for the final two months of the season, which is tantamount to chump change in today's marketplace. Count Lucas Giolito in this category, too, with two important distinctions: 1) He doesn't have anywhere near Buehler's October track record and 2) He's coming off internal brace surgery in March of 2024 and, somewhat predictably, has struggled with consistency after missing all of last season. Is Giolito the guy who has thrice pitched through the sixth inning or longer? Or is he the guy who's been shelled for six runs or more on three other occasions. Even the Red Sox are unsure about the answer to that one. Advertisement But the mere fact that Giolito has even occasionally provided quality starts will attract suitors. Like Buehler, he's effectively on a one-year deal and would cost a little more than $6 million, with the potential for a small buyout ($1.5 million) for a team option in 2026 if he gets to 140 innings before the end of the season. BULLPEN Teams are also seemingly always looking to upgrade their bullpens, making Aroldis Chapman a very valuable piece. In fact, other than the Cardinals' Ryan Helsley, Chapman could be the most in-demand closer in the game in six weeks. Chapman is having a fine season, having converted nine of 10 save opportunities. He still gets a lot of swing-and-miss (11.9 strikeouts per nine innings pitched), and is on track to post his lowest WHIP and lowest walk rate since 2020. At 37, Chapman remains a physical marvel. Advertisement Add in the fact that he's lefthanded, offering matchup possibilities and there may be no end to potential teams with interest. Certainly, his salary obligations — he'll be due just $3.5 million for the final two months — won't scare anybody off. Fellow bullpen southpaw Justin Wilson is another with value. Wilson doesn't close, but he has been terrific against lefty hitters, holding them to a .115 batting average. At a time of year when teams are searching for the smallest advantage, trading for a veteran who can get tough lefties out will create a strong market. The fact that he'll be owed less than $1 million for the final third of the season only increases his attractiveness. POSITION PLAYERS It will be fascinating to see how they handle the Alex Bregman situation. (This presumes, of course, that Bregman is back well before the deadline and fully recovered from his significant quad injury). Advertisement Bregman's deal with the Red Sox was a three-year deal, but it really translates into three one-year contracts, since he has opt-out language after this year and next. If things continue to go sideways and the Red Sox think that Bregman is going to opt-out anyway, they could move him at the deadline and then try to re-sign him over the winter — albeit to a longer pact than last time. Imagine the amount of interest at the deadline from the Chicago Cubs and Detroit Tigers — two teams that unsuccessfully pursued Bregman last offseason – since both are expected to be very much in playoff contention. Given Bregman's impact both on and off the field, it's entirely feasible that the Sox could approach him in the coming weeks with a longer extension and remove the chance of moving him next month. Advertisement If not, Bregman's trade value will by sky high if the Sox are forced to sell. Rob Refnsyder may 'only' be a role player, but that doesn't mean he's without a market. Refnsyder typically mashes lefties (.962 OPS this season) and would be an attractive pickup as a platoon player or pinch-hitter. It's not out of the realm of possibility that some team may see him as an everyday option, too, given that he's got an .875 OPS against righties this season in an admittedly small sample size. The Sox value Refsnyder's role as a clubhouse voice and leader and might want to bring him back for 2026, but given his age (34) and the fact that he contemplated retirement at recently as the end of last season, it's unclear how much longer he intends to keep playing. At the start of the year, Connor Wong was the team's primary option behind the plate, and with the loss of Kyle Teel, that status seemed to provide him with some job security on the roster. Advertisement But things can change quickly in baseball, and just a few months later, Carlos Narvaez as emerged as the catcher of the present and future. That makes Wong expendable, and with three full seasons of control, he wouldn't be just a short-term rental. It's unlikely that many other teams view Wong as a No. 1 catcher at this point, but he could certainly fill that role for a short period of time if injuries strike. Also, his athleticism and versatility (he's capable of at least filling in at a few infield spots) could up his value. ____________ The Colorado Rockies are flirting with history this season – and not in a good way. Advertisement The Rockies entered Thursday with a 12-50 record, and that came after they swept a series from the Miami Marlins, constituting their longest winning streak of the season. Earlier, they became the first franchise to lose 50 games before winning their 10th game of the season. They're on pace to obliterate the ineptitude of last year's Chicago White Sox, who set a modern record in 2024 with 121 losses. All of which can't help but make Ellis Burks, the former Red Sox outfielder and TV analyst, sad. 'It's unfortunate,' said Burks, 'I have no idea what the problem is. I don't know if it's scouting or player development. I've talked to some people there and they can't figure it out. But they're spiraling in the wrong direction. I don't know if they're trying to rebuild and it's going to take a few years, but it's unfortunate what's happened. It's tough to watch. Advertisement 'They do have a great fan base. Fans were hungry for a team, so it was great to place a franchise there. But it hasn't gone well for a while there.' Burks spent almost five seasons with the Rockies in the 1990s when the club annually drew almost four million fans and set offensive records with their powerful lineup. The 'Blake St. Bombers' featured, among others, Burks, Dante Bichette, Andres Galarraga, Vinny Castilla and Larry Walker. They would bludgeon teams to death and provide high-scoring action on a nightly basis. Even when they didn't win, fans at Coors Field got their money's worth. 'We knew it was going to be a track meet every night,' recalled Burks. 'We knew we had to score nine and hope the pitching staff held them to eight. The atmosphere in those years was electric every night. We knew whoever was coming into Coors Field were already thinking about what they were going to be facing. Advertisement 'I used to say it was a 'Nightmare on Blake St' for pitchers. I don't care who it was — I guarantee you, they had nightmares before games. It was one of those situations where we knew we were good. We knew we were going to score runs. We would tell the pitching staff, even if they gave up three or four runs in the first inning, 'Don't worry – we got you.' And the fans knew that as well That brought a lot of excitement to the Denver region where they came out in bundles to watch us play." Now, however, the Rockies can neither hit nor pitch, and the losses are stacking up at a record pace. 'They're going to have to figure it out and figure it out fast,' said Burks. 'Otherwise they're going to become the worst team in major league history and that's one title you don't want.' More Red Sox coverage Read the original article on MassLive.
Boston Globe
9 hours ago
- Business
- Boston Globe
The Red Sox caught heat for using an AI screener in job interviews. Applicants explain what the ‘really impersonal' process was like.
Advertisement 'This is one of several steps in the hiring process and is just one factor that helps determine which candidates should advance to an in-person interview,' the statement continued. 'This tool is in no way a replacement for in-person interviews, simply one of many steps that helps the club screen the many candidates who apply for each job posting.' Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Of course, the simple fact that the Sox' hiring efforts aren't being led by AI bots doesn't mean that their process is beyond reproach. Multiple individuals who interviewed with the Sox as well as other clubs last year described the Sox' process as discouragingly impersonal, with infrequent human interaction relative to other teams. That view isn't universally held, but it's sufficiently widespread — and most recently, caricatured as robotic — that it's worth examining. Advertisement The Sox post positions widely across a number of job boards such as Fangraphs and Baseball Prospectus, an approach meant to draw a broad candidate pool but that also yields massive responses to posted positions. According to the team, baseball operations listings solicit from 500 to 3,000 submissions of online résumés and cover letters. Typically, someone in human resources screens the applications to highlight strong candidates. That narrowed pool of applications will then be directed to a small group of employees in the relevant sub-department in baseball operations (development, acquisitions, baseball sciences, etc.) for further résumé screening. Once a list of strong candidates has been identified for a baseball operations position — say, 50 to 100 — the HR representative will reach out to that group to invite them to continue in the process. A form letter invites candidates both to conduct a HireVue interview and to complete a 'problem set' of multiple exercises. HireVue is a software program through which candidates take part in an automated, standardized, 10- to 15-minute interview. The Sox have used it to varying degrees since 2012, when Ben Cherington was general manager. Candidates are given a series of a few questions. After each, they're afforded a brief window to contemplate a response, and a few minutes to speak. People across the Sox organization can then review the video at any time. A form letter sent by a team HR representative to an applicant last fall explained that HireVue is used to standardize the interview process (all applicants receive the same questions), to increase the convenience of setting up and scheduling remote interviews, and to make it easier for a number of people throughout the organization to see the candidate's interview. Advertisement Views on its use are mixed. One person who'd encountered HireVue in other industries thought it was a logical early step in an application process. 'I actually think HireVue is a pretty good screening process,' said one person who applied for a Red Sox job last year, and who has interviewed with other clubs. 'I would say [the Red Sox hiring process] was pretty run-of-the-mill for interviewing for a baseball ops job with an MLB club.' Others found it less than ideal, and preferred the approach of other clubs that conduct anywhere from one to several phone or Zoom interviews near the outset of the process. 'I didn't leave the [HireVue] interview thinking to myself, 'Oh, that was an AI interview. That was bad,' ' said one candidate. 'But was it my preferred method to interview? Absolutely not. It's really impersonal. You can't really develop that personal and human-to-human connection.' 'It's just very awkward and cold,' said another. The problem sets, meanwhile, examine how candidates evaluate players through both video and data, and how they communicate their findings. For example, past problem sets included choosing between Atlanta pitcher Spencer Schwellenbach and Nationals outfielder James Wood as extension candidates and formulating a realistic extension proposal; explaining how an individual — using a series of spreadsheets — balanced both surface-level performance data and ball-tracking data to identify prospects; and critiquing a predictive model for player performance. Problem sets have become common in applications for MLB teams, but the Sox' is viewed as more exhaustive (and exhausting) than most. Candidates required anywhere from 5-10 hours to 50-60 hours to formulate responses to the problem sets. Advertisement 'They're time-consuming, is the biggest thing,' said one person who took part in problem sets for the Sox and at least one other team last year. Moreover, the lack of direct interaction with Sox employees through that stage of the process left some applicants confused about whether the team was more interested in seeing candidates come up with a 'correct' answer or a logical process. According to sources familiar with the team's hiring practices, both the HireVue interview and problem sets are reviewed by team employees, who then winnow the candidate pool to roughly a half-dozen candidates for Zoom or phone interviews, usually with a goal of identifying two final candidates for any given position. Finalists can interview with multiple assistant GMs and directors. One applicant who had three remote interviews with multiple higher-ups in the organization called the process both well-organized and efficient — ranking it in the middle of the six interviews across five organizations he'd experienced. That individual also expressed appreciation for a follow-up call with a member of the Sox offering feedback about why his candidacy had fallen short. 'I see what they're trying to do,' he said of the process. Others who didn't make it to that end stage had less favorable experiences given the lack of human contact with members of the Sox. The sense of the team's impersonal approach to hiring was amplified last year by the fact that multiple applicants, after completing the problem set and HireVue interview, received the same emailed form letter, with the same unfortunate top-level sentence: 'Thank you for your interest in working for the Boston Red Sox and applying for the {{insert job title}}.' Advertisement 'I didn't go further than that line. I kind of laughed and closed out the email,' said one applicant. 'That was the part that upset me in the moment. I still look back and laugh on it.' Alex Speier can be reached at
