Red Sox running into major roadblock in search for front-office head

The Boston Red Sox are taking their time in a search for a new president of baseball operations to run the team, and they are having some trouble landing interviews with candidates.

The Athletic’s Chad Jennings published a story on Monday regarding the Red Sox’s search. He says four candidates have rejected the team’s requests for an interview.

The candidates who have reportedly declined interviews with the Red Sox include: Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes, Phillies GM Sam Fuld, Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey and former Rangers president of baseball operations Jon Daniels. Daniels currently works for the Rays remotely from Dallas.

For everyone but Falvey, the role as Red Sox president of baseball operations would be a promotion, so it’s not necessarily a great sign that the team is being turned down for interviews by those candidates.

If the Red Sox are to go with an internal candidate, assistant general manager Eddie Romero is viewed as a favorite. Twins GM Thad Levine, Cubs assistant GM Craig Breslow and former Pirates GM Neal Huntington are other candidates for the job.

Although the Red Sox will end up hiring someone to lead their baseball operations, being turned down for interview requests by so many candidates is not a good sign. It’s not too hard to see why the candidates might not find the job so desirable.

The Red Sox have cut spending and let some of their talented homegrown players like Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts leave. A team like the Red Sox should never let that happen. They have finished last in the AL East in three of the last four years. There is enormous competition in the division from the big-spending Yankees, young and emerging Orioles, stacked Blue Jays and the ever-competitive Rays.

Not only has the Red Sox’s spending become a problem and their division competition increased, but the team’s ownership group is showing no patience. They just fired Chaim Bloom after nearly four years on the job. They fired Dave Dombrowski less than a year after he built a World Series champion. Dombrowski responded by instantly building the Phillies into a World Series team. Before Dombrowski, Ben Cherington got only three years to lead the team. He was also fired not long after winning a World Series.