The Boston Red Sox have told Ben Cherington he will replace Theo Epstein as Boston Red Sox GM, according to a report by Tim Brown of Yahoo Sports.
Cherington had been Boston's Vice President of Player Personnel, and served briefly as co-general manager when Epstein briefly left the team in 2005. He was originally hired by the team in 1997 by Dan Duquette.
Evan O'Dowd, currently the Colorado Rockies GM, worked with Cherington when Cherington was an advanced scout for the Cleveland Indians, and had high praise for his former colleague.
"He has great leadership skills and is very authentic," O'Dowd told the Boston Herald by phone. "It hasn't shocked me that he has gone on and done what he has done with Theo. I'm sure he would do a great job as a general manager there."
"I always tell people, imagine what it was like at Microsoft or Google now. There were a lot of similarities to what we had going on in Cleveland as it relates to creative ideas, and in that environment, Ben was right up near the top," O'Dowd said. "He would sit in the room and absorb a ton of information. He did a fantastic job. He was thorough, but very concise, and he picked up on things exceptionally well."
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