The Red Sox are losing a prominent member of their front office for a promotion elsewhere.
According to ESPN’s Jeff Passan, assistant general manager Paul Toboni is departing Boston to become the next head of baseball operations for the Washington Nationals.
Passan notes that Toboni, 35, is “widely regarded as one of the best young executives in MLB” and ran the Red Sox draft that landed Roman Anthony, Marcelo Mayer, and Payton Tolle, among others. Toboni was also responsible for the prospects that went out in the Garret Crochet trade with the White Sox.
Toboni began his time with the Red Sox in 2015 as a baseball ops intern before joining the scouting department. From 2016-19, he was the assistant director of amateur scouting, then became director of amateur scouting after that. After three years holding the position, the Red Sox named him vice president of amateur scouting & player development, then assistant GM ahead of the 2024 season.
Craig Breslow, who has gone without a GM in his two seasons in Boston, plans to find a GM during the offseason. Breslow will be down a candidate after losing Toboni to Washington after the Nationals moved on from Mike Rizzo in July.
Breslow could look at internal candidates like Eddie Romero and Raquel Ferreira, or look outside the organization at candidates, like Cubs GM Carter Hawkins or Dodgers senior VP Josh Byrnes. Hawkins and Byrnes were reported candidates for vacant Nationals head of baseball ops position.
Toboni is expected to hire a GM of his own, according to The Athletic’s Britt Ghiroli.