Chalk one up to Bob Nightengale just saying things: per Ken Rosenthal, Frank Wren is unlikely to be the next Red Sox GM because he’s happy in his remote role down in Atlanta.
Wren’s role in Boston has been a little unclear since he was brought in last year. He came to Boston to familiarize himself with the organization, but seems to have spent much of his time since in Atlanta. He’s very much a man of the south, having been born and brought up in Florida, spending much of his career there and in Atlanta. He likes it down south, and that’s where he wants to stay.
And if his role isn’t all that concrete...well, what do you expect? There’s no real doubt why he’s in the organization. He worked under Dave Dombrowski in the Marlins front office. They’re old friends, and so now he’s part of the Red Sox front office. He probably calls up Dombrowski if he sees someone in the area who he thinks the Sox should be keeping an eye on. Call him a regional scout and general adviser if you like.
Just don’t call him GM.
With Wren out of the running, Amiel Sawdaye finds himself front-and-center in the conversation. If there’s one guy the Red Sox don’t want to lose to Mike Hazen and the Diamondbacks, it’s Sawdaye, who has largely overseen the revival of Boston as a “player development machine”. If it takes the GM role to do that, it’s a reasonable price to pay.