Baird leaves Sox front office for Mets
The Red Sox lost a key front office executive yesterday when Allard Baird joined the New York Mets as vice president of player development and scouting.
Red Sox sources confirmed the move, although the Mets have yet to announce it.
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The Red Sox will not make a hire to replace him.
Said president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski:
“We are going to replace his responsibilities internally with other personnel.”
Baird, a native of Rochester, N.H., was most recently Red Sox senior vice president of player personnel. He joined the Sox in July 2006 as a special assignment scout and began his rise up the ranks later that fall, when he became assistant to general manager Theo
Epstein. In 2011, Baird became vice president player personnel/pro scouting.
Before joining the Red Sox, Baird was general manager of the Kansas City Royals from 2000-06.
Big bucks in London
Major League Baseball is charging princely prices for its first games in Britain.
Premium seats at London’s Olympic Stadium will cost 385 pounds ($493) for the games between the champion red Sox and New York Yankees on June 29 and 30. The top non-premium seats near the infield cost 320 pounds ($410).
Seats in the outfield corners go for 270 ($346) and 220 pounds ($282), according to a chart on Ticketmaster’s website. The ones behind the outfield fences go for 120 pounds ($154).
Tickets in the second deck cost 270, 170 ($218), 145 ($186), 120, 80 ($102), 45 ($58) and 30 pounds ($38).
A presale for Yankees and Sox season ticket-holders starts tomorrow, and a presale for those who have preregistered begins Monday.
The general on-sale date is Dec. 6.
Torreyes to Cubs
Infielder Ronald Torreyes was traded from the New York Yankees to the Chicago Cubs for a player to be determined or cash.
The 26-year-old was designated for assignment Monday to clear a roster spot when the Yankees claimed right-hander Parker
Bridwell off waivers from the Los Angeles Angels.
Torreyes was acquired by the Cubs from Cincinnati in December 2011 and spent 1½ seasons in Chicago’s minor league system. His contract was purchased by Houston in July 2013, by Toronto in May 2015 and by the Los Angeles Dodgers the following month.
He made his major league debut with the Dodgers that September and was traded to the Yankees in January 2016. In quick succession he was claimed off waivers by the Angels and re-claimed by the Yankees.
Union extends Clark
Tony Clark’s contract as executive director of the Major League Baseball Players Association was extended through 2022, a year past the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreement with MLB.
The former All-Star first baseman became executive director after previous union head Michael Weiner died in 2013, and Clark led negotiations for a labor contract covering 2017-21.
“As much as anything, the engagement of our guys, the interest that they have, both now and moving forward, being connected to that, supportive of that, and leading them through that is something that I’m grateful for the opportunity to do,” Clark said . ...
The Dodgers have acquired left-handed pitcher
Adam McCreery from the Atlanta Braves in exchange for cash. McCreery made his major league debut on Aug. 9 at Washington.
Also, the Dodgers hired
Robert Van Scoyoc as hitting coach, along with Dino Ebel as third base coach, Aaron
Bates as assistant hitting coach and Chris Gimenez as game-planning coach .. ...
The Chicago Cubs and left-hander Kyle Ryan have agreed to one-year contract.
He will earn $180,000 if he spends next season in the minors. His salary would increase to $555,000 if he’s in the majors.