Frank Wren
photo by Tim Evearitt
Frank Wren has been hired by the Red Sox to be senior vice president of baseball operations.
Wren, 57, joins the Red Sox with more than 30 years of experience working in the front offices of baseball organizations. In his role with the Red Sox, Wren will serve as a talent evaluator and will assist president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski in all aspects of baseball operations. He and Dombrowski previously worked together for 11 years between the Montreal Expos and Florida Marlins organizations from 1987-98.
Most recently, Wren spent seven seasons as executive VP and general manager for the Atlanta Braves from 2008-14, part of a 15-year tenure with that organization beginning in October 1999.
He also previously served as GM for the Baltimore Orioles in 1999.
Wren, a native of St. Petersburg, Fla., was VP and assistant GM for the Marlins from 1991-98 under Dombrowski, then the Marlins' GM. They helped guide the organization to the 1997 World Series championship in just its fifth season following expansion. Wren and Dombrowski also worked together in the Expos system, where Wren began his front-office career in 1985 after coaching in the Expos system from 1981-84. A former outfielder, he played in Montreal's Minor League system from 1977-82.
The final years of Wren’s tenure as Braves general manager was marred by organizational missteps, as Atlanta made questionable free agent signings and extensions alike. Most notably, the signing of Melvin Upton Jr. and extensions for both Dan Uggla and Chris Johnson went south quickly. That’s not to say that none of the moves made with Wren in the GM chair panned out, of course; the acquisition of Justin Upton still looks to have been a win for the Braves, even if Upton has since been traded.
Similarly, the Braves gave up little in the way of impact talent to acquire Michael Bourn and were rewarded with a season and a half of excellent play as well as draft compensation upon Bourn’s departure.
Nevertheless, the late missteps in Wren’s tenure outweighed the successes in the eyes of ownership, who replaced him with fellow veteran baseball ops exec John Hart. His new role with the Red Sox will be more limited, it seems, as he’ll serve primarily as a talent evaluator and will be based in Atlanta as opposed to in Boston, according to Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe and Sean McAdam of Comcast Sportsnet New England