[Mantush]

The Boston Red Sox announced earlier this morning that they have inked former Orioles General Manager Andy MacPhail to a four year contract to be their new Scouting Director. The Red Sox introduced MacPhail alongside new General Manager Chris Hatfield.

"Andy is a smart guy," said Boston's new General Manager. "He didn't have a lot of success in Baltimore, but we believe he's built a strong core for that team there. They'll be successful for quite a few years, so we hope he's able to help us do something similar in Boston."

Hatfield was also happy to field questions regarding the managerial search. "We've tossed a few names around internally," said the GM with a wink. "We haven't made up our mind yet, still have some candidates that have to be interviewed before anything is final."

When he was asked about the shortlist that was released to the media, he laughed. "I don't think we have arrangements made to interview anybody on that list, sorry."

MacPhail was also very intelligent, disclosing some information about the club's player acquisition strategy moving forward. "We value guys that will be contributors to the big league team," said MacPhail. "Team's get in trouble when they keep going for that superstar player. Well, that superstar player, especially when you have Boston's payroll, can be acquired through free agency. It's best to develop the solid core of role players through the draft. Obviously, we will be taking the best player available in each round, but we'll be taking the best player available based off of that and other internal criteria."

"Andy has my complete and utter confidence moving forward," said Hatfield, "I like to delegate tasks. Being able to delegate scouting helps immensely and will allow me to focus more on the task at-hand: finding this club a manager."