Boston Red Sox promote international signings violator

Upon firing Dave Dombrowski, the Boston Red Sox shuffled some pieces in the front office. One move, in particular, deserves more scrutiny than the rest.

On Sunday, the Boston Red Sox began a process of reshuffling its front office. It started with the firing of president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and inserting assistant general manager Eddie Romero into this role.

The decision to fire Dombrowski after three straight AL East titles (2016-2018) and the 2018 World Series championship is one that deserves much attention as it is not typical to see an executive go after experiencing so much success. Thankfully, my colleague Bill Ferber already did so in grave detail, leaving me to scrutinize the decision to promote Romero.

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For those who don’t know, Eddie Romero has been with the Red Sox organization since 2006. Prior to his role as assistant general manager, Romero worked as the international scouting director for the organization.

Considering that the Red Sox have the worst farm system in the majors, the decision to promote Romero, someone with an understanding of the international market, is a wise one on the surface. However, when you consider the ramifications of some of Romero’s decisions in the past, you have to wonder why he’s employed by an MLB team in the first place.

The most notable of these decisions came back in 2016. While overseeing the Red Sox’s international signings, per Jeff Passan, then of Yahoo Sports,

"“The Red Sox skirted the $300,000 threshold by packaging highly regarded prospects with lesser ones, paying both similarly and allowing the players’ agent to give the lion’s share of the money to the better prospect…”"

As a result, the Boston Red Sox were banned from signing any international players in 2017 and had five of their prospects declared free agents. This was seen as the harshest punishment a team has faced for their shady international signing practices.

What’s more, it has contributed to the team being considered to have — as stated before — one of the worst farm systems in the game.

In a time where international signing practices in baseball is under deep scrutiny, it’s strange to see how one of the many violators has been rewarded by a prestigious organization with a promotion. It speaks of baseball’s ineptitude when it comes to this issue.