San Diego SportsPadres Go With Youth Movement at GM
Jed Hoyer Replaces Kevin Towers The look of the Padres suddenly got a whole lot younger as the Friars announced the signing of 35-year-old Jed Hoyer as the club's General Manager. Hoyer comes from the Boston Red Sox organization and will be replacing Kevin Towers who served as the General Manager of the San Diego Padres for 14 seasons. On the surface the signing seems questionable as Hoyer has only 44 days of prior GM experience giving the appearance that he lacks the typical pedigree for the job. Yet, there is historical evidence that the youth movement could pay off. The hiring of Hoyer creates a full circle of front office hiring’s between the Boston Red Sox and the San Diego Padres. Hoyer comes from Boston where he was the Senior Vice President/Assistant General Manager under Theo Epstien. Like Epstien, who rapidly ascended from an internship with the Padres to GM of the Red Sox’s at the age of 28, Hoyer began his career in 2002 as an intern of baseball operations for the Red Sox and is now the Padres GM. In 2003 Hoyer rose from the internship to Baseball Operations Assistant. In 2005 Hoyer and co-assistant Ben Cherington served as co-GMs of the Red Sox for 44 days while Epstien was negotiating his contract. Speaking to Hoyer’s credentials, Epstien wrote a message to MLB.com on Monday stating, “His combination of analytical ability, feel for the game, interpersonal skills, and creativity helped make us tick, and he played a role in virtually every major decision we have made.” On the field Hoyer has no major league experience. Collegiately he played for Wesleyan University as a shortstop and pitcher and served two years as an assistant head coach. Despite his lack of experience and that he was barely old enough to buy a beer when the Padres signed Towers, there is history suggesting that Hoyer could bring success to San Diego. Many in Boston ridiculed the signing of an inexperienced Epstien who has since led the Red Sox to two World Series Championships. Then again, Epstien was given the financial freedom to compete with the New York Yankees in player free agency. Now Padres fans’ will be playing the waiting game in hopes that Jeff Morad the clubs new vice chairman and CEO will open up the clubs coffers to give Hoyer support in bringing high profile free agents to San Diego
 Dan McLellan About the author: Dan McLellan is a San Diego native and Charger season ticket holder since 1993. He also has a weekly Charger podcast at www.DanMcLellan.com. More by this author Subscribe to Sports:
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