The news that the Red Sox have hired former Los Angeles Angels general manager Jerry Dipoto should not come as a huge surprise. Nor, should it be interpreted as a shot across the bow of Ben Cherington.
To the contrary, the hiring was almost predictable.
First, Dipoto is, himself, a one-time Red Sox employee as a scout, so, after quitting the Angels last month in an ongoing dispute with manager Mike Scioscia, a reunion with the Red Sox seemed, if not inevitable, then, at the very least, likely.
The move was also not forced upon Cherington, either. Cherington and Dipoto have a long friendship and see the game in similar terms.
Dipoto will reportedly assist Cherington -- and the rest of the Red Sox' Baseball Operations staff -- on player personnel issues this winter. The Red Sox, as their record indicates, have plenty of roster rebuilding to do, particularly when it comes to pitching.
Dipoto, a former major league pitcher himself, made several successful deals in the last two winters to land two young starting pitchers for the Angels -- lefty Andrew Heaney and righthander Hector Santiago.
Obtaining controllable starting pitching is exactly the biggest task facing the Red Sox this off-season.
One thing Dipoto is not someone to oversee Cherington and the rest of Baseball Ops.
Assuming the Red Sox do bring someone in from outside the organization to act as Cherington's boss, it will not be someone who has fewer years of experience as a front office executive than Cherington himself.
And while Dipoto was GM of the Angels, and prior to that, in a similar role with the Arizona Diamondbacks, he doesn't have the executive experience the Sox would be looking for in such a high-ranking position.
Tellingly, the deal reportedly has an "out'' for Dipoto should a GM opening come up in the coming months -- an indication that this is a short-term move on the part of the Red Sox.
This isn't much different from the team's brief hiring of J.P. Ricciardi, who was hired as a consultant within weeks after being fired as GM of the Blue Jays, but remained with the Sox for less than a week when a more substantial role opened up with the New York Mets.
If there's a surprise to any of this, it's that some in the industry thought the Sox might be in the market for a more traditional talent evaluator, to counter the analytical orientation of the Baseball Operations staff.
Dipoto is driven by analytics; indeed his emphasis on them was what led to the conflict with Scioscia, who is decidedly more conventional in his approach to evaluating talent.
Then again, there may be more hires before the off-season, as the Sox look to augment the scouting duties, currently being handled by Allard Baird, Eddie Bane and others.