Just two days after testifying in front of the Senate Commerce Committee's hearing on domestic violence, Joe Torre was named the MLB's new "Chief Baseball Officer." Another MLB veteran, Raul Ibanez, will no longer be considered for the Tampa Bay Rays manager position.
Major League Baseball reshuffled the executive titles within the organization to make them shorter and more straightforward. Torre, who was previously labeled the "Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations", is now the "Chief Baseball Officer." Six other MLB executives received a title change and are as follows:
Bob Bowman is now "MLB's President, Business and Media"
Pat Courtney is now "Chief Communications Officer"
Dan Halem is now "Chief Legal Officer"
Jonathan Mariner is now "Chief Investment Officer"
Tony Petitti is now "Chief Operations Officer"
Bob Starkey is now "Chief Financial Officer and Senior Advisor"
You can see their old titles here.
According to MLB.com, in Torre's position he "oversees areas that include Major League Operations, On-Field Operations, On-Field Discipline and Umpiring. He serves as the Office of the Commissioner's primary liaison to the general managers and field managers of the 30 Major League clubs regarding all baseball and on-field matters."
Along with Torre, Raul Ibanez is a well-known figure in baseball. In fact he was a finalist to assume a managerial role, which Torre had done for many years. The Tampa Bay Rays named Ibanez a finalist for their manager vacancy along with Kevin Cash and Don Wakamatsu. However, Ibanez withdrew his name from consideration for undisclosed "family considerations," according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.
With only two finalists remaining, Roger Mooney of the Tampa Bay Times says "the Rays are expected to announce the hire this Friday." Either way, Tampa Bay is expected to make an interesting hire because none of the three finalists have significant managerial experience. In fact, Wakamatsu has the most and he only managed for 274 games.
