Red Sox Make Raquel Ferreira the Highest Ranking Women in Baseball Operations

In the wake of Sunday night’s surprise firing of president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, the Red Sox announced that a four-person committee would fill the role.

In addition to assistant general managers Eddie Romero, Brian O’Halloran and Zack Scott, Boston executive Raquel Ferreira is part of the team that will jointly lead the baseball operations department for Red Sox for the rest of 2019.

Thanks to the move, Ferreira is highest-ranking woman to ever be in a team’s baseball operations department during the regular season.

Among the group overseeing Red Sox baseball-ops duties on an interim basis: Raquel Ferreira, a deeply respected longtime employee and currently an SVP with the team, sources tell ESPN.

No woman ever has been in that high of a decision-making position in Major League Baseball.

— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) September 9, 2019

Ferreira started with the Red Sox in 1999 and worked her way up from a role as an administrative assistant to a job in the front office.

In addition to her official role as vice president of major-league and minor-league operations, Ferreira has been called an “organizational mom” by some players and is credited with helping many Boston minor leaguers morph into big-league stars.

“She’s one of the first people I met when I was drafted,” Mookie Betts told The Athletic. “She’s a very important woman, not only here in the baseball world but just in life.”

Boston’s longtime rivals, the New York Yankees, also have a woman in a high-ranking position in their organization as Jean Afterman is the team’s assistant general manager. According to CNBC, about 30 percent of professional baseball employees are women.

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