MLB

Blue Jays hire former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington

Ben Cherington was hired as the Toronto Blue Jays new vice-president of baseball operations on Wednesday.

2013 MLB executive of the year will focus primarily on player development

The Blue Jays announced Wednesday they have hired former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington as vice-president of baseball operations. (Jim Rogash/Getty Images/File)

Tthe Toronto Blue Jays have hired Ben Cherington as vice-president of baseball operations.

Cherington spent most of his career with the Boston Red Sox organization.

He and Jed Hoyer were Boston's co-general managers for 2005 and 2006. In 2006 he was made sole GM of the team, and resigned the post in August of 2015.

With the Blue Jays, Cherington will report to GM Ross Atkins and his emphasis will be on player development as he'll work closely with director of player development Gil Kim.

After leaving the Red Sox, Cherington joined Columbia's Sports Management faculty where he taught a course in sports leadership for the 2015-16 academic year.

Cherington was named Major League Baseball executive of the year for 2013 by The Sporting News.

Cherington was a scout for the Cleveland Indians prior to joining Boston in 1999, where he was an area scout, co-ordinator of international scouting and director of player development before becoming co-GM.

With files from CBC Sports