Baltimore Orioles Denied Division Rival Permission to Interview Coveted Executive

When an opening to run the Boston Red Sox became available, one of the Baltimore Orioles' coveted executives was on the list of interviews. They denied their rival a chance to speak with him.

Considering the recent history of the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox, it feels backwards that the Orioles are the team that is being chased within the division by other teams.

Baltimore has done a fantastic job rebuilding their organization and look to be perennial contenders for years to come based on all their young talent.

The Red Sox on the other hand, are in desperate need of a turnaround.

Since winning the World Series in 2018, they've finished last place in the AL East three times.

Boston hired their new president of baseball operations, Craig Breslow, away from the Chicago Cubs.

Before making that hire official, the Red Sox went through the process of interviewing multiple candidates.

They reportedly had their sights set on Orioles' assistant general manager, Sig Mejdal, before being denied permission to speak with him.

According to Sean McAdam of MassLive.com, "The Sox wanted to speak with Orioles assistant GM Sig Mejdal, yet the O’s “dragged their feet on the process and never provided the Sox with the go-ahead to speak with Mejdal."

Understandable from Baltimore's perspective.

Mejdal was one of the first hires of GM Mike Elias back in 2018 and has been an instrumental part of this rebuilding process.

He is known for his analytical approach and has been one of the key figures in moving baseball into the more numbers driven era.

Organizations generally allow their executives to interview with other teams if the candidate is open to it.

It's not clear exactly why the Orioles denied permission to speak with Mejdal, other than him being valued within their franchise and not wanting him to join a division rival.

Either way, Boston now has their guy and Baltimore is able to hang onto one of their most coveted executives to help turn the Orioles into a top team for years to come.