Padres hire Hoyer as GM

Jed Hoyer is the new general manager of the San Diego Padres.

Hoyer was hired Monday to replace Kevin Towers, who was fired on the final weekend of the regular season.

Padres vice chairman and chief executive officer Jeff Moorad said he was seeking a GM with a more “strategic approach and Hoyer, formerly the assistant GM of the Boston Red Sox, fit the bill.

“I had the most positive feedback on him,” Moorad said. “They all had the same description about a guy who is committed, a guy who had learned in the right shop, with the right background, that learned with a winning tradition in an organization that knew how to ultimately win the big prize.

“For me, that is critical. A young executive with a couple of World Series rings on his finger is the kind of executive that I want to lead this organization on the baseball side.”

Hoyer worked in the Red Sox front office when they won the World Series in 2003 and 2007.

“There is no magic formula that I learned in Boston,” he said. “There is no special sauce.

“I think it comes down to the building blocks of baseball, which are scouting and player development. This game ultimately comes down to great scouting [and] it comes down to great coaching, which I want to instil here.”

Asked to explain what Moorad meant by a strategic approach, Hoyer said: “First of all, in Boston, one of the things always preached was to be a small-market team with big-market resources. The way I see it in Boston, a lot of time people focus on the size of payroll that we had.

“If you do that you miss a little bit of really what happened in Boston over the last seven years. If you look up down the roster and the everyday lineup, bullpen, starting pitching, you have great young players.

“I look at it and think to myself, ‘That team could be a very effective smaller market team.’ I don’t think the process is that much different, given the payroll.

“I think it still comes down to scouting and development. Building a team with talented young players coming up through the system.”

Hoyer was hired by the Red Sox in 2002 and appointed assistant GM in late 2003 by Theo Epstein, who worked under Towers in San Diego before jumping to Boston as assistant GM and later as GM.

“Jed has been an immensely valuable member of our baseball operations team since joining the Red Sox in 2002,” Epstein said. “His combination of analytical ability, feel for the game, interpersonal skills and creativity helped make us tick and he played a role in virtually every major decision we have made.”

Towers was the architect of four National League West winners in 14 seasons with San Diego and reached the World Series in 1998, but the Padres were swept by the New York Yankees.