Is Hoyer the Man in San Diego?

If Buster Olney’s latest report comes to fruition, then San Diego’s search for a new General Manager is all but over. The man pegged to replace Kevin Towers appears to be Boston’s assistant GM, Jed Hoyer. Besides being 35 years old and working in the Boston front office for the better part of this decade, what else is known about Hoyer?

Through this excellent interview with Baseball Analysts’ Patrick Sullivan, we can take away a number of things:

– He seems to be of the philosophy that scouting and statistical work should be used together in player evaluation. At one point he actually says, “As we see it, we want every piece of information possible before making a decision. We have spent a lot of time and energy in developing our quantitative methods and we certainly use them in making player personnel decisions. But we also have a lot of great scouts and we read their reports and have lengthy conversations with all of them before making decisions.”

– He believes having a well thought-out plan is as important as anything when acquiring players.

– He’s a fan of Jason Varitek.*

Obviously, there’s more to the interview than those three points, but what the Padres seem to be getting – and this is not intended to be a slight or insult in the least — is the new-school GM starter kit. Hoyer seems like a bright enough individual with an open mind and the experience of working alongside some extremely talented folk during his Red Sox tenure. How he’ll fair as a GM is anyone’s guess at this point, but he seems to possess the skills needed in order to succeed and with that one guy, Paul DePodesta, still around, he should have a decent supporting cast.

The next questions if Hoyer is hired will be: 1) who (if anyone) will Hoyer bring with him from Boston and 2) just how much money will they have to work with this off-season.

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*I apologize for this bit of rosterbation, but imagine Chris Young pitching to Varitek next season. Dexter Fowler is.