“I’ve watched a lot of baseball games at Fenway Park. Some from the stands, some from the bleachers, but mostly from the bullpen. I know what it’s like to put on a Red Sox jersey, to jog through the bullpen gate across freshly-cut outfield grass. I know what it’s like to stand on the mound in front of tens of thousands of the most passionate fans in the game …

“I know what it means to win in Boston.”

That was how Craig Breslow began reintroducing himself on Thursday morning when the Red Sox officially welcomed him back to Fenway Park.

The 43-year-old pitcher-turned-executive has officially come full circle, from underrated bullpen contributor to heading up Boston’s baseball operations. His return comes at a critical juncture for Boston’s baseball club, which has finished at the bottom of the standings in three of the last four seasons. He’s expected to right the ship, no small task for a first-time chief baseball officer.

He sounds like the man for the job: a sterling reputation, a brilliant baseball mind, highly-regarded by his peers. What set him apart from other candidates were glowing recommendations from several former Red Sox teammates.

Breslow said all the right things on Thursday. It’s often glaringly obvious when someone is sticking to a carefully crafted script or simply being disingenuous, but he came across as genuine and earnest. He acknowledged his lack of leadership experience, made fans feel seen and heard, and even poked fun at himself.

Tough decisions

Though decision-making at the top level is one area in which he admitted “maybe” a “lack of formal experience,” but he says he’s ready to take on the challenge.

“I’m willing to make the hard decisions necessary to deliver,” he said more than once. “I’ve worn multiple hats, and I think I’ve got a unique perspective. I also think I have the willingness and the conviction to make the tough decisions necessary to succeed in this role.”

Perhaps some decisions won’t be so tough. Unlike his predecessor, Breslow is inheriting enormous financial flexibility and a solid farm system. There’s no luxury tax penalty to reset, or Babe Ruth-esque trade to make.

“Resources are not a problem here,” he said, suggesting the Red Sox are prepared to spend this offseason. “We have established a very clear alignment on vision, a very clear calibration of where this needs to go.”

New England native

Breslow also understands intangibles matter in Boston as much – sometimes even more – than a spreadsheet full of analytics. He not only grew up in New England, but chose to keep the Greater Boston area his family’s home base long after his Red Sox playing days were over. Like his “trusted confidant or mentor” Theo Epstein, the Brookline native who first put him in a Boston uniform and brought him to the Cubs’ front office, Breslow is a New Englander through and through.

Born and raised in New Haven, Conn. he was a star pitcher and team captain of the Yale Bulldogs before beginning his professional career. He pitched for Boston from 2006-07 and again from 2011-15, and was a key member of the 2013 championship team.

During that second Red Sox stint, he and his wife bought a house in Newton and stayed; he was able to transform the Chicago Cubs pitching development while working remotely at times. When team president and CEO Sam Kennedy invited him to an informal lunch in early October, they dined at Johnny’s Luncheonette, a Newton Centre landmark.

“As we kind of moved into the final stages, I was overcome with this sense,” Breslow said. “Despite the fact that I grew up two and a half hours away from here and being closer to some teams that were based in New York as a child, in a lot of ways, I was coming home.”

For some teams, a candidate having such a deep local connection may not matter. The Red Sox aren’t one of them. It makes Breslow a fit in ways that Chaim Bloom, through no fault of his own, never was. Perhaps it’s an unfair advantage, but having someone at the helm who knows what this specific city and fan base needs, someone who’s been immersed in this for their entire life, has certainly worked out well for the Red Sox in the past.

A message to fans

“Red Sox fans deserve a standard of quality and consistency,” Breslow said. “That unwavering commitment to building a sustainable winner is a position that I share with John (Henry), with Tom (Werner), with Sam (Kennedy), with Alex (Cora), with the rest of the front office, and it’s one that we will pursue relentlessly.”

He believes that “a standard of excellence” defines the organization’s culture.

“Other words that I would throw out as we think about culture, and how to build it, and what we’re looking to drive here, words like ‘accountability.’ The idea that we are going to push each other to be better tomorrow than we are today.

“And also, this uncompromising, unwavering commitment to winning. The good teams that I’ve been on as a player, the good teams that I’ve seen from the front office, they all possess this quality of a group of people obsessing over winning. It’s the topic of conversation in everything that they do.”

“I understand that some of you will see me as another Ivy League nerd with a baseball front office job,” he said with a smile, aware that he’s the third Yale graduate to head up the Red Sox front office this century, following Epstein and Bloom. “It’s true, I am that. But I’m also a 13-year big-leaguer and a 2013 Boston Red Sox World Series champion, and I know what it takes to win here, and I’m willing to make the hard decisions necessary to deliver.”

Yes, Boston’s new chief baseball officer said all the right things on Thursday, and did so in a way that breathed a bit of hope back into the beleaguered ball club.

But now comes the hard part.

Now, the work begins.