How a Cumberland Native Earned a Seat at the MLB Table

To say Cumberland’s Raquel Ferreira is a member of an exclusive group of Major League Baseball executives would be an understatement. 

Raquel Ferreira is the Boston Red Sox executive vice president and assistant general manager. Photography courtesy of the Boston Red Sox.

Ferreira, a 1992 University of Rhode Island graduate, is the Boston Red Sox executive vice president and assistant general manager.

The only other females who hold such high-profile positions in a male-dominated business are Marlins General Manager Kim Ng, Yankees Assistant G.M. Jean Afterman and Red Sox Assistant G.M./Associate Counsel Elaine Steward.

“I hope for the day when it doesn’t matter what women do,” Ferreira says. “I hope there are women that follow after us. If it were not for those women, I don’t think I would be where I am.

“There always has to be somebody who trailblazes the way — somebody who was the first before who helps pave the way.”

Ferreira, who’s in her twenty-fifth season with the Red Sox, was hired in 1999 as an administrative assistant, promoted to director of minor league administration in 2003 and assumed her current position in 2019.

Yet there was a period when Ferreira didn’t know what career path she would follow.

“Honestly, I didn’t have a timeline,” she says. “I grew up watching sports with my brother [David]. I was the manager of the junior varsity team at Cumberland High. I remember sitting in my living room in Cumberland and he taught me how to score a game because he didn’t want me to embarrass him.

Ferreira stands with Red Sox manager Alex Cora on the field at Fenway Park. Photography courtesy of the Boston Red Sox.

“I grew up in the era of [Michael] Jordan and [Scottie] Pippin and thought I would want to work in basketball but I gravitated toward baseball because of my brother.”

Ferreira, who obtained a bachelor’s degree in communications, started networking and meeting people in the industry.

“I ended up meeting somebody who knew the Red Sox,” she says. “But I didn’t want to take a job as a glorified secretary.”

Given her steady progression, Ferreira is anything but a glorified secretary.

For example, in 2019, she played a major role in signing former Red Sox and current Padre Xander Bogaerts to a six-year, $120-million contract extension.

“Every assistant G.M. does something different,” she says. “I deal with players and staff and handle the baseball operations budget. When you consider player development there are twenty different budgets.”

In 2019, she became part of the leadership team that oversaw the Red Sox baseball operations department after G.M. Dave Dombrowski departed.

“I love the ownership group,” Ferreira says. “They gave me a seat at the table which I won’t forget, and I’m a loyal person. It would have to be an opportunity that’s better than where I am now [to leave Boston], which would be tough to beat.”