Faces of Spring Training: Swampscott’s Ryan now home with the Braves

FORT MYERS, Fla. — Joining the Braves front office in November, Swampscott’s Billy Ryan is still familiarizing himself with his new team. No better way to do that than in spring training, watching from behind the cage as his team took batting practice before beating the Red Sox, 11-3, Tuesday at Jet Blue Park.

Ryan, 34, was named the Braves’ director of baseball operations in November, when the team made a series of front office changes.

“It’s been good. It’s sort of settled down now,” said Ryan of his transition from the Arizona Diamondbacks. “The first couple of months it was feeling things out and getting used to new co-workers and players and everything else. So, for the most part, that’s over. But it’s kind of business as usual at this point, try to get to know our team a little bit better than obviously I have till this point. So far, so good.”

Ryan, a 1998 graduate of Swampscott High, has been working in baseball for several years after graduating in 2002 from Davidson College in North Carolina, where he was captain of the baseball team. He got his start with the Rangers’ scouting and baseball operations in 2005 before moving on to the Indians as a scouting supervisor. He also spent three seasons working in the MLB’s commissioner’s office, where he was the liaison for all 30 teams on rules, the basic agreement, and other contractual and industry matters.

Now, after four years as the Diamondbacks’ assistant general manager, Ryan is taking on a similar role with the Braves. He will work closely with John Hart, the team’s president of baseball operations, and John Coppolella, the assistant GM.

“The title’s different. Other than that, the responsibilities are very similar,” Ryan said. “My primary focus is on the major league team. But I have a hand in player development and in scouting, kind of involved in everything to a limited capacity, with a focus on the major league team.

“I’ll get out and see all of our minor league affiliates. I’ll be in the draft room when that time rolls around. But it just kind of depends on the cycle, the baseball calendar as far as what is most pressing at that time.”

Ryan, whose parents still live in Swampscott and whose sister teaches in Lynn, doesn’t get back home as much as he’d like, although moving back east from Arizona should make those trips easier. But he’s not planning to come to Boston when the Braves visit Fenway Park in June. His wife Sarah is expecting the couple’s first child shortly after.

Ryan’s advice to someone trying to break into the business?

“I tell them just make sure you love it,” he said. “Because there are a lot of sacrifices that you make financially, with your time, time away from your family. There’s a lot of things that you put up with in this industry. If you don’t have that just intrinsic love for the game, if you feel like you’re getting up and going to work, it’s not going to be worth it for you.

“That’s the biggest hurdle, I think. If you commit to it and say ‘yeah, this is what I’m going to do and I’m willing to put up with what I have to put up with,’ then it’s just sort of a matter of patience and persistence.”

Maureen Mullen can be reached at mmullen@itemlive.com. Follow her on Twitter at @MaureenAMullen

• Discuss

• Print