SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- The San Francisco 49ers solidified their organizational structure Thursday when they selected Trent Baalke to be their vice president of player personnel.
Baalke was promoted from his previous position as director of player personnel, where he made a strong impression last month overseeing the 49ers' draft process in place of former general manager Scot McCloughan, who parted ways with the team in March.
Baalke now assumes the organization's lead role in football operations. He'll have complete oversight of all aspects of the 49ers' player personnel, including free agency, trades and re-signings.
"We looked at several candidates, and my assumptions were correct that Trent was the right guy for the job," 49ers president and CEO Jed York said from New York, where he's taking part in NFL meetings.
"He's a great talent evaluator, he's meticulous, he's very organized, he's great at putting a staff together," York said.
Baalke also will continue to manage college scouting, a role he held in his previous position with the team.
"Nothing really changes in the context of what's taken place for the last five or six weeks," Baalke said. "It's going to be a team effort here, and we're going to work together to get this done."
York said the 49ers wouldn't have a new GM in their organizational structure. Baalke will assume many of the GM duties and closely work with York, coach Mike Singletary and vice president of football operations Paraag Marathe.
All organizational decisions ultimately will go through York.
"I will have final say on what our team looks like," he said.
The 49ers also picked Joel Patten as their new director of college scouting. Former Cleveland Browns scout Bob Morris was selected as the 49ers' South Region scout.
The 49ers also promoted Matt Malaspina to national scout and assigned additional scouting responsibilities to Tom Gamble, the team's director of pro personnel.
Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press
