The 49ers have announced that interim general manager Trent Baalke, who oversaw the team’s draft last month, has been named vice president of player personnel. Joel Patten, who was with the Rams and worked with Baalke in the Redskins’ organization, is now the new director of college scouting.

Team president and CEO Jed York has made it clear that Baalke won’t have as much control over budget matters as former GM Scot McCloughan did, but that might be a good thing in the end.

On paper, this is a structure that should work. Patten will have the opportunity to concentrate on the scouting, while Baalke can focus on draft day decisions and Singletary can control the roster. With notable exceptions like the Cowboys, Redskins and Bengals, most teams’ front offices are set up this way and it’s a system that seems to have success.

That said, Baalke and Singletary have to constantly be on the same page in terms of personnel decisions or else the entire structure will fall apart. Everyone saw what happened in Oakland when Lane Kiffin couldn’t get along with Al Davis (or more specially, the decisions Al made on draft day) and while the 49ers aren’t the circus that the Raiders are, they could be if the marriage between Baalke and Singletary doesn’t pan out. Hopefully San Fran never has to worry about that though.

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