Pick Your Preferred General-Manager Job
You’re a bright, available general-manager candidate. Not only that, but you’ve also scored a bunch of interviews. Congratulations! There are six teams out there that appear to be looking for a new GM, and you’re going to talk with all of them. Even the Marlins, who are super weird about everything. You know you’re ready. You know you’re prepared, and you feel pretty good about every individual chance. You don’t know how the teams are going to feel about you, but you feel like you should arrange your own priority list. Where would you like to go the most? Where would you like to go the least?
I should mention, you’re extremely flexible. Perhaps you knew that about yourself. It doesn’t really matter the city in which you end up employed. You love the beach, you love beer, you love hiking, and for some reason you love traffic (listening to podcasts?). And besides, you’re so devoted to your potential future job that you don’t anticipate all that much downtime anyhow. You’re either single, or your very understanding partner is like, “sure, anywhere’s good.” You evidently have family all over the place. Varying costs of living? Not on your radar! All you care about is that you make enough, which you will. You are stupidly easy to please. The specific job here is the only thing that matters. It’s the entire basis of the decision.
So, you’re looking at six interviews. Six possible GM positions. Which opening do you find most desirable? It’s not an easy choice, is it? But, make the choice. Make the choice! It’s one of your very favorite things to do, making choices. You make choices in your spare time. Here is a choice, to make.
Angels
- 5-year average payroll: $146 million
- 5-year highest payroll: $155 million
It’s never a great sign when you’re looking to take over for a guy who just walked away, of his own volition. The circumstances that existed that caused him to leave remain very much in place. It’s not much of a secret that Arte Moreno can be a difficult guy to work with. Even if you get along, Moreno might take some decisions out of your hands. The same goes for field manager Mike Scioscia, who’s quite probably the most powerful individual manager in the sport. Decisions here are group efforts. Power is split. You don’t want to end up on the wrong side of the people already in place.
But let’s not pretend like it’s all doom and gloom. Say what you will about Moreno, but the man wants to win, and he’s willing to spend for it. He’s proven that beyond any doubt in the past, and it wasn’t all that long ago that Scioscia was also considered a brilliant strategist. He’s stern, but he’s won, and people listen to him. Going beyond those two, this organization comes with the best player in baseball, and he’s under contract for a while. Though the farm system still appears thin, it’s improving, and there’s a good amount of young starting pitching depth. The fan base is kind of flaky, but big, and profitable if you can tap into it. Big market. Lots of fans to capture. Though it would be daunting to try to compete with the Dodgers, would that not also be exhilarating? Let’s say it would be exhilarating.
Brewers
- 5-year average payroll: $96 million
- 5-year highest payroll: $104 million
The lowest-profile job available has a good amount going for it. Ownership wants to win, but it’s also understanding that these processes can’t take place overnight. In Milwaukee, you could build the front office you want, and really just take over this organization and install most of your own philosophies. The rebuild process already began, so it wouldn’t be on you to make the unpopular moves, and you’d benefit from some of the new youth. That Orlando Arcia is really something.
The downside is, yeah, the market is small, maybe the smallest in the game. That limits the payrolls, which can limit the success. There’s only so much talent in place, with a mostly uncompetitive roster. It’s quite frightening news that Jonathan Lucroy is struggling with concussion symptoms, and while it’s insensitive in a way to think about him as a player instead of a person, just from a roster-building standpoint, Lucroy’s one of the most important assets. To keep, or to trade. Oh, and, the Cardinals are in great shape, and the Pirates are in great shape, and the Cubs are in great shape, and that makes this an intimidating division. The Brewers, overall, aren’t looking at great odds.
Maybe you love the idea of that challenge. Maybe you love the idea of that flexibility, that degree of potential autonomy. Or maybe you just want your team to not be bad. This team could be bad. 🙁
Mariners
- 5-year average payroll: $95 million
- 5-year highest payroll: $123 million
This is a weird and difficult situation. The team should be better than its record, but its record is its record, and it’s been a mostly horrible year for the farm system. It seems like more of a win-now team, but it’s not winning now, and while the usual course of action when that’s the case is to tear down and rebuild, this team just went through a rebuild and it’s in no hurry to do that again. Ownership is reluctant to do anything but stay the course and get better, and they have made the investment. Money is available. But a little more money can’t fix everything. There is much to be fixed.
Off the field, ownership has been known to meddle, but according to some reports, that’s been reduced. The stadium is considered one of the best in the game, so that’s a plus, and I don’t know how many people have referred to the northwest as a “sleeping giant” in terms of fan support. People will support a winning Mariners team. But it will also take them a while to trust a Mariners team, given everything that’s happened. The stadium could buzz, like the stadium across the street, but that’ll need to be earned. Since the Mariners will have the longest active playoff drought if the Blue Jays go on to qualify, there’s a very real sense of urgency here. That can be a good thing or a bad thing.
Work in Seattle, and you could be a hero. You could revive a moribund organization. But the roster situation itself isn’t an easy fix. Many of the best players will only decline, and the youth has been mostly unimpressive.
Marlins
- 5-year average payroll: $65 million
- 5-year highest payroll: $102 million
You’re going to have to try to take this seriously. If you’re going to interview, you’re going to have to try to take this seriously. Start with Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Fernandez. Two of the best young players in baseball. There’s also Christian Yelich. Really, there’s a lot of young talent here. Maybe not enough, but there is a foundation, and while Jeffrey Loria is one of the worst owners in professional sports, he does seem to take care of his own. Win him over, and you can win his trust, and with his trust, you can have more flexibility than you might think. All Loria wants is to win. He wants to make money if the winning isn’t happening, but if there is winning, he’ll be satisfied. Stroke his ego, make it seem like his ideas matter, and this isn’t an impossible situation. It could really turn into a rather successful situation, in somewhat short order.
Put simply: work in Miami, and people will have zero expectations. When they think of the Marlins, they think only of Loria. How many people know the Marlins haven’t had a GM for months? How many people know the name “Michael Hill”? When there are zero expectations, the expectations are easy to exceed. There’s talent in place. And though it would be an incredible challenge to win Loria over, and keep him over, this could conceivably be the story of how the Miami Marlins became a real and respectable baseball organization. Maybe that’s a fairy tale, but, imagine. Imagine!
Phillies
- 5-year average payroll: $165 million
- 5-year highest payroll: $178 million
Most of what you want is there. Money? Money is there. Fans? Fans are there. They’re there in great numbers, even if they’re presently dormant. You can’t blame them for not coming out in such numbers for this product. But this is a passionate fan base, and they want to win every year. The rebuild has already started, and most of the veterans have been shuffled out. It’s really particularly great timing — people came to dislike the previous GM, but in his final act, he did well to stock the system with young talent, so you could inherit all that while getting a boost in support just from not being your predecessor. You’d begin as a possible savior. You’d have to try hard to do worse than the last few years.
The issues are pretty simple. The big-league product sucks. There are some interesting players there, but not enough of them. Not close. So you’d be hard-pressed to build a competitive team for 2016. Also, it’s hard to know how responsibility will be split between the new GM and Andy MacPhail. MacPhail has been around the game for a while, and his is a strong presence. In Philadelphia, you might not have complete autonomy. The 2016 team will almost certainly lose. But this organization has already bottomed out. Which means it’s on the rise. For a patient individual, this is a hell of a spot.
Red Sox
- 5-year average payroll: $167 million
- 5-year highest payroll: $184 million
What do you want? This is, ultimately, about how much power you want to have. The Red Sox have almost everything you’d like. A big-league team that isn’t far from being competitive. A minor-league prospect group considered by some the strongest in baseball. There’s money, so much money. There are fans, so many fans. The brand is recognized around the whole world, and people expect a winner. There’s constant pressure, but also constant attention. If you deal well with stress, then the attention’s a good thing. Keeps you focused.
The concerns: ownership, and Dave Dombrowski. Dombrowski is the new element. I don’t think Dombrowski has a history of not getting along with his co-workers, but if you’re worried about power, it’s going to be split at least evenly with Dombrowski, and more likely, he’s going to have the majority of it. Though he won’t have the GM title, he’ll be the guy signing off on almost everything, so full or near-full autonomy is out of the question. Maybe you like the idea of that split responsibility. Maybe you like the idea of working as a team. When the Red Sox win, everyone gets credit. But if you’re looking to flex your muscles as a GM candidate, well, there’s already a bigger name here. It’s kind of why the last guy left.
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The choice is all yours. Good luck!
Jeff made Lookout Landing a thing, but he does not still write there about the Mariners. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not.
This is great, Jeff.
“All Loria wants is to win.”
????????????????????????
Even though I am a Red Sox fan, I would want the Brewers job. Something about complete control of decision making when building the team has more appeal than the other situations.
Ditto. More power than the other positions and if you succeed you’ll be more recognized for your accomplishment, given the size of the challenge, than in other positions.
Sox fan as well, but voted for the Phils. Phillies have a big market, strong loyalty, and a charitable owner (in OOTP terms, ha). There is a good young talent base, an albatross contract that will expire in the near future, and two teams in the division that could be passed in the standings next year. All that, and you get to call the shots vs sharing power in Boston. It’s a great situation to walk into.
I just feel like the Phillies would still be a little more ‘Macphail’s team’ than my team if I were the GM. Maybe I’m misreading the stiuation though.
I think MacPhail’s there to be Lucchino, not Dombrowski.
But Dombrowski is there to be Lucchino though.
That would be nice, but I wouldn’t want to deal with the Cardinals, Cubs and Pirates. I’d probably go with Red Sox or Phillies
I’m not sure there will be complete control for the new GM for the Brewers… 1) Craig Counsell I believe has a multi-year deal and is favored by ownership. 2) Ownership has been known (allegedly?) of meddling by pushing bad FA signings in the past, like Suppan.
I’m a Cubs fan, but I chose the Brewers as well. Smaller market, but they’re devout. It would be fun to build that into a well run organization like the Packers (watching from Chicago, I”m jealous of what they’ve done)… their fans will come for a winner.
The Phillies and Red Sox jobs are great as well.
Two “buts” in the same sentence?
Be Marlins GM, possibly also manager, advance scout, equipment manager and primary operator of ostentatious center field fish-themed whirligig. No stipend for performing out of title work.
Interesting that the Phillies are coming out on top, but I guess that makes sense. You’re basically starting from scratch and have significant flexibility to create a roster in your vision (MacPhail notwithstanding).
I picked the Mariners because I feel like they’ve got a solid core that’s close so your moves at GM could very well make or break the franchise in the near term. Could be a very rewarding position.
No way I’m ever working in Miami as long as Loria is still there.
Mariners aren’t bad, but there are two problems the Phillies don’t have. First, Mariners farm system is in poor shape. Second, Mariners have the Robinson Cano contract.
Phillies have had some bad contracts, but they are all done after 2017
Phillies have a huge TV revenue stream, good ballpark, decent base of talent in the farm system, only 2 years to clear all bad payroll, and low initial expectations. It’s a GM dream job, IMO!
I see others feel the same way
Mariners. Definitely the Mariners.
It’s over, self-styled clever Fangraphs reader. Let it go. That horse is actually, truly dead. But take comfort; there will be others.
Who pissed in your cornflakes?
I can’t imagine wanting to work in Miami so long as Loria owns the team. You can’t reliably build a team when you’re not sure if and when the owner is gonna decide to cut costs and have a fire sale.
You probably wouldn’t have any autonomy anyway. I feel like Loria is the de facto GM or at least has a heavy hand in everything.
Which is why the Marlins job is the only one anybody reading this actually has a shot at. I mean, anybody can sit in an office and do essentially nothing. Though granted maybe not everybody could handle being around Loria on a daily (weekly? Monthly? How often does he actually check in to fuck things up?) basis.
Has to be the Phillies. I don’t love their young talent but the reset button is there to be pushed, the checkbook will be open, and the fans are just awesome. You’ll get the chance to see the whole process as well, unlike in say Boston or LAA where you’ll get axed if the returns aren’t immediate.
Marlins have a few big positives on the roster, a bunch of stud position players plus Ozuna who isn’t even mentioned here, but there there isn’t much money available. The Angels are kind of on the other side – Trout and a lot of money but there seems to be work to do. Brewers division makes it unattractive. The Cards and Pirates have self-sustaining successful organizations in place and the Cubs are young and on the rise. Red Sox have some attractive elements (youth) but you have to inherit albatross contracts, meddling ownership, and the pressure cooker. I like my hair black.
Franco, Nola, Giles, Herrera in the bigs, with Crawford, Kilome and Randolph coming up is a rock-solid group of young talent, especially considering that they’re in line for the #1 overall pick at the moment.
Say what you want about Ruben Amaro Jr., but in a market like Philadelphia in a big market, ownership held onto him and gave him every opportunity to turn things around. That speaks volumes, and if I’m a candidate for these jobs I take notice.
Interesting question. I picked the Phillies because they seem to have the least amount of negatives. The Howard contract runs out next year, they have good revenue streams, and the division isn’t too intensely competitive like the NL Central is. The only thing I don’t like about them is their ballpark is too hitter-friendly.
My next choices would be the Brewers and Boston. The big negative for Boston is, once again, they are saddled with some big bad contracts.
As for the others, the Angels’ owner meddles too much; Seattle is saddled with the horrendous Cano contract, a remote geographic location, and a park that’s too pitcher friendly; and the Marlins have an owner from hell.
For me, the Brewers worst an easy first. The autonomy would be the biggest factor, but it also has a great park and ownership seems open to an analytically-inclined overhaul of the organization.
Philadelphia would probably be second, followed by Seattle and Boston in a tie for third. I’d prefer to work in Seattle over every city on this list (with the potential for earthquakes and tsunamis and all), but a mediocre roster and an ownership that wants you to push in anyways is tying your hands and taking away control from day one.
Los Angeles and Miami are distant fifths and sixths. No thanks.
*were not worst, wow.
In Seattle proper there’s not as much worry about tsunamis; that’s the Washington coast (where it is very much a worry); though it’s not completely absent, in Seattle the tsunami takes third place behind another strange-sounding geological threat: the lahar. Earthquakes and volcanoes and tsunamis, oh my.
And this is why I stay in Chicago where the worst thing possible is solved by a heater. (in other words… cold is no big deal)
I’m going to agree with the general consensus here and say the Phils job. Huge market, Nice TV deal, no long-term albatross contracts. You’ve got a partially restocked farm system, and a benefit of this is that if those prospects don’t turn out, there is a bit of an out as “Hey, I didn’t acquire these guys” (sure, player development failure might be on you).
I think the Phillies’ job is the most attractive, especially for someone who could be brought in with little to no previous experience as a GM. The situation is the best out of any of the open GM positions and, as mentioned previously, there is an experienced president in MacPhail who’ll assist in calling the shots. A young GM can gain experience and confidence early on, enabling them to grow into the position naturally.
Another great post from Jeff. I wonder what influence it will have on the actual choices! Too bad Reds aren’t on the list.
I am one of the few who wants the Marlins job. I think there is a great base of talent. I also think that if you can build up the coaching and player development staff there is a chance to build a winning organization in spite of the owner. Building that staff and organizational philosophy is cheap in comparison to players so I think the owner will sign off on it. Furthermore, Loria has been patient with his front office so you should have time. The only real question for me is how much inter-organizational politics will play into and possibly impede the vision and implementation.
Realistically, you have a 3 year window as a GM to start producing results. I’m eliminating the Brewers job right away because good luck being more than the 4th best team in that division any time soon. Also eliminating the Mariners because while the AL West isn’t as daunting, you’re still looking up at three teams that are likely to continue being good. The Marlins could be competitive with consistent investment, but Loria will prevent that from ever happening.
That leaves the Phillies in the NL East, the Angels in the AL West, and the Red Sox in the AL East. I think all three are perfectly good jobs, depending on what you want. With the Phillies, you will probably be #2 in the pecking order but still have significant input, and by 2017, you basically have a blank payroll and a huge crop of prospects hitting the majors. With the Angels, you basically have no control, but you have Mike Trout, so if you’re a people person who may not be great with personnel decisions, it’s perfect. The Red Sox are like the Phillies in that you’re at best the #2 and only providing input, but they have a lot more long-term committed payroll, so if you like what they have already, they may be more appealing. I don’t think you can go wrong with any of these three.
Three teams that are likely to continue being good in the AL West? Which three? Remember at the beginning of the season when the A’s were contenders and the Rangers looked like cellar dwellers? The division basically has one team with a clear long-term outlook in Houston, and that can change real quickly – just ask the Nationals. The rest of the division is three perennial under-achievers who sometimes don’t under-achieve and one perennial contender that imploded this season.
Nice article. I say Phillies. McPhail has really impressed me every time I have heard him speak. He is absolutely in charge of the organization but I think would be a good boss. And of course, the money and the fans are there. I also like how the Phils went out of their way to not burn Amaro. They were never anything but complimentary and even tried to arrange things so that he could interview for other jobs. And it wasn’t the BS fake compliments you sometimes hear. McPhail was specific as to how much he trusted Amaro and how diligent he was and how much he knew about different areas of the job.
The Phillies:
You have a good farm system and most likely an upcoming #1 pick and the associated pool money
Very little in financial commitments beyond 2016
A team that has shown a willingness to spend and has a new TV deal kicking in
A GM who was so publicly despised by the fanbase at the end of his tenure that simply by saying the right things in public and making reasonable decisions you will be seen as a revelation
Little Expectations for wins over the next year or two, as long as young players develop
A division that, while it contains the on the rise Mets and the probably will be better next year Nats,isn’t the hellscape of the NL central and is still probably below average over the next few years
Has seen a new face come to the forefront of ownership that seems determined to fix the organization failures that went beyond Amaro that led to many of the issues within that front office and also seems to be committed to winning
Gotta be the Phillies. Same resources as the Sox, but with more autonomy and a better ownership group.
The only reason to take the Marlins job would be to troll other GMs with rumours that I was putting Stanton and Fernandez on the trade block.
Loria at this point should fully embrace his position as ‘real-world cartoon villain.’ Grow a goatee, and regularly stroke it while letting loose an effectively evil laugh.
Has to be the Phillies
You have a ton of money, ownership who will be hands off to what your trying to do (even willing to eat dead money to bring back talent) and most importantly, there are no real dead weight contracts on the books except for Howard that has only 1 more year remaining. Finally with the expectations that the team is going to start a rebuild, there should be a 3 year window to do whatever you wish organizationally to remake the front office and farm system.
I see the potential in Philadelphia to be a sort of Dodgers light, in that you can use your financial flexibility to acquire more young talent while buying time for the farm to start producing cheaper alternatives and build the foundation for a long term sustainable winner.
matt harrison is a dead weight contract.
I picked the Phils for a lot of the reasons mentioned, but two complimentary things really made this an easy call:
1. They are bad, very bad, and have been for a number of years so presumably the leash is long to build a good team.
2. None of the division rivals scare me in the least. The Marlins will always be the Marlins; the Braves are just as bad now and while they also have a decent farm system they don’t have the resources; the Mets future is almost entirely tied up in pitching which is volatile and they also weirdly don’t have resources; and the Nats are maybe fairly close to their window closing. The Nats are probably the best bet to be competitive the next 5 years, but they aren’t a sure thing.
Not that it would be a good gig since the window is about to be slammed shut on someone’s fingers, but shouldn’t the Tigers be included in this list? I think Avila has the word ‘interim’ in front of his title.
“…it’s hard to know how responsibility will be split between the new GM and Andy MacPhail.”
In his previous tenure as a team President with the Cubs all indications are that MacPhail gave total roster control to both GM’s that he had (Ed Lynch & Jim Hendry). So I don’t think you’d have a “meddler” with the Phillies like you might in other scenerios.
I’m a Cubs fan, but was born in Milwaukee. We moved to Chicago when I was two, but most of my family is still up there. I have a soft spot for the Brewers, and it sounds like they want to move into more analytics. It’s not a huge fan base, but as we’ve seen with the Packers, they are devout. I voted for Milwaukee.
I’ve also long felt a tie to the Red Sox… old ballpark, similar history until the last 10 years, obsessive fans. That would be fun as well.
The Phillies have really turned into good situation, though I have no emotional ties to them.
Any of the three above would be great. The Angels are teetering between yes/no… Money, Trout, big market, but potential power struggle with owner and manager and playing second fiddle to the Dodgers.
The last two… meh.
Phillies fan here. The team’s circumstances are somewhat promising, but what often goes overlooked is how thoroughly hidebound the organization is — how willfully ignorant, incurious, sentimental and nepotistic it is. What a new GM is likely to find is not only a totally inadequate analytics department, but overt hostility to the systematic use of advanced data in player analysis and decision making. A smart GM — as we mean the term — would find him/herself isolated and ignored fairly quickly. Of course, it’s moot to speculate, as the person the Phillies will hire will no doubt be a baseball neanderthal.
From the perspective of future employment opportunities, I think the Brewers job is the best of the bunch. With a low payroll and a difficult expected future division, any semblance of treading water or competing every few years would be met with accolades across the industry. Let’s call this the Billy Beane corollary to the Brian Cashman maxim.
Billy Beane can put a competitive team on the field in a decrepit stadium, utilizing a broken revenue stream in a large city that has big brother across the bay. Just by competing (and failing to complete the compete) for a division title every few years, he cements his reputation as one of the greats in the game. If this were Rotten Tomatoes, he gets fresher with every mediocre season. The bar is lower because the purse strings are tighter.
Brian Cashman cannot ever have the reputation of a Billy Beane. Cashman has the payroll, the star power, the revenue stream, the ability to lure free agents to the city, andd the ability to pick up missing team pieces on the fly. If the Yankees win, it is expected. He gets no credit for it. If the Yankees lose, it’s his fault.
The Phillies and Red Sox jobs are similar to the Yankees because of recent star power and deep pockets. It would take a special dude to navigate the politics and press in either situation. The Brewers job seems like it has more upside.
Mets fan, but I don’t think that really influences my pick. One thing I’ve learned in my career is the importance of a good boss, so Florida and Anaheim are off my list. Like most, I’d be deciding between Philly and Boston, and my tie breaker is the young talent in the two organizations. Philly has some interesting young players, but Boston’s outfield, to start with, is a fantastic core to build from. I’d be shopping for a home on Marlboro Street tout suite.
“Phillies have a big market, strong loyalty” … “fans are just awesome” … “rock-solid group of young talent” … “good farm system” … “Phillies have really turned into good situation”
This page contains more positive Phillies content than the whole internet over the last 3 years. Brings a tear to this Phillies fan’s eye.
I don’t understand.
Do people not realize that in order to GM Philadelphia or Boston you’d have to spend copius (read: any) amounts of time living in Philadelphia or Boston?
You’re either not very bright or not very funny.
If you can’t manage to enjoy yourself in either of those cities it says more about you than the city
Boston is a great city to live downtown in, and a weekend cabin in New Hampshire or Maine is a treasure to have.
Philly has some terrific old houses and neighborhoods/towns on the Main Line for people with the scratch to afford them. An hour from beach or skiing.
Pretty much any major American city not named “Houston” has nice places in/near it.
Settle down, Eddie. Houston had some extremely nice neighborhoods. Guess you’ve never seen River Oaks nor the Memorial Park area.
My opinions if Houston is that they have great steak tacos. Nothing else stood out.
Phils have the best farm and the most flexibility in roster in payroll, especially after the next couple years, out of the ones your mentioned. So I went with them.
But the M’s would be a close second. Mariners probably have the best management to work with, and the core for a decent run in the next couple years (if the GM can come in and immediately land 1 – 2 OFs, 1 – 2 SP and an everyday C this winter). And the intangible reward is likely there more than any of the others you mention – getting back to the postseason for the first time in a decade and a half would be noteworthy, getting them to the WS would immortalize them in the Northwest.
The other 4 sound like headaches with meddling bosses from day one. Ugh.
“Mariners probably have the best management to work with…” Really?? I think you’re fooling yourself if you think the Seattle job comes without “meddling bosses.” The only constant with that team over the last 14 seasons of failure is the people at the very very top. I don’t know much about Howard Lincoln – you probably don’t either. But from that Geoff Baker “dysfunction” article from a few years ago – it doesn’t paint a pretty picture. It wasn’t just JZ – Eric Wedge claimed that he was getting lectured and second-guessed on a continual basis by Lincoln and Armstrong after games, getting notes passed to him from them during games, etc. Wedge painted JZ as their lapdog, as unwilling to stand up for his manager. I think the best thing for the team would be to hire a strong, analytically-minded GM and give him near total control. I don’t see that happening. The candidates that have been linked to the job so far are uninspiring – Kevin Towers, Kenny Williams, etc.
I don’t get the love for the Milwaukee job. I see that the owner is good and supportive, but it would be a herculean task with almost certain failure. Maybe it comes down to how confident/prideful you are in your ability to change things. Baseball is really really hard, and major league organizations are huge. For me it would be more about winning and having a good fit – a good working relationship. I could live with sharing some of the decision-making like in Boston or Philly or Anaheim or even Miami – as long as there was a healthy working relationship between us. That’s a big caveat, and obviously guys like Loria have a well-deserved reputation. I’d probably go with Boston, or secondly with Philly. They have the payroll / fan support to win, Boston’s farm system is so deep, and I don’t care about doing it “on my own” – I’d take the job to win, not to stroke my ego by doing impossible feats. No one actually wins on their own anyway, there is always a team of people, even if they aren’t always acknowledged.
MIA seems like a no-lose situation. You are a wunderkind if you succeed or it’s Loria’s fault, since the national media will run with the story.
I would also use the opportunity to cough up hairballs on Loria’s desk and blame it on Dan Jennings.
Maybe also no-win. Just because the media blame Loria doesn’t mean you’ll get another job if you lose there.
Angels because Mike Trout.
Not Angels because you’d have to be Scioscia’s water boy.
I’d like to see the reverse of this poll: which job is the least-desirable?
You can see the reverse of this poll, by looking at the poll and turning your monitor upside down.
While this isn’t actually true, I think in this case it is – I’m pretty sure the vast majority would say Miami.
The marlins job would be the best by far if not for the Loria factor, which is such a downer. If I knew I could build a team over three years without fire sales to save a few million dollars (I’d love to actually use one of those lottery picks one year), this would be the place to be. For that same reason, the brewers job is the most desirable, and I think challenging the 3 big teams in the division would be interesting.
I actually think the Marlins GM situation is one of the best (or tied for best with the Phillies).
I thought about it this way – if you walk in and can put Stanton up for trade, you can get a king’s ransom for one of the best players in the game that’s locked into 10 years of the team-friendliest contract in sports. That gets a lot of minor leaguers in trade. Also, you would have one of the best young pitchers in baseball. You could flip both of them for a ton of prospects with which to build your team. And you know Loria will give you the time to build that team because it means he’s paying for cheap, cost-controlled players.
Expectations for GM’s under Loria are low. He just wants the team to be full of cheap players. It’s almost a dream job (of sorts) for a person that wants to build a team through the farm system.
Best case – you turn the team into a World Series team and Loria spends for the year or two that you are in contention. Building a championship roster catches the eye of every owner and you can move to greener pastures.
Worst case – you sell off everyone and turn the roster is a dumpster fire, but there’s no fans at the games so nobody notices and you get fired after a few years. But there’s still a chance that some other FO people give you a pat on the back and say “well, we didn’t expect much working for Loria. But you showed some potential, come work for us.”
It would take a certain type to want the Marlins job, but the risk/reward is huge.
(“Fun” fact – the Marlins have existed for 22 years, yet have only had 4 GM’s. Few teams have had less than 4 GMs for the past 22 years.)
Really like this article, made me sit and think about it for a while. I agree with most that the Phillies job is by far the most attractive in terms of available money and existing farm system but I selected the Mariners. I think the ownership there is willing to do what it takes to win and with more competent management that team could be restored in fairly short order. A challenge to be sure and you’ve got Cano to deal with but some development/coaching changes to rehabilitate some of the failed prospects might do wonders.
Second for me would be Marlins. Despite the Loria nonsense, the Marlins have been a fairly stable franchise and the GMs there seem to have had autonomy. Maybe Loria is meddling behind the scenes a bit and we don’t see it but I think a new GM there would have free reign to make all the necessary moves and I honestly believe that team is a few inexpensive pieces short of competing in the NL East. Seems like many of Miami’s recent issues have been caused by GM mistakes (poor drafts and poor trades), those are mistakes that are easily remedied. The only thing that kept Marlins from #1 for me is Loria. I imagine working for that guy is a nightmare. Still, there are some really nice pieces there and I think they are the easiest of the group to turn into a playoff team.