So....who is the new GM/head of baseball ops?
- Thread starter moondog80
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Yeah - this. When you have a GM working as de-facto PBO for a year and a half, and then decide to hire someone else to take that role but try to keep the GM on in her previous capacity....that's something an organization does if they want to get rid of the GM but don't want to suffer the blowback of firing her. Which doesn't seem like something a smart organization does.
Also, Jeter was the one who hired Ng (which makes sense, since they knew each other from their Yankee days), so it may simply be that his departure left Ng without support among ownership.
How could the Sox hire someone without any vowels in her last name? Seems like a deal break.
Signed,
Kent Hrbek
Signed,
Kent Hrbek
So, candidates say no because of absentee ownership while other organizations have people leave because ownership is too involved?
Got it.
Craig Breslow - interesting. If I recall he was the Sox player rep - super intelligent guy. Though seems like he's being considered for a different position (NBC Boston Sports):
There are "rumblings" that former Red Sox pitcher Craig Breslow, who currently serves as the Chicago Cubs' Assistant General Manager/Vice President and Director of Pitching, could return to Boston as the director of the Red Sox' pitching development program, longtime baseball reporter Peter Gammons reported Saturday.
He lives in Newton.
There are "rumblings" that former Red Sox pitcher Craig Breslow, who currently serves as the Chicago Cubs' Assistant General Manager/Vice President and Director of Pitching, could return to Boston as the director of the Red Sox' pitching development program, longtime baseball reporter Peter Gammons reported Saturday.
He lives in Newton.
No she left because she was no longer going to be the head of baseball ops: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/38671694/kim-ng-marlins-general-manager-declining-2024-option
She should be at the top of the Sox list.
The Marlins could certainly be an inept organization, & they are certainly viewed as a cheap organization - it is somewhat odd that a cheap organization would choose to give someone an expensive new job at the top of the food chain rather than simply promote their current top person & hire someone else underneath Ng if they were happy with the totality of her work & committed to that structure.
Yes, they may just be bad at personnel evaluation but it is a data point.
Yes, they may just be bad at personnel evaluation but it is a data point.
I liked Breslow a lot when he was with the Sox. Never a good pitcher but approached pitching with great a great analytical mind (think Greg Maddux but with 1/10th the talent at best) and always thought he could be a good pitching coach but if he takes that to other parts of the game, then I definitely think he could be a good GM.
That said.... I think I'd lean more towards Ng.
Eeeh. . .not so much. And they're cheap, for sure.
As far as Ng goes, she's been in charge(ish) since Nov. 2020.
Draft:
Her picks were mostly HS players, so they're not up yet. https://www.baseball-reference.com/draft/?team_ID=FLA&year_ID=2021&draft_type=junreg&query_type=franch_year&from_type_jc=0&from_type_hs=0&from_type_4y=0&from_type_unk=0
That said, all the first rounders look. . .mostly meh so far. None have really lit the world on fire at any stage, though with some it's probably too early to tell. (One went for Josh Bell for the 2023 stretch, he has a player option, so no long term control.)
Trades:
Her trades (with the exception of this year) are have a few decent ones, but were pretty much misses or uninspired, especially for catchers. Duval for Jackson, for example. Or anything for Stallings. Or acquiring Edwards/Chargois this year for a pair of minor league arms. It's really the Meh talent return that stands out here.
Then there's stuff like this: https://www.fishstripes.com/2022/8/2/23289069/blue-jays-marlins-trade-jordan-groshans
Which sort of makes sense. . .but. . .https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/groshjo01.shtml He's still young, but it looks like he may have cratered. How much of that is on the Marlin's org. . .who knows?
On the plus side, she did well to trade for Scott (for mostly low minors lottery tickets) and had a very good 2023. The trade for Arraez was absolutely great, given the need, but Lopez was fantastic for MIN. Puk for Bleday seems solid, and
and she picked up Burger and Bell for the final run - both played very well. But she also had a lot of meh trades in 2023, which really necessitated getting Burger and Bell.
Signings:
Then there's the "big" signings. Garcia was 4/53 for negative 1.6 WAR and counting. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/garciav01.shtml Which may not seem much, but he was the highest paid player on the club, so that represents a significant chunk of resources.
Soler was the second most expensive, at 3/36 and has had one crappy and one excellent (AS) season. https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/s/solerjo01.shtml
Overall, not inspiring, but it's obvious the purse-strings were tight. I'd probably say (from my more limited following of the Marlins) that she did more good than harm. I don't know what she'd do here. There's a bit of trading low minors for identifiable talent thing going on. A bit of a propensity to bring in "talent" that fails (but that can be a coaching/org. thing as well.)
If you believe in recency bias, or that a couple of years on the job can hone skills, she seems more solid based on her 2023. But I wouldn't expect a huge upgrade over Bloom. It absolutely might happen (and she's not afraid to trade.) But there may still be a tendency to hold onto meh players, especially if the Sox ownership has a cap.
This wasn't someone who was an acting #1 or heir apparent, she was in the #1 and they picked up the option on her contract (or tried to). Doing that and then installing someone over her seems like a silly move.
But he's not being considered for the top post, but for head of pitching development, which is very interesting.
Sounds like he is being considered for a different position than Ng would be recruited for.
It's been some time since I've heard or read anything about Breslow, but from what I can recall he's always been highly regarded for his approach to pitching. I think that someone like that could certainly have a positive impact on the organization. Perhaps a similar title (which I'm assuming will give him a great deal of input on the drafting and development of young pitchers as well as input on the types of pitchers that the team pursues via trade, FA and the waiver wire) and pay bump might be enough to lure him home. A pitching consigliere who works in concert with the new CBO if you will.
Thanks.
I can't read. 100% behind him as someone to help out develop pitching. As others have pointed out, Sox have scored pretty low on developing arms and that's probably the most important part of the farm. I think Bloom left a good bumper in the lower levels, but they're mostly 2-3 years from contributing.
This is a good post. One thing I'll add, though - I think Ng's signature trade for the Marlins was picking up Jesus Luzardo for Starling Marte in 2021. That one was apparently all hers, and it looks like a good one so far.
Small market GM’s are hard to evaluate because there are trades they could have made that were held up by ownership over money. Hard to judge her with limited purse strings.
That Breslow mention reads like lazy reporting based on (probably) Gammons mention earlier.
I would agree. The Marte saga is interesting. MIA gave up some decent (but not overwhelming) pitching talent for him in 2020 for the post-season run (that was pre-Ng) and I think he had one option left on his contract for 2021. Then they traded him in 2021 to OAK for Luzardo at the deadline - he kind of sucked at the time (and did for the remainder of that year) but has put up a great 2022 and 2023. So that's one good lottery ticket picked. If it's fair to call Luzardo that - but he had actually been demoted back to AAA by OAK when MIA traded for him.
Yeah, I read that when you posted that at the top of the page. It read to me as though someone said something that someone else heard and with a lack of particulars it may or may not be true. I totally did not get the "now it seems he is being considered for, and possibly a favorite, for the Chief Baseball Officer role." vibe. In fact the next paragraph begins with, "But if a relationship with Cora matters, then during Ng’s first four seasons as the Dodgers assistant GM from 2001-04, Cora was a middle infielder, playing regularly. So the two have history.". And then the next speaks of Ng's relationship with NYC. So yeah a whole lotta stuff being said with nothing being said.
That doesn't sound like someone interested in becoming the #2 under Stearns for the Mets . . . .
"this has potentially chilled the market" is such non-reporting. Flat out admission that the writer is spitballing. Not that the Post is a fount of Sox coverage.
So the Twins were eliminated on the 11th, and now we hear their GM is interviewing on the 16th. Maybe the playoffs are a holdup for executives on active teams after all. Maybe we'll hear about some Braves or Dodgers executives next.
Wait, so all the sky-is-falling "nobody wants the Red Sox job ZOMG!!!" stories weren't totally on the level?
Former Pirates GM Neal Huntington is a candidate for the Sox GM job.
https://x.com/bradfo/status/1714061294507049253?s=46&t=IVL2VrlFgLlpc3mjGGto8Q
https://x.com/bradfo/status/1714061294507049253?s=46&t=IVL2VrlFgLlpc3mjGGto8Q
During my hiatus from following the Sox, I followed the Pirates pretty closely. I really want no part of Huntington as POBO. There were obvious financial constraints in Pittsburgh, but they were extremely behind in a lot of aspects. Just look at how Gerrit Cole, Tyler Glasnow, and Charlie Morton blossomed after leaving Pittsburgh. And the Archer trade might go down as one of the worst trades ever. Hard pass.
Nobody said nobody would want it.. But great it seems like now they might have moved on to a bunch of 2nd tier candidates.
The Jason Bay deal wasn’t great, either, and the Cole deal was also awful.
Looking through his deals, most seem pretty bad.
Keep Huntington as far from this team as possible. It’s a trainwreck already, no need to light it totally on fire.
He did, but their two best players were guys he didn't draft or sign (McCutchen and Marte), he took Pedro Alvarez instead of Buster Posey, and Jameson Taillon over Manny Machado. They were ahead of the curve with respect to shifting, and were able to get some career years out of AJ Burnett and Francisco Liriano, but their desire to turn guys who were capable of missing bats into sinkerballers was their undoing. For as advanced as they were to adopt shifting early, they really lagged and were left behind when the game changed. They also really failed to add to their team during those years, unlike KC who went for it and have a World Series to show for it.
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I liked Musgrove, but I think he was capable of a lot more than what the Pirates got from him.
When I saw the Twins GM interviewing it was a big indication Falvey passed on interviewing, now seemingly confirmed. I think that more than anything speaks to how the league views this.
It was his dream job growing up.
It was his dream job growing up.
Just give it to Romero. He’s done everything the organization has asked of him for 20 years. By all accounts he is very good at what he does and is well liked. He knows the farm system.
He interviewed in prior years and must have interviewed well for him to be a candidate and the interim GM. And he knows the manager.
He interviewed in prior years and must have interviewed well for him to be a candidate and the interim GM. And he knows the manager.
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