The Mariners announced yesterday that they agreed to a multiyear extension with GM Jack Zduriencik. The deal ends speculation about a possible regime change and means there’s one less job opening for GM candidates in MLB. Here are the latest notes on baseball’s general managers…
- Multiple high-ranking A’s officials tell Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times that the Cubs haven’t made any contact with Billy Beane about Chicago’s GM opening.
- Newsday's Ken Davidoff thinks Brian Cashman will be back with the Yankees next year, partly because of the Mariners' decision to retain Zduriencik. Not only does that remove one possible destination for Cashman, the longtime Yankees GM has been intrigued by the Seattle job in the past.
- Carrie Muskat of MLB.com lists Thad Levine of the Rangers, Ben Cherington of the Red Sox, J.J. Picollo of the Royals, Rick Hahn of the White Sox, Michael Hill of the Marlins and former Twins GM Terry Ryan as potential candidates for the Cubs' job.
Dear god I hope Cashman is not back in the Bronx next year. He can take AJ with him wherever he winds up. The guy just isn’t a good GM and he has handed out bad contract after bad contract…..Burnett, Tex, Pavano, Igawa etc.
I would love to see what someone like Billy Beane could do with the financial backing of the Yankees. Doubt it would ever happen but would love to see it.
Ok, over the last several years I’ve seen Cashman pick up players that should be completely useless and yet they turn out to be huge assets. Aaron Small, Shawn Chacon, even this year with pulling Colon and Garcia off the trash pile.
I ain’t a yanks fan but one does have to admit that Cashman has done a good job for that club. Also since when do yanks fans consider Tex’s contract bad? I recall a lot of gloating when they signed him.
Not to mention, if he wasn’t signed here, he was going to Boston. So how bad can Cash be if Theo wanted the same asset?
Cashman hate is the obnoxious faction of Yankees fans never knowing how good they have it. They’re the same fans who call in to talk about how CC isn’t an ace because he happens to pitch poorly to Boston in a string of starts. I’m sure these fans exist in every mostly successful fanbase in the world, but I can’t speak to those fanbases.
Absolutely agree there with Tex. The only negative to that signing even remote with them getting him is that they would almost certainly have sighed gonzalez following this season, then where would they have been for 3 seasons without the production of tex? no world title last year possibly?
It was a terrific signing. Want to hammer signings, go pick on the Steinbrenners ill thought extension’s and signings more so than cashman’s.
Billy Beane has made his fair share of mistakes, just as have every other GM. Cashman’s get overblown because of the money and the exposure. Would you rather have Theo Epstein, he of the Lackey and Dice-K contracts (I am sure there are other bad ones). The point is that high-profile teams’ mistakes with show more, especially if they fail. Since the Yankees can hardly be considered a failure- who can say the same about Oakland- Cashman has done a pretty good job.
Edit: And before someone thinks I am criticizing Epstein I was not, just pointing out that even great GM’s make mistakes.
daisuke was fine and lackey is livable. go with lugo and renteria when crapping on epstein
Forgot about those two.
Igawa was largely based on bad scouting. Burnett was bad and we all knew it. Tex, even if he is a .250 hitter instead of .280 still has a high obp and is crushing the ball this year with high production and solid defense. Plus he’s already nearly won an MVP and won a WS since his signing. You conveniently ignored CC, the Swisher trade, completely rebuilding the farm system starting with guys like Cano and continuing with Gardner, Robertson, Chamberlain, Hughes, Nunez, Montero (called up tonight) and a top 5-10 farm system overall in the game today when it was consistently 25-30 before he gained majority power as a GM. I would say that A-Rod trade worked out pretty well (he did not negotiate the resigning), the Martin, Colon and Garcia signings. Cash has been GM for 13 years and has had majority control for six years now. The fact you can come up with 2.5 legitimate bad signings is a compliment to Cashman. Lugo, Drew, Dice-K, Renteria, Gagne, Cameron, Crawford (in year one), these are all deals you can debate were worse than better by Theo and he’s almost unanimously considered one of the best GM’s in the game.
CC? He was an obvious fit in NY and gave $40 mil more than any other team offered. Tex is a .250 hitter in his 3rd year of a huge deal.
I can go on and on about signings like farnsworth, or trading Tyler clippard away for a bag of balls, what about letting Aceves go….to the sox of all teams, what about trading a couple stud prospects to make the same mistake twice in javy Vazquez, signing Jared wright, signing Nick Johnson, giving up on Ian Kennedy, spending millions and millions every year on loogys.
I don’t see why people think he is a good GM. His quality draft picks are swayed by way over slot signings for kids who are planning to go to college and his international success is throwing loads of money at highly touted dominicans.
You lost any credibility by arguing Tex is a bad signing because he’s a .250 hitter.
I think Tex is a bad signing bc he is a .250 for 2 years now that is being paid $23 million a year thru 2016. Tex was given the 5th largest contract in baseball history and being paid in the top 6 in all of baseball annually.
Do I like Tex on my team? Yes. I would like him a lot better if he was hitting 5th instead of 3rd (entirely different argument) but do I think his play comes close to justifying being paid in the top 6 in the league for re next 5 years? No.
even if that’s true, it doesn’t matter in new york. spending on teix isn’t going prevent them from spending on any other need, no matter how small (see: soriano, rafael)
in other words, cashman would be a much worse GM if he didn’t give teixeira what it took to sign him
CC was offered 20 million more than any other team because later reports published the Angels’ final offer was $140 MILLION and I’ve posted the link to that on this very site in the past. Factor in New York taxes and the move itself and that 20 million figure becomes even smaller. Then he did nothing but win a WS in year one and continue to be worth every penny today. CC is probably the best FA starter signing in Yankees’ history. Obvious fit? So was Carl Pavano, what’s your point? The beauty was getting him here.
Yeah, you can go on on and on about signing a bad relief pitcher, but then you’d be crying about signing a relief pitcher. And you would be complimenting Cashman, who learned from those mistakes and now homegrows the majority of what is currently the best bullpen in the American League. He traded Clippard who has had one dominant year as a setup man, not the starter the Yankees developed him as. You want to argue Dave Robertson, someone Cashman scouted shouldn’t be the setup man? And again, you’re whining about the Yankees trading a reliever away when they already have the best bullpen in the AL largely thanks to Cashman.
The concern over Aceves was his health. You’re going to criticize signing Pavano and then also criticize Aceves not being signed, to again, be a reliever, for again, one of the best bullpens without him and Clippard? That’s a joke, you can’t have it both ways. It’s just blind hatred.
What have those stud prospects done since the Javy trade? It will likely be a bad trade but that’s one. He didn’t have full say in signing Jaret Wright, go read the Yankee Years to know what the front office was like back then. Nick Johnson was a one year deal and blocked/cost the Yankees nothing but cash they had. He didn’t give up on Kennedy, he traded him and got Granderson in the trade, you wan’t to argue against a potential MVP in center?
Anything else?
Maybe the Yankees will hire Bob Geren to a 10-year contract?
I don’t want Beane. Terry Ryan is an intriguing name. I forgot about him. These asst gm’sare a crap shoot, who knows how good they’ll be. I get the feeling the Cubs will try to be trail blazers and hire Kim Ng.
Not a chance, Ricketts said he wants someone from a winning organization. Ng isn’t that at all. Ryan might be the perfect fit if he knew sabremetrics. He definitely knows how to put together a baseball team without a lot of money.
Too bad. If Cashman did go to Seattle he’d finally get Felix. Zing.
and then he’d trade him to the yankees and get his job back there
She’s normally right. It’s not her fault she’s a realist and pretty good at her job.
It is disappointing to not see Friedman on there.
But at the same time, thank God there’s no mention of Ned Colletti.
So you agree with her that the Cubs won’t even try to bid on Fielder OR Pujols next year?
I wouldn’t say she’s good at her job. Her job is to attract readers, and 95% of the people I talk to can’t stand her opinions.