Last week MLBTR asked readers to consider the performances of American League general managers to determine which executive made the best offseason moves based upon the 2012 season thus far and long-term outlook. With over 19,500 votes, Billy Beane of the Athletics received 33.57% of the total in recognition of the moves he made this offseason which have led to his team's success this year.
Today's poll heads to the Senior Circuit where the question becomes which National League general manager has made the best offseason moves. MLBTR’s Transaction Tracker provides a look back at all of the trades and moves that took place during the offseason to help make an informed choice.
Rizzo didn’t really do any moves, Jocketty traded the farm for a couple stud pitchers while also locking up the quarter million dollar man in the MVottomaticP
Gio Gonzalez & Edwin Jackson…?
Shhh, he’s in denial.
Not only did he trade for Gio, he locked up to a pretty team friendly long term deal. Oh and he signed Zimmerman long term, time will tell with that one.
the votto contract is not something to brag about
It is if you’re Joey Votto or his agent.
excuse me, but there seems to be a mistake here: somebody put ruben amaro on the wrong list
Amen to that.
Why are people voting for the Dodgers? They didn’t do anything until around the deadline…
Agreed that they didn’t have the best offseason, but didn’t they lock up Kemp and Eithier?
Ethier was extended during the season, I believe.
Dodger fans are going to vote Dodger. Can’t read too much into polls like these when most people vote for their own GM.
I actually think Colletti did have a good offseason (keyword: offseason).
He signed a bunch of scrubs to 2 year contracts due to McCourt, yet the moves worked out in the beginning of the year. I sure wasn’t expecting them to have the best record to start the year…I was expecting a below .500 year.
he may not have had an awful offseason but it wasnt as good as at least a half dozen other teams on the list. Padres, Giants, Reds, Cardinals and Nationals all had far better offseasons.
Signed Mark Ellis (underrated player, awesome signing). Brought in Capuano and Harang, who have done a fine job anchoring that rotation.
they didn’t bring in flashy big names last offseason, but they certainly made some solid moves that are helping their team win.
Thank you. That is what I’ve been saying this whole entire time. The reds or the nationals made the best moves.
Yeah, I’m a Dodger fan and don’t understand why anyone would vote for the Dodgers, either.
I liked the Capuano signing, but all the others were underwhelming. Someone mentioned the Mark Ellis deal as a positive, which is baffling to me. The guy was coming off a .248/.288/.346 season and is 34 years old and you give him 2 years and $9m guaranteed? He’s played decently enough, but that contract seemed unnecessary. And then there was $5m for the mediocre Rivera, unnecessary 2 year commitments to guys like Hairston and Gwynn, resigning Mike MacDougal (who had terrible peripheral stats in 2011), signing Todd Coffey… Harang has been OK, but again, I’m not sure a 2 year commitment was necessary for a 5th starter.
Sabean robbed the Royals even with Melky getting busted and clearly won the Pagan trade with the Mets not to mention finding value in Arias and Blanco for league minimum contracts
LOL how Sabean would’ve been the hands down winner had Melky not tested positive.
not to mention he locked up Cain and didn’t give Lincecum a 8 year contract.
Lincecum could’ve had 5/100 with the stroke of a pen though- you might say Sabean was lucky there.
Sorry for the multiple posts, the comment system was updating when i started to write my whole comment above.
“Sabean robbed the Royals even with Melky getting busted” Would you say that if you knew not having Melky was the difference between winning and losing in a division series in PS? Obviously no one can say that for sure but there’s an argument to be made there. That is why Gibson is so up in arms and ultimately he has the right to be.
Jed Hoyer did a lot to get the Cubs going in the right direction for the future. But in regards to now, it’s easily Rizzo and there is no need to even include any other teams.
Billy Beane has a builtin excuse for losing. If he wins once in a while, he is a genius. If he loses most of the time, bad ballpark, no fans, no money.
You could almost give Beane a vote in the NL for full fledged fleecing the DBacks…
LOL how Sabean would’ve been the hands down winner had Melky not tested positive.
Mike Rizzo gets credit for Gio Gonzalez and Edwin Jackson (and should lose goodwill for standing pat and shutting down Strasburg). I really like Josh Byrnes’ off-season. He got two position players (Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal) and Edinson Volquez for Mat Latos. He traded for Carlos Quentin and signed him. Kept Headley when everyone said trade him. He did this all through the sale of the team (meaning no payroll expansion). He made a team worth buying.
Mike Rizzo gets credit for Gio Gonzalez and Edwin Jackson (and should lose goodwill for standing pat and shutting down Strasburg). I really like Josh Byrnes’ off-season. He got two position players (Yonder Alonso and Yasmani Grandal) and Edinson Volquez for Mat Latos. He traded for Carlos Quentin and signed him. Kept Headley when everyone said trade him. He did this all through the sale of the team (meaning no payroll expansion). He made a team worth buying.
I agree with all of that completely, the problem is the Pads haven’t been able to even replicate the success of 2010. I don’t think you can give it to Byrnes even though he made all the right moves on paper, sometimes it’s the smaller moves that make the difference in winning and losing.
I can’t believe people aren’t voting enough for the Padres. They got a great amount of young talent like Alonso, Grandal, Cashner, etc. and MLB ready players like Volquez, and even extending some like Quentin and Street. The Padres should be in contention 2 years from now with a great team for the future with the loaded farm they have (Liriano, Spangenberg, Kelly, Gyorko, etc.)
I didn’t vote for the Padres GM, but I do think they made some very shrewd moves that sets them up nicely for the future.
The teams in the western division have had a hard time repeating and that is a very competitive division that a team can go from worst to first. Well, not the Rockies unless they can figure out a way to find pitchers that can pitch in their park.
Padres did okay, but I took away a few points for trading Rizzo. He was one of the key acquisitions in the A-Gon deal, and I guarantee he’s going to be a 35-40 homer guy within two years.
Rizzo’ debut last year was so underwhelming that this was all he was worth. He responded with an impressive season with the Cubs, but he’s not a 40 home run guy (it’s not the steroid era anymore).
Mike Rizzo didn’t shut Strasburg down last offseason, so I think you’re on the wrong page in the first place. But to address the point, I think it’s really easy for you and others to play tough guy and say Stras shouldn’t be shut down. After all, you’re not the one directly responsible to he Lerner family, the fans, or Strasburg for his health, safety, and long-term well-being. There’s not a whole lot of Nationals fans willing to mortgage the future to push this kid an extra month. Rizzo has a ton of support from his own team’s fans on this. It’s absolutely the right move.
I don’t want to go into the Strasburg vortex (or should we call it the Rizzo vortex). He’s not only a great GM, but a medical expert as well (maybe he can send Strasburg in to the settle the election during October).
Rizzo hands down. He turned an average team on the rise into one of the best in baseball with an enviable pitching staff.
He did well but Rizzo could’ve done a lot more by holding Strasburg back instead of letting him go at the start of the season. As we see now, not even 2 months off the beginning of the season would’ve been enough for Strasburg to go all the way and not go over the innings. I don’t see how a GM doesn’t make keeping Strasburg all the way the #1 priority for his pitcher. I see more $ from fans in the seats as the motivation to start him early, but that will make winning the WS immeasurably harder.
If they don’t start him for the first 6-8 weeks and they don’t make the playoffs, then Strasburg doesn’t get the amount of innings he needs as a young, developing pitcher. No one predicted the Nationals to be in this position. I’m not saying what they did was the best route, but starting him a couple months into the season was simply not an option that would make sense at all.
“No one predicted the Nationals to be in this position.”
It’s a GM’s responsibility to think they will be able to win it all, and people inside baseball knew the Nats had a very good team.
“but starting him a couple months into the season was simply not an option that would make sense at all.”
Rizzo could’ve requested the doctors to craft a longer rehab as P have typically taken longer than the year Strasburg took to come back. He could’ve thrown in the instructional league as many innings as he needed to get ready for the season. Countless people in baseball from Jim Bowden who was a Nats GM to the writers know where there was a will there’s a way, Billy Beane held back the big 3 in season to make sure their innings weren’t too many.
Holding Strasburg back the first six weeks looks great NOW, but relies on hindsight. If the team had held him back and then he missed time with some minor injuries (tweaks a hamstring, etc) then your clever plan results i leaving some of Strasburg’s 170 (or so) innings on the table at the end of the year. Which costs them both in terms of playoff standing (not winning the division = BAD thanks to the 1 game playoff) AND possibly (if he misses enough time) in 2013 due to the need to ramp him up slowly.
To put it simply, if they had held Strasburg back and it cost them the Division title, then you could argue that the Nationals hurt their chances of winning the WS this year.
Assuming at the beginning of the season that Strasburg was going to be able to make 29 starts would have been one HELL of an assumption for a guy with no complete professional seasons and coming off a whopping five post-TJ starts.
“Holding Strasburg back the first six weeks looks great NOW, but relies on hindsight.”
Did Rizzo not announce before the season this was the plan for Strasburg? It’s Bowden himself who said Rizzo should’ve worked with the doctors to craft a rehab program that would allow him to pitch through the entire PS, a GM has this prerogative. Whether that’s all at the beginning or not is irrelevant, there’s a myriad of ways to keep him under a limit from the start of the season.
The Nats were expected to contend, but not to be running away with the NL East. Extra Strasburg regular season starts matter significantly if the Nats are wildcard contenders or in a tighter division race. if rizzo doesn’t start strasburg until 6-8 weeks in and the nats miss the postseason because of it, then the decision looks bad.
the common preseason wisdom was that the NL would be tight, and the yankees, rangers, angels, and tigers would be the clear dominant al teams. of course, that’s not happening and that’s why baseball is awesome.
The question was specifically limited to “offseason moves” so the whole Stras situation doesn’t apply.
Sandy Alderson gets 29+ votes , from what his family? (take a look at that bullpen)
Flawed poll. Most people will vote for their own teams general manager. I know I voted for Sabean myself.
I read this theory on polls/guesses/etc. Basically it said there’s 2 types of people who submit answers: knowledgeable and ignorant/biased. However if the poll is large enough the number of people who are ignorant and biased tend to cancel each other out leaving a more knowledgable answer.
Hint hint.
Interesting. I read this theory on people who wear purple. It said you should “Be sensitive to your personal and spiritual needs. Try yoga or meditation to
release mind blocks.”
Hint hint.
There wasn’t really much you could do for that bullpen. It’s not like he could sign Papelbon and, to be honest, most of the guys like Rauch and Francisco who have been considered decent arms have been busts this year (ie Marshall, Lidge, etc)
He obviously wasn’t the best but Alderson made more good moves then bad. He re-signed Dickey, Hairston, and Young and extended Niese. The trade of Pagan also was not a bad move. Sure Torres is useless and Ramirez has not been up to par but you have to remember that Pagan was likely to be non-tendered. Torres will surely be let go in favor of someone better but Ramirez may still be able to contribute in 2013. Yea it’s dumb that anyone voted for him as the BEST, but not as dumb as people who voted for Ruben Amaro Jr.
Gotta vote Rizzo here. Bringing in two really good SP and transforming a team from mediocre to arguably the best in baseball and into a near certain playoff lock is a definite win.
Sabean gets a second from me, simply because of that Melky Cabrera trade (I’ll use hindsight here. I don’t care if he got popped for PEDs. If the Giants make the playoffs, his contributions went a long way, and that’s what matters.)
I appreciate the Burnett trade from Huntington, certainly a game changer, but the moves at the trade deadline haven’t went very well as I expected. Wandy looks like toast, and even though Snider looks decent so far, they did nothing to replace a stud out of the bullpen and the entire pitching staff is in a daily state of flux. An ideal scenario would have been going after another quality reliever and dumping Bedard a month earlier while claiming a real starter for insurance, instead of jerking Correia around every week or two.
Lol how Sabean would’ve had the hands down argument to be the winner had it not been for Melky. IMO his absence from a division series will make it a far tougher challenge for the Giants to win. That being the goal, to make it as far into PS as possible I’d say it isn’t Sabean because his main acquisition won’t be there. Granted he didn’t know that, but in the end it’s the results that count.
It’s tempting to say Byrnes for the Pads but for the success they didn’t have- IMO it’s Jocketty for the arms they did get to insure success.
Earvin Johnson
No love for Walt Jocketty? The big trade with San Diego that brought Latos has worked for both sides-those players he traded were blocked in Cincinnati, and Volquez had become a coaching problem for the Reds and a clubhouse problem because he was not particularly a team player.
He signed his core players, brought in Sean Marshall, was the GM when they surprisingly signed Chapman, got a resurgent Ryan Ludwick on the cheap, hired a terrific pitching coach, and yes, he didn’t hire Baker, but I think Baker has done a masterful job of getting his players to play. Cincinnati has got to have the best record of pulling out games that appear to be already lost. These guys don’t quit.
On a side note, I’d like to mention that Cincinnati starting pitchers have not missed a turn this season due to injury. Can we stop blaming Dusty for ruining pitchers? Can we give him credit for learning from past mistakes?
HELLO!!!! MICHAEL HILL BROUGHT IN REYES, BELL, BUHELRE, AND ZAMBRANO! (even though they are terrible this year, he had big signings)
Funny, but that’s my exact argument on why he should be considered this years worst GM.
In light of Melky, it’s a tossup between Rizzo and Jocketty. I gave my vote to Jocketty even though he might have been ‘luckier’ than Rizzo. Ludwick put the Reds on his shoulders much of July/August. Latos eventually proved his worth. Jackson is overperforming for Rizzo, but as an FA signing and only somewhat overperforming, it wasn’t the same kind of reach that Walt did with signing Ludwick and giving up prospects for Latos. And had this poll been taken during the All Star break, it would’ve been Huntington. Bedard crushed that.
Who the hell voted for Sandy Alderson?
he got fleeced in the Pagan trade…
never even made an offer to Reyes…letting him walk for nothing…
built the absolute worst bullpen in the league…
and in mid-season…did nothing to improve the pen when they actually had a shot…left the slowest player on the roster in RF…when no one was in LF after Bay was injured…
is matt cerrone and his metsblog staff just voting on this site over and over ?
With the off season moves Byrnes made, he totally over hauled the Padres. Acquiring Grandal, Alonso, Volquez, Quentin, Street, and Cashner will certainly help the Padres out next season. His extensions to Luebke, Maybin and Hundley haven’t worked out as well as Padre fans have hoped, but Luebke and Maybin are still young enough for those deals to pay off. It would have been interesting to see what the Padres record may have been if they had gotten rid of Hudson and Bartlett.
I believe Billy Beane was leading the AL poll last I checked. Pretty awesome that two GMs that made a huge trade were the two highest placing GMs in the poll.
My O’s aren’t up there that is BS I don’t know why the Dodgers are up there because all they did in the off season was get Hairston Jr., Kennedy, Capuano, Harang, and extended Kemp’s contract the O’s got Chavez, Eveland, and Flaherty who have been less than descent Wada who got hurt if not he would have helped us big time Teagarden who helped us win 2 games and Wei Yin Chen and Jason Hammels who have been
are best starters and Matt Lindstrom who we traded about a week ago for Joe Saunders
Stephen, your O’s play in the AL.
Sabean has done some great moves this off-season. Signing Lopez, Vogelsong, Cain, and Sandoval to extensions. He traded for Pagan and Cabrera as well. Overall that’s arguably a pretty good offseason.
Could be toss up between Sabean, Rizzo or Beane.
DAN DUQUETTE. Are you kidding? Nobody else has made as many, or more effective moves.
NL…
For me its between Jocketty and Byrnes. I have to give the edge to Jocketty though because his team has performed better, granted he did have more to work with. He locked up Votto and Phillips to deals and people thought they were both going to hit FA, he went out and grabbed Latos for Volquez/Alonso(who doesnt have a spot anymore) and converted chapman to one of the best closers this year despite madson breaking down. He went all in this year, spent the money and it has paid off.
Pagan and Cabrera have been worth 8.2 WAR so far this season, and they cost Sabean Andres Torres (.8 WAR) and Jonathan Sanchez (-.7 WAR). Rizzo’s similar moves resulted in 6.7 WAR from Gio Gonzalez and Edwin Jackson, costing him Tommy Milone (2.2 WAR) and 3 high level prospects. Sabean also extended Ryan Vogelsong and Madison Bumgarner to team friendly deals, and signed Matt Cain to a long term, market value extension. The Nats are playing great but a lot of that is a result of players already on the roster taking big steps forward (Ian Desmond).
I Vote Rizzo, mainly for the Gio trade, Jackson signing, not signing Fielder (though i love the big ole boy) and not dumping Ian Desmond like 90% of everybody said they should and moving Espinosa to SS.