Brewers Hire Matt Arnold As Assistant GM

New Brewers GM David Stearns has decided on an assistant general manager, tabbing former Rays director of player personnel Matt Arnold as his top lieutenant. Milwaukee had announced yesterday that long-time assistant GM Gord Ash would not return in that role, as Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports, though he was offered another position in the organization.

“I am thrilled to bring Matt on board,” Stearns said in the release. “Matt has touched nearly every aspect of baseball operations during his impressive career. He has the ability to impact our organization across the entire baseball operations spectrum and will be an integral part of our operation.”

At 36 years of age, Arnold makes for another youthful addition to the Milwaukee front office, though he’s still a fair sight older than his new boss. (Stearns is just thirty.) Arnold had been with Tampa Bay since 2007. But several teams apparently sought out his services this winter, including the Marlins.

As Arnold explained when he was Tampa Bay’s director of pro scouting, in an interview with Tommy Rancel of SB Nation, his baseball background is firmly in the scouting arena. But he also has a degree in economics and is a believer in statistical analysis. “I think it’s important that we separate the two fields as we each make our own evaluations,” said Arnold back in 2009, ” but combine them in the final synthesis of information when making a decision.” 

Of course, Arnold’s exposure to the full scale of baseball decisionmaking has grown since that time. The Brewers’ announcement credits him with involvement in many aspects of Tampa Bay’s organization — including, interestingly, “the integration of science, biomechanics and human movement analysis within baseball operations at all levels.”