Former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti is on the Diamondbacks’ list of potential GM candidates, reports J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group.
The 62-year-old Colletti served as GM in Los Angeles from 2005-14 before giving way to current president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman at the end of the 2014 campaign. The Dodgers retained Colletti as a senior advisor to team president/CEO Stan Kasten, but he no longer plays a role in the decision-making process when it comes to baseball operations. Hoornstra adds that whoever is ultimately hired will not report to Tony La Russa — a sentiment that meshes with previous reports which have indicated that La Russa will no longer be calling the shots in the Arizona front office even if has not been let go by the team.
The Dodgers reached the postseason in six of Colletti’s nine seasons as general manager, and he was the GM for a number of critical trades, free-agent signings and extensions that still impact today’s iteration of the Dodgers. Most notably, Colletti helped orchestrate the blockbuster trade that sent Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto from Boston to L.A. in exchange for James Loney, Ivan De Jesus, Allen Webster and Rubby De La Rosa back in 2012. He also signed Zack Greinke to a six-year, $147MM contract with an opt-out clause after the third season (which Greinke exercised, netting the Dodgers a 2015 first-round pick after rejecting a QO) and worked out extensions for Andre Ethier (five years, $85MM) and Clayton Kershaw (seven years, $215MM with a third-year opt-out). Colletti also acquired Manny Ramirez in 2008 — arguably the most successful half-season rental in recent history — and re-signed him to a two-year, $45MM deal that proved less successful. Los Angeles’ two-year, $36.2MM deal for Andruw Jones late in his career also proved to be a significant misstep.
On the international front, Colletti gave the approval on a number of expensive signings that yielded no return for the Dodgers, including Erisbel Arruebarrena and Alex Guerrero, though the team’s signing of Yasiel Puig to a seven-year, $42MM contract has to be deemed a success even if Puig’s performance never returns to its 2013-14 heights. And, the signings of Hiroki Kuroda out of Japan and Hyun-Jin Ryu out of Korea both provided tremendous value to the pitching staff, though Ryu’s contributions have been cut short due to shoulder problems that have sidelined him for nearly all of the 2015-16 seasons after two terrific years in 2013-14.
Colletti is one of six names that has been linked to the D-backs since the season ended, as reports have indicated that league executives Kim Ng and Peter Woodfork (a former D-backs assistant GM) are in the mix, as is Brewers VP of scouting Ray Montgomery (a former D-backs exec himself). Internal candidates reportedly include assistant GM Bryan Minniti and farm director Mike Bell.
The only name on the list that has done something at that level, all GM’s have skeletons as far as signings, but let’s not forget that 2/3 years they didn’t go to the post season were during the McCourt debacle.
Contract the Diamondbacks.
Lol
Dodgers fans endorse this move.
And all the washed up ex-Giants will go to AZ instead of LA, woo-hoo!
No way Ned gets another job after The Beat Team Money Can Buy. Putting it mildly, the book painted him poorly.
Please oh please let this happen.
Barry Bonds he use to play and was a hitting coach and should be able to get the players hooked up if they need something
Man, we need this guy. He is a winner. I’m sick of losing. The only GM in our history with a winning record was the first one, Joe Garagiola Jr., and he was barely above break-even.
Dave Sterwart 2015-16 148-176 .457
Kevin Towers 2011-14 320-328 .494
Jerry Dipoto Interim 7/10-9/10 31-43 .419
Josh Byrnes 2006-2010 318-330 .490
Bob Gebhard Interim 8/4/05 25-28 .472
Joe Jr. 1998-2005 627-616 .504
Compare that to Colletti who was 783-674 .537 with five playoff in nine seasons and only one losing season (under McCourt) when the Dodgers were a 80-82 — a better record than our Dbacks have had in 8 of their 19 seasons so far. Let’s hire a winner and turn this around.
Can you imagine the cackling that Dbags owner Ken Kendricks must have been enjoying when he swooped in to get Greinke? Man probably needs to jump in his pool to cool off now that his team has sucked so bad after that ‘game-changing’ deal. Greinke sure made a bad greedy ass choice. Dodgers winning the WS would be such sweet karma.
Colletti is a good guy. Take the Mcfarts out of the equation and you probably have a really competitive team. He did really well considering his hands were tied many times. I think this would be a good move for a smaller market team like the D’backs.
It’s fashionable to bash Colletti by dwelling on his mistakes (as if some GMs never make any) but his work as GM was at least passible, especially considering he was working in the McBankrupt straight jacket.
Good thread, pleasure to have educated people on it, Colletti is a no-brainer, especially if you consider the list of interns mentioned. D-backs will go from last to 2nd in a year under his guidance, Mark it!
Colleti is underrated and Friedman is probably the most overrated exec in the game. Colletti also was in charge of drafting Kershaw, Seager, Joc Pederson and Dee Gordon amongst others. He got Justin Turner off the scrap heap.
Seems like they should figure out La Russa’s status with the team first, then it would become more clear what they would be hiring for. This situation in the AZ is still a bit too murky to attract quality front office personnel.
Of all the possible candidates, he is undoubtedly the best one
Dodgers fan here. I actually really like Ned. I think he did a good job and if you consider the McCourts owning the Dodgers at the time he actually did a great job for the circumstances. Did he make some bad moves? You name me a GM who hasn’t! Pretty sure they all make bad trades and signings. Overall this guy did a really good job and I was one of the Dodgers fans who actually wanted to see him stick around and see what he could actually do with that money. If the Diamondbacks get him they’ll be lucky.
Seriously. We need this guy. Come on Kendrick and Hall..