The Brewers announced Thursday that they’ve promoted assistant general manager Matt Arnold, giving him the title of senior vice president and general manager. David Stearns, the team’s president of baseball operations and general manager, still sits atop Milwaukee’s baseball operations hierarchy but has had the “GM” portion dropped from his title in light of Arnold’s promotion.
The timing of the move likely isn’t a coincidence, as multiple clubs around the game have had GM vacancies open up — with a few still to be filled. Arnold is a well-respected executive who’d surely have generated interest for clubs looking to lure him away with a promotion to a GM post in their own organization. Arnold’s promotion won’t give him the autonomy over baseball operations decisions he might’ve been granted with another club, but it’s a notable bump in stature (and presumably in salary) that will make it more difficult for other teams to hire him away.
“For the past five years, Matt has served an invaluable role in helping to guide our baseball operations group,” Stearns said in a press release announcing the move. “He has contributed to every significant decision we have made and has offered indispensable advice and support throughout that time with the Brewers. Today’s announcement formalizes how we have operated over the last few years. This move provides Matt with the deserved recognition of his tireless work and ensures that our baseball operations leadership group remains intact.”
The 41-year-old Arnold originally came to the Brewers from the Rays organization, where he spent nine seasons in a variety of roles, including director of player personnel. He’s also worked for the Dodgers, Rangers and Reds over the course of a 20-year baseball operations career, occupying roles in scouting, player development and player analysis along the way.
So are him and Sterns essentially working side by side now? Of course Sterns is in a higher rank, but they seem to be two high praised baseball minds.
No. Likely just a title change and salary increase to prevent Arnold from making a lateral move to another team as GM. Guessing the FO dynamic will remain the same
Maybe this is just recency bias on my part, but so far it seems like this will be a particularly tough offseason for filling front office vacancies.
At this rate pretty soon every team’s general manager will have worked for the Rays at some point.
Not sure how this makes hiring him away any harder. The promotion is only in title, not powers and responsibilities. If the Phillies offer to make him their top decision maker I think he takes the job regardless of what they are calling it. Like for instance, four years ago, Mike Hazen went from being the Red Sox GM to being the Diamondbacks GM which sounds like a lateral move on paper. But in reality, the Diamondbacks were making him their top decision maker whereas in Boston, Dave Dombrowski was the one calling the shots.
The title is what makes it more difficult. Teams have to get permission to interview someone for a lateral move.
@pdxbrewcrew no, if some team wants to make him their shot caller it isn’t a lateral move, even if his title is still general manager. Like Mike Hazen and Farhan Zaidi for instance.
GM for one team and GM for another is a lateral move, regardless of duties.
@pdxbrewcrew no it isn’t. Was Mike Hazen going from Boston to Arizona a lateral move? What about Farhan Zaidi going from LA to SF?
Yes they were.
The Diamondbacks got permission from the Red Sox to interview Hazen. The Giants got permission from the Dodgers to interview Zaidi. Because they had to. Because they were lateral moves.
Title not duties.
It’s true that the promotion doesn’t prevent him from leaving to become a top man elsewhere, but it should put a halt to teams looking to make him their GM underneath a POBO.
Hard to argue that assistant GM is lateral in comparison.
@g4 that would have been hard anyway. He was second in command after Stearns 24 hours ago and he’s still second in command after Stearns now. Even before this promotion the only way you were going to get him was by making him your team’s top decision maker.
I don’t think so because Stearns held the titles of both POBO and GM. So Arnold’s old title was technically third in the team ranks, which another team could trump with a GM offer. Stearns ceding the GM title = genuine promotion.
@g4 No they could not beat that with a GM offer unless the GM position was the top decision maker in that organization. Executives don’t care about titles. They care about what role they actually get to play.
“The promotion is only in title, not powers and responsibilities.” How can you know this? I don’t think you understand how front offices are structured
The Brewers are going the be the best team in all of the MLB now. They have Stearns and Olson. Watch out. People say this team is rebuilding, but In Stearns and Olson We Trust!
Brewers World Series 2021!
Yep. They couldn’t sabotage their chances of winning by having a poor offseason for the second year in a row, right?
Wake up your dreaming
Do you expect the site to not report on front office moves just because you aren’t interested in hearing about it?
Straight out of college into baseball 20 years ago. Good for him.
How could anyone with integrity support a fan base that supports Ryan Braun? That is what the Brewers fan base has done.
To be fair, a lot of Brewers fans seem to hate Braun
You’re an idiot.
Shall we go through every team? They ALL have PED users that the fan base support.
Braun isn’t on the Brewers anymore, team declined his option a month or two ago. He was already under long term contract when he was busted so the team – and the fans – were stuck with him through the 2020 season.
Brewer fan here…hated Braun. Glad he’s gone. Not all of us supported him. I’m betting your team has had a cheater at some point in their history.
The Brewers are a small market team. The Brewers need to have a Ryan Braun and Christian Yelich to maintain fans. Ryan Braun was the only light during the terrible years. He is also the Brewers career home run leader. Brewers fans NEED someone to root for especially during bad years.
What team do you support?