The Rays announced Thursday that they’ve promoted vice president of baseball development Peter Bendix to the title of general manager. President of baseball operations Erik Neander is still the team’s top-ranking baseball operations executive, but Bendix’s appointment as GM solidifies him as the No. 2 name on the Rays’ hierarchy.
Tampa Bay also named a trio of new vice presidents of baseball operations: Carlos Rodriguez (formerly VP of player development and international operations), Will Cousins (formerly director of baseball R&D), and Chanda Lawdermilk (formerly director of staff development and recruitment). Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times has more on these promotions as well as a host of other promotions on the business side of the organization.
Bendix’s promotion comes just over three months since the team promoted Neander from general manager to president of baseball operations and signed him to a five-year contract extension. With Neander now holding that title and Bendix cemented as the new GM, the Rays have adopted the president/GM hierarchy that continues to be popularized throughout the sport.
Bendix’s promotion to GM notably makes it more difficult for other clubs to lure him away; teams typically only allow executives to interview with other organizations if the position in question would represent a promotion. As such, the only way a rival club could try to pry Bendix from the Rays now would likely be to offer him the top spot on its own baseball hierarchy. (He was reportedly of interest to the Mets as they searched for a new baseball operations leader but remained with Tampa Bay.)
The Rays’ front office and coaching staff are routinely picked over every offseason, as rival clubs continue to be impressed by Tampa Bay’s success in the face of lower revenues and aggressive payroll restrictions from ownership. In the past few years alone, we’ve seen the Red Sox hire Chaim Bloom as chief baseball officer, the Astros hire James Click as GM, the Brewers hire Matt Arnold as assistant GM (later promoted to GM) and the Twins hire Josh Kalk as a senior analyst (later promoted to VP of baseball operations, strategy and innovation). Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, of course, also ran baseball ops for the Rays before being hired away by L.A. in 2014.
As general manager, Bendix will now carry have an “increased emphasis on major-league operations, such as player evaluation and procurement, roster management and the day-to-day functions of the major league club,” per the Rays. He joined the organization as an intern in 2009, working his way up to director of baseball development in 2015 and then vice president of baseball development in 2019.
Tampa Bay also announced that former big league infielder Cole Figueroa, who’d been their assistant director of hitting development, has been promoted to director of baseball operations — a notable progression in his post-playing journey. Figueroa had brief stints with the Rays, Yankees and Pirates from 2014-16, appearing in a total of 48 Major League games in addition to a nine-year minor league career.
Click is running the Astros. Chiam the Red Sox. Friedman the Dodgers (who in turn developed Zaidi with the Giants). And the Rays way of team building highly influenced the Guardians and Brewers.
The most innovative organization in MLB. Years ahead of everyone.
I agree with the sentiment, but Zaidi first gained experience with Billy Beane and the A’s, and Cleveland were ahead of their time in the 90’s with John Hart which has carried over. But yeah, with the amount of turnover both on the field and in the front office, the Rays are pretty incredible.
1. John Hart had nothing to do with building a team using statistical information and keeping budgets in line. He was brought in by Hank Peters as GM after the team was sold, and the Jacobs Brothers were committed to building a new park. In his time with Cleveland the team was competitive and selling out Jacobs Field each year, so they had plenty of money to spend. Plus Hart (and Shapiro) knew little about pitching – building the team around mashers. Hart did the same in Texas when he went there.
When Shapiro took over he was influenced by the Moneyball stuff, and became friendly with Beane. At some point the Indians were hitting a wall and as Antonetti became more influential he began moving to the Rays way of building rosters. Thay was when the Indians learned about developing pitchers.
2. Yes, Zaidi first work under Beane. But the A’s way of team building is different than the Rays way – which rather than cycles, tries to contend most every year and will trade players even if they have years of control remaining – as well as reworking players for just a year or two. What the Giants do is basically what the Dodgers do, and of course Friedman was instrumental in the Rays innovative approaches. Along those lines – I currently see a split between Friedman and Zaidi and Friedman fell into the trap of excessive long-term contracts, which Zaidi seems to be avoiding. In fact, I’m waiting to see if the Dodgers overcommit again this year, or back off of any additional klong-term contracts.
A funny story that happened at the end of Hart’s tenure with the Indians….
It was during the stretch run in the 1999 season. The Indians badly needed pitching but Hart couldn’t trade for one and had not developed any guys that were decent. So he goes out and brings in an aging Harold Baines on the theory that more runs will make up for no pitching.
He then embarked on bringing in any pitcher available via waivers or in trade for a low level prospect. He had no idea at all what to do, he was desperate and throwing stuff up against the wall hoping some would stick. One day the manager brought in a newcomer from the bullpen in mid-inning. Two Indians OF’s were talking while the pitcher was warming up. They both were wondering if the other even knew the pitchers name let alone anything about him – which neither did. Hart was bringing in so many pitchers that other players on the team couldn’t keep track of who was on the roster that day- because the staff changed every day.
Not funny at all.
All this “title inflation.” General Manager used to be right below the “President” who was typically the owner of the team. Now you’ve got all these Directors of this and that. But there is still a hierarchy regardless of what they call you.
He can Bendix, but can he straighten them out?
I really shouldn’t have laughed.
It’s ok, I did too.
i know right
What happened to neander?
He died.
thoughts and prayers
It tells you in the article.
Rays put the brakes on allowing Bendix to move on. This should have been the headline.
All of These Front Office people GETTING PROMOTIONS Should Send STEVE COHEN A “THANK YOU CARD”!
He has MLB OWNERS RUNNING SCARED…
Can you say more? It’s not obvious that owners are scared of Cohen. They might be rolling their eyes.
Lol sure
Smart move to promote and lock him in. He is a name that would have been targeted for any future GM opening(s)
Makes sense why he turned down the Mets GM gig. Probably preferred the chance at being promoted within an organization that he knows.
@angt222 Assuming the money is comparable, no one would prefer to work for one of the worst organizations in the game as opposed to one of the best. No one. It just doesn’t happen that way.
In addition, Cohen is poorly thought of. A cronyist, a sleaze, in bed with Chris Christie, who Cohen appointed to the Mets board because–when you think of baseball expertise–you think of Chris Christie. And Bridgegate. The guy left office with a 15% approval rating, about the lowest in history. On top of that nonsense you’ll be in competition with Alderson, Jr., who has only ever worked for daddy or daddy’s friends.
Excuses aside, why do you think they had to settle for a proven failure like Eppler?
Again, all this title inflation and Front Office people falling over each other is another reason players don’t believe any of the poverty cries of ownership. If the Rays were really in dire financial straits, where would the money come from to promote people left and right. And to replace them on the corporate ladder?
You can do two things with your profits; pay it to Uncle Joe to Build Back Better, or spend it in your own organization, sucking up all the profits and evading the tax man.
There’s a major difference between promoting a GM for maybe another $100k (or even if he got a 500k raise) and raising payroll from 50m to 100m.
How dare they be successful without spending a lot of money! We don’t want efficiency! We want to spend other people’s money!!!
And then what John Smith said…uh, duh. This exec is not signing five years $100 million.
Why are people so angry about the Rays’ efficient methods? Is it just class envy? Or envy in general? People are strange.
If I were Hal Steinbrenner I would be angry. Why can the Rays win so many games at a fraction of the cost of the Yankees? Are the Rays FO people smarter than the Yankees FO people? or per Samuel, more collaborative? Are their coaches or scouts smarter? If I had to spend over $100 million more per year on players for the same or worse results…..I’d be angry.
@WampumWalloper Hal S. should be furious with himself, having tolerated Cashman’s mediocrity for, what, going on a quarter of a century? Good god.
Cashman inherited the WS winners of 1996-2000, and on his own hook only won the one WS despite routinely having the highest or 2nd highest payroll in the game. Other than winning in 2009, Cashman’s Yankees haven’t even gotten to a Series in 18 years. That’s an extraordinary record of failure, given where he starts from each year.
It’s hardly on Cashman at this point. Yankee ownership knows what he is. Or should know. But he puts a team on the field that’s often in the hunt (the abject mediocrity of 2013-16 notwithstanding) and keeps the money coming in, and he does what he’s told regarding avoiding LT penalties. Hal S. doesn’t seem to care, in fact—if he did, he’d do things differently.
How do the Rays find all these future execs & what are their training processes. The Human Resources team and whoever runs the training program should get hired away from the Rays. Why keep paying for the finished product when you can buy the factory.
Don’t think you get it……
The Rays are into collaborative management. They don’t bring in people to follow a system. They bring in people to get with the system and work to ever improve it using their input.
Chaim has done a great job getting Red Sox FO people working together the past year.
Thank you Samuel. Why can’t the front offices of the other 29 teams manage collaboratively without taking Rays FO people? It’s not like collaborative management isn’t out there in the business world. Is there some secret sauce ?
The Rays have had 15+ years to perfect their system. And now that they have their farm and big-league team both bursting with young talent, they will be able to remain a powerhouse for quite some time. They are feverishly working on building a dominant rotation, and once that’s complete, should finally win a WS.
“The Rays have a system that has been perfected over 15+ years” and “they don’t bring in people to follow a system. They bring in people to get with the system and work to ever improve it using their input.” The Dodgers are in trouble! Friedman left 7 years ago, he only has up to the 8th yr of genius Rays system in him. No way he can match up with the Clicks and Blooms that had another 6 years of perfecting the system in them.
@WampumWalloper Hal S. should be furious with himself, having tolerated Cashman’s mediocrity for, what, going on a quarter of a century? Good god.
Cashman inherited the WS winners of 1996-2000, and on his own hook only won the one WS despite routinely having the highest or 2nd highest payroll in the game. Other than winning in 2009, Cashman’s Yankees haven’t even gotten to a Series in 18 years. That’s an extraordinary record of failure, given where he starts from each year.
It’s hardly on Cashman at this point. Yankee ownership knows what he is. Or should know. But he puts a team on the field that’s often in the hunt (the abject mediocrity of 2013-16 notwithstanding) and keeps the money coming in, and he does what he’s told regarding avoiding LT penalties. Hal S. doesn’t seem to care, in fact—if he did, he’d do things differently.
@Samuel Just saying “collaborative management” doesn’t actually mean anything, though.
Someone has to actually decide who gets which job. Someone has to decide whose opinion finally holds sway, or how declarative or final opinions are arrived at.
Giving five mediocrities the vote and letting the majority rule is “collaborative,” and it’s one way to “manage” your organization, but it’s not remotely a recipe for success.
What the Rays do is far more interesting and complicated than “collaborative management,” though hiring the staff of fangraphs for 200k apiece and letting them build your team collaboratively is one way to do it.
You’ll still need someone to oversee the kitchen, though.
Hopefully he got a big enough raise so that his son William can live the life of riley
William Bendix is his grandpa
Bender Bending Rodriguez is his cousin.
Ours just sleeps through the amateur draft, then throws several hundred million on vets that have already had their best year.
Quick, somebody now create the title of Executive GM so they can interview Bendix.
He’s an AGM.
More like Peter Brand