Dan Jennings has a standing offer from the Marlins to return to the GM seat, but has not yet informed the team whether he will accept, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald reports. Miami seemingly expects that Jennings will slot back in at that role, unless he is able to land a job elsewhere with more conclusive decisionmaking authority. As the Fish continue their front office maneuvering, the club has hired Marc DelPiano as VP of player development, MLB.com’s Joe Frisaro reports on Twitter.
Here’s more on some front office and managerial situations around the league …
- The Brewers are set to interview Pirates director of player personnel Tyrone Brooks for the open GM position in Milwaukee, Bob Nightengale of USA Today reports on Twitter. We have heard some chatter about possible names to watch for the Brewers, but it appears that Brooks is the first reported candidate to receive an interview. Brooks has held his current role in Pittsburgh for about four years, overseeing an impressive delivery of young talent onto the big league roster. He gave an interesting interview with MLB.com’s Jenifer Langosch back when he received that promotion, acknowledging at the time that he ultimately hoped to keep climbing the front office ladder.
- Both the Mariners and Angels have been given permission to interview Yankees assistant GM Billy Eppler, Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports tweets. Eppler has long been considered a top general manager candidate, and interviewed with several teams in the past, so it’s no surprise to hear his name linked to multiple openings.
- The Nationals have dropped two straight to the Mets in hard-to-believe fashion, squandering an opportunity to re-start the division race in the season’s final weeks. Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post encapsulates the situation well in his piece on the frustrating turn of events. Despite the obvious cause for disappointment, GM Mike Rizzo says there is no consideration to making a late-season change at manager. “Matt Williams is our manager,” said Rizzo, “and he’s going to lead us through this stretch. I’ve always supported him. We’re not going to talk about 2016 while 2015 is ongoing.” Rizzo himself is not believed to have any job security issues, says Svrluga, though he adds that the team’s ownership can be “opaque” in its decisionmaking.
Personally, I think Mike Rizzo is overrated. Any GM would have drafted Harper and Strasburg first. The Scherzer contract will be a albatross starting in probably 18 or 19. Lastly, the Papelbon trade made no sense then, nor does it now. Not too mention he had a hand in hiring Williams.
The Fister deal still looks solid, even after a lost season. Dealing a 26 year old Souza for Ross and Turner looks like it will be a coupe. He also did draft Storen, Cole, Tendon, Gioloto, Taylor, and Burns.
As with any GM there is questionable moves, (and I agree Pap is beyond a head scratcher) but overall the team appears to be in good shape moving forward with the expected departures of Zimmerman, Desmond, and Span. Each will receive a QO, adding 3 picks in the top 40.
Also, Difo, Reynaldo Lopez, Fedde, and Victor Robles are high ceiling prospects.
I also have a soft spot for Rafael Martin who came out of nowhere and gets Chapman-like strikeout rates at about 12mph less.
What Mike Rizzo has done inheriting a poor organization in 2009 is remarkable. The Nationals have had a top-tier farm system for years – with a slew of young pitchers about to come up – and have used their prospects to make some trades with quality GM’s that were simply one-sided. They are a lot more then the 4 players you mentioned.
Unfortunately I do think the Matt Williams hiring is not only hurting the team – hard to believe they play like they do with all that talent (so much for “managers don’t matter”) – but ultimately this will lead to more people writing what you wrote, and believing it.
On a side note, it would be nice if MLBTR would point out a link leads to a paid subscription site. It appears the Washington Post article requires you to get a subscription to read it.
I think it would clutter up the site if we did that every time. More and more outlets are switching to a paid model.
Perhaps then sites like MLBTR shouldn’t link to those outlets, thereby causing those sites to realize that they are losing revenue, not gaining it. You can still carry the crux of what the article is about as you currently do. Why in the world would I buy a subscription to the Washington Post when I live in Oregon and read only Sports news as the rest of the news is too damn depressing. The closest I get to non sports news is the red alert on my phone 🙂