Josh Byrnes

Following the dismissal of GM Josh Byrnes over the weekend, the Padres are believed to be looking at external candidates, ESPN’s Jim Bowden reports (Insider subscription required). In fact, Bowden writes, Padres ownership is believed to prefer a first-time GM with vision. Ownership is looking for an up-and-coming executive from a successful organization. Bowden lists five candidates that he feels fit that bill and provides some background on why each would be a success as a GM. His list includes Rangers assistant GM Thad Levine, A’s assistant GM David Forst, Cubs VP of player development & amateur scouting Jason McLeod, Tigers assistant GM Al Avila, and Yankees director of amateur scouting Damon Oppenheimer.

After a tumultuous weekend in San Diego, here’s more on the Padres…

• Byrnes joined Mike Ferrin and Jim Duquette of MLB Network Radio on SiriusXM and discussed the end of his tenure (audio link). Asked if he was surprised, Byrnes replied, “Not really. I think there’s been an awful lot of change here as the new owners have come in and Mike Dee has come in.  There’s going to be attention focused on baseball as there should be – we’re a baseball organization.  …[T]here were higher expectations and, you know, we were not having a good season.  …[W]hen you are an inherited GM and your team is not winning enough these things can happen.” Asked about reports of his deteriorating relationship with ownership, Byrnes said, “I probably don’t want to go there,” but suggested that he and ownership didn’t get on the same page regarding the team’s identity.
• Dave Cameron of Fangraphs looks at comments from CEO Mike Dee stating that the team hadn’t lived up to expectations and wonders where those expectations came from. Cameron looks back to the offseason and notes that few pundits and fans expected the Padres to be good this season. He opines that the Padres probably did need a change at the top, as they weren’t building for the future nor were they built to win right now, and that, not falling shy of misguided expectations, should have been the motivation for the change.
• Byrnes was only a small part of the Padres’ problem, writes Matt Calkins of the San Diego Union-Tribune.  The Padres gave Byrnes the greenlight to spend more last offseason but their ~$90MM payroll put them at just 21st in the league. Much of the additional funds went to arbitration raises rather than external additions, Calkins notes, making the talk of increased payroll a bit misleading.
• Many Padres players were unhappy to hear of Byrnes’ firing, writes MLB.com’s Will Laws.  “It’s sad to see Josh go,” said starting pitcher Andrew Cashner, who was acquired by Byrnes in a trade with the Cubs for Anthony Rizzo in January 2012. “He gave me an opportunity to start here and I’m grateful for that. But it’s out of my control.”
• Speaking of Cashner, the club announced today that he was placed on the 15-day disabled list with soreness in his right shoulder. Odrisamer Despaigne will take his place on the active roster, while Casey Kelly has been transferred to the 60-day DL to create room on the 40-man roster. Jeff Sanders of the San Diego Union-Tribune hears that the decision to place Cashner on the disabled list was more of a precaution than anything (Twitter link). Sanders adds that Cashner could pitch right now if needed, but given the state of the team, it made more sense to play it safe.

Zach Links contributed to this post.

It’s been a busy day in San Diego with the firing of GM Josh Byrnes. Here are a few notes on the Padres.

• Byrnes’ firing “begs for an explanation,” Jon Heyman of CBS Sports writes. Byrnes hadn’t been on the job long enough (less than three years) to follow through on a plan, and Heyman notes that the only winning team with a payroll lower than the Padres’ right now is the Athletics. The Padres’ new owners seem to believe that this year’s Friars should have been a top team, Heyman writes. Byrnes has a good record with trades, and while some of the extensions to which he’s signed younger players haven’t worked, he received praise for the Jedd Gyorko deal, in particular, when it happened.
• The Padres do not have any immediate plans to fire manager Bud Black or hitting coach Phil Plantier, Heyman tweets.
• The Padres made the right move in firing Byrnes, MLB.com’s Anthony Castrovince argues. With the trade deadline fast approaching, the Padres needed to act quickly if they had questions about Byrnes. Castrovince says that the Padres’ new interim GM setup, with Omar Minaya, Fred Uhlman Jr. and A.J. Hinch occupying the position jointly, will be interesting, given that the trade deadline could help shape the Padres’ future.
• Karsten Whitson, an 11th-round pick in this year’s draft by the Red Sox, signed recently for $100K, losing out on $2MM after he reportedly rejected a $2.1MM offer when the Padres drafted him in 2010. But Whitson doesn’t regret his decision to attend the University of Florida, Fangraphs’ David Laurila reports. “My time at Florida was great,” Whitson says. “I went to the College World Series, won two SEC championships, and graduated [with a degree in psychology]. It was a very tough decision, but after doing some self reflection I though it was the right choice.” Whitson underwent a shoulder injury during his time at Florida that limited his bonus potential. He says he and the Padres (who were then run by Jed Hoyer, not Byrnes) did not discuss bonus parameters before they drafted him.

At this point in the offseason, when the free agent market features impact players capable of improving any club, it’s easy to forget that some teams can’t rely on free agency — especially not in early November, when asking prices are high and bargains have yet to emerge. Padres general manager Josh Byrnes is considering free agents, but at this point he ranks free agency third in importance behind trades and developing internally.

“Is it going to happen through trade or free agency or patience? Probably a little bit of all, but probably not as much in free agency as some people think,” Byrnes told MLBTR at the GM Meetings in Indian Wells. 

Six of the Padres’ starting pitchers — Cory Luebke, Andrew Cashner, Anthony Bass, Casey Kelly, Joe Wieland and Robbie Erlin — recently dealt with injuries, which makes it difficult to project the 2013 rotation (Wieland and Luebke are recovering from Tommy John surgery). The Padres could look to obtain some certainty by supplementing their rotation with free agents. If they do pursue players on the open market, they might choose to do so relatively late in the offseason. Often team-friendly deals emerge in January or even February.

“That’s certainly recent history,” Byrnes said. “When I was in Arizona we signed guys like [Adam] LaRoche or [Jon] Garland late in the offseason. The early offseason is usually the heavyweights financially but we have to stay active and know what’s out there and, as I said, be patient and disciplined.”

Byrnes said the Padres will remain flexible in case the unexpected occurs and it becomes advantageous to change plans. For now it doesn’t sound as though those plans are oriented around the free agent market.