Latest On Orioles’ GM Search
It’s a time of change for the Orioles. Most notably, John and Lou Angelos have taken over regular operations from their father, Peter Angelos. The club has been without a manager since dismissing Buck Showalter, though that post figures to remain open for the time being. That’s because there’s an even more important hire in the works for the Angelos brothers, who are working to identify the person who’ll head up their baseball operations department.
In the interim, there is a small group of executives left over from Dan Duquette’s regime who are currently responsible for overseeing the roster moves in Baltimore this offseason. Brian Graham, the director of player development, is said to be handling the day-to-day operations as the interim GM. VP of baseball ops Brady Anderson and amateur scouting director Gary Rajsich are also present to weigh in on the offseason’s earliest action.
To this point, the Baltimore organization hasn’t settled on a job title for whomever becomes the organization’s top baseball decisionmaker. In and of itself this doesn’t mean much, but as the Athletic’s Dan Connolly pointed out in early October, there is a perplexing lack of clarity regarding division of labor moving forward. Brady Anderson, for one, has had significant negotiating responsibilities in the past, so his continued involvement is certainly notable, despite ownership’s claim that the new hire will have “final determination on all baseball matters”.
Here are the latest on the Orioles search:
Latest Updates – 11/10/18
- UPDATE: The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal now tweets that Tigers AGM David Chadd is no longer under consideration for the position in Baltimore. This coming on the heels of Chadd supposedly being a finalist for the position as of two days ago. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale had named Chadd as a finalist for the top spot in Baltimore (via Twitter), but that appears to no longer be the case.
- The Orioles are keeping most of the details regarding their GM search close to the vest, but Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reminds us (via Twitter) that their first priority is identifying the executive to head their baseball ops – that hire will have the prerogative to name their top assistant. The original plan was for the top hire to be given the title of President, but the exact nomenclature (more than the responsibilities) remains TBD. Presumably, this will depend upon who they bring aboard and what kind of title bump that individual requires.
- Regardless, there will be two eventual new hires to head up the O’s front office, and some names are starting to emerge. The oft-mentioned AGM of the Houston Astros Mike Elias remains in consideration, per the Athletic’s Dan Connolly, but two new names have entered the field as well: Phillies assistant GM Ned Rice and MLB Diversity Pipeline Director Tyrone Brooks. Before moving to the Phils front office in 2016, Ned Rice was an official with the Orioles for 11 years. Tyrone Brooks, for his part, took on the responsibility of driving diversity hires throughout MLB’s administrative levels in 2016 after Commissioner Rob Manfred created the role. He does has front office experience as well: he was a scout in the Indians organization before serving as an assistant GM with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2009-2016.
- Also of note, vice president Brady Anderson did not represent the Orioles at last week’s GM meetings, despite his home being only an hour away. Connolly wonders if this might have been a signal from ownership that the runway is, in fact, clear for the next hire to run things without demonstrative input from incumbent front office holdovers like Anderson.
Click to review the potential names under consideration and prior updates to the process:
Tyrone Brooks And MLB’s Diversity Pipeline Program
Tyrone Brooks has been preparing for his current job since joining a Major League front office more than 20 years ago. Brooks, who was named Senior Director of MLB’s Front Office and Field Staff Diversity Pipeline Program earlier this year, has long been known for the work he has done in trying to help people land careers in baseball. Back in 2009, he founded the Baseball Industry Network – a networking group designed to assist individuals working in and/or connected to the game. One of the goals of the network – which now has over 29,000 members – is to develop mentoring relationships between people in the sport and individuals attempting to enter the industry.
Brooks, 42, got his start in baseball by landing an internship with the Atlanta Braves. He didn’t come from a baseball pedigree – as he double-majored in accounting and marketing at the University of Maryland, where he also spent time as a photojournalist. He took the internship opportunity and parlayed it into a full-time position. His resume – with stops in Atlanta (1996-2006), Cleveland (2006- 2009) and Pittsburgh (2009- 2016) – shows slow steady progress through different departments and roles en route to leadership positions. In essence, Brooks was the first member of his own pipeline.
“With the Front Office and Field Staff Diversity Pipeline Program, the goal is to help increase the pool of minority and women candidates for baseball operations positions,” Brooks said. “The main thing is developing a pipeline both to the front office and for potential managers at the big league level. We’re starting from the bottom. We’re not looking to bring somebody in and try to make them assistant GMs for a club right away. We’re trying to bring new people in through internships and entry level jobs and create a path for that person. And as the person goes through the pipeline, that’s how we can help develop that person. Looking at it from a long-term perspective, that’s how we can make this game better … by giving individuals opportunities, and from there, helping develop them as they go through the process.
“We’re putting programs in place where we can help individuals make the next step from entry level to mid-manager to higher levels within an organization. It’s a continual process as you make your way through the pipeline. You need to have things in place that are going to help an individual grow and work their way toward the top of an organization.”
The type of path Brooks talks about directly mirrors his own course, beginning with the aforementioned Braves internship. Brooks got that position through that organization’s Career Initiative Trainee Program – a program developed by Braves executives Hank Aaron and Stan Kasten to help create opportunities for minorities and women in baseball. He spent just a couple months as an intern before a full-time position opened up – and he was hired as an administrative assistant in scouting and player development. Brooks bided his time and put in nine full years before being promoted into his first titled position – as the Braves’ Director of Baseball Operations.
“You can look at my own career as a little bit of a model for the program,” he said. “I came in as an intern out of college – that was my way in. I got my feet wet. I was very fortunate to get hired later that summer full-time. From there, I continued to grow and expand in the duties I was given. At that time, I wanted to learn how we evaluated talent. The Braves were a very scout-driven organization, so the opportunity to get exposed to that area was important. I just tried to balance as much as I could – both on the administrative side in order to do my job effectively and to grow on the evaluation side as well.
“I started in the office as an administrator … became an area scout … went back into the office … did more of the administrator stuff – contracts, arbitration … went back into the field as a pro scout (with the Indians) … then came back into the office with the Pirates and basically did the duties of an assistant GM day-to-day … and from there, Director of Player Personnel.”
In his new role at MLB, Brooks will play a part in the way baseball front offices are constructed moving forward. He was asked what it was like knowing that he was involved in changing future front office landscapes.
Front Office Notes: Jennings, Brooks, Eppler, Nationals
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.