It is a strange situation.
The Padres fired their general manager. The team has started a search for a new general manager. But many potential candidates, including the Cubs Jason McLeod, have taken their names out of consideration.
For front office baseball people, becoming a general manager is a life goal. There are only 30 such jobs available, and they do not come up very often (the last was in 2011). So why are so many people turning down San Diego?
San Diego is a nice community. It is very expensive to live there, but a GM usually gets paid very well so that should not be an issue. The Padres have a newer downtown ball park. It is a small market team, but it is in warm California so that has to be a draw.
So why is there a lack of interest?
San Diego operates as a semi-small market team. According to Cot's Baseball payrolls, the Padres have committed $90.1 million to players, which is more than the Cubs.
Baseball Perspectives states that in August, 2012, an investment group led by Ron Fowler bought the Padres for about $800 million. Forbes magazine valued the club at $615M in March, 2014. Bloomberg valued the franchise at $685M in October, 2013. This may be part of the reason as it appears, like the Ricketts family, the new owner significantly overpaid for the franchise. On the other hand, a group willing to spend to acquire a club usually has money to spend to maintain it. However, in the Ricketts-Cubs situation there are real concerns that the Cubs do not have the financial strength to put more money in baseball operations, i.e. free agent market.
Baseball America's Mid-Season Top 50 Prospect List has Padre prospects, catcher Austin Hedges checked in at No. 17, and right-hander Matt Wisler was ranked 41st. Baseball Prospectus ranks the Padre minor league system 11th in the majors; ESPN's Keith Law ranks it 9th. So there is a strong base already in place for a new general manager.
With a new ownership group, like with the Ricketts purchase, one has to raise a question why the buyer did not have their own baseball people in place if there was a question about the current general manager fitting into the new management team. There may have been a perception things would work out fine.
In 2012 and 2013, the Padres finished 76-84. In 2014, the team is worse at 41-54. The main news focus has been the possible trades of starter Ian Kennedy and closer Huston Street prior to the deadline.
The San Diego Union-Times reports that the Padres’ search for a new general manager has
grown to eight interviewees, while another in-house name became the
sixth candidate to pull out of the running.
Kim
Ng, senior vice president for baseball operations for Major League
Baseball, has interviewed for the position, but
Padres assistant GM A.J. Hinch has informed the club he will not
interview. Hinch met with Padres executive chairman Ron Fowler,
president and CEO Mike Dee and lead investor Peter Seidler on Thursday
to share his decision.
“I
certainly assessed everything and looked at a lot of things, and for me,
it wasn’t the right situation. I’ll just leave it at that,” Hinch said
Friday afternoon at Dodger Stadium. “They’ll find the right leader for
them and move the organization forward. We had a good conversation on a
lot of topics.”
In the
interim, Hinch, along with Omar Minaya and Fred Uhlman Jr., will
continue running the Padres’ baseball operations -- a three-man
arrangement that has been in place since Josh Byrnes’ firing as GM on
June 22.
Hinch joins Minaya,
David Forst of Oakland, Mike Chernoff of Cleveland, Jason McLeod of the
Cubs and Michael Girsch of St. Louis among candidates who have declined a
chance to interview for the Padres’ vacancy.
Ng
previously interviewed for the Padres’ GM opening in 2009. Now she joins the following group of official candidates: former Marlins GM
Larry Beinfest, Dodgers scouting director Logan White, Diamondbacks scouting
director Ray Montgomery, Yankees assistant GM Billy Eppler, Red Sox
assistant GM Mike Hazen and Padres assistant GM Josh Stein.
The Padres expect to have a new GM in place sometime after the July 31 trading deadline. But the signal that two "in house" candidates have declined to interview for the job has to send a message to the small community of front office personnel that something strange is going on. One expects that the general manager will appoint and hire his own people to be his or her assistants. Speculation could be from a micro-managing and second guessing from the new owners to long term budget cuts and baseball personnel moves that the current employees do not believe should happen.
Whatever the situation, a general manager position is the pinnacle job for front office baseball people. Why San Diego is having a hard time filling its position is unclear.
