Monday, October 13, 2008

Loyalty? Calculation? Does it Matter?

Normally when an organization runs off several years of continuous success, good people who helped build that success get poached. Not really happening with the Red Sox:

As one of baseball’s winningest organizations over the last half-dozen seasons, the Red Sox are at risk of losing some of their best people to other teams intent on replicating Boston’s success. To date, however, the Sox haven’t paid the price for their success.

In recent days, Red Sox assistant general manager Jed Hoyer was approached by the Seattle Mariners regarding their vacant general manager position. Hoyer, sources indicate, turned down a chance to interview for the position . . .

. . . The potential loss of personnel isn’t limited to the front office staff. Last fall, the Pittsburgh Pirates sought permission to talk to pitching coach John Farrell for their managerial vacancy. Farrell, like Hoyer this week, told the Pirates he wasn’t interested in the job and remained with the Sox. Bench coach Brad Mills and third base coach DeMarlo Hale could also draw interest as potential major league managers, particularly if the Sox continue to win, thus maintaining a high profile for staff members.
My first thought was "how bad must the Mariners' GM job be for Hoyer to not even want an interview?" But then I read that Hoyer is only 34 years-old. The examples of guys like Jon Daniels and Theo Epstein notwithstanding, he is still a baby by GM standards. Given that Theo may weep for the lack of worlds left to conquer before he turns 40, Hoyer may think that he may one day have the top job in Boston if he waits around long enough. I can't say I wouldn't think the same thing in his place.

As for coaches, the money there isn't astounding, so it strikes me that job security is paramount for that kind of gig. Just ask Leo Mazonne. If I had to guess, I'd say that the odds of still being employed four years from now are much greater for someone who chooses to continue working under Terry Francona than someone who goes off to manage the Pirates or some similar club.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

I haven't looked it up, but didn't Josh Byrnes work for Boston?

And more importantly, they let Voros go, so they didn't retain all their top shelf talent. Where is Voros?

Anonymous said...

Yes, Josh Byrnes was the assistant GM before Jed Hoyer. Peter Woodfork, who is also under consideration in Seattle, also worked for Boston. Voros McCracken quit a bit before that.

Hoyer's only 34 and he's been in baseball for like 6 years. Given that timeline, his ascent has been downright meteoric. Theo had been in baseball for about 10 years when he became assistant GM (does anyone even remember those few months?); Hoyer did it in 3.5 years. He's got a bright future and he can afford to be choosy. If he's happy where he is right now, why bother? Inertia is underrated.

That being said, Seattle must be the Port-o-let of GM jobs if he didn't even want to bother with a preliminary interview. Free trip to the West Coast, good practice for when there's a job he actually wants later, and still he won't bite? Ouch.

Anonymous said...

Jed Was the guy I did the most work with. He struck me as a generally stat friendly guy, moreso than even though. I also got the impression that Jed and Theo are fairly good friends. He's from the New England area and maybe he'd rather stay with the Red Sox as an assistant GM than go elsewhere.

A really nice guy too, but that was most (but not all) of the people I ran into in the baseball world.