Best all-time general manager: #25 Andrew Friedman

The best all-time general manager list begins with a GM that turned around a cash-strapped franchise, and he now has the reigns of one of the richest franchises in the game

Tampa Bay Rays, 2006-14
Forced to take one general manager to turn a franchise around, you’d be hard-pressed to identify a better choice than Andrew Friedman. The Rays were awful when he took over and inside of two years he put them in the World Series. And although this may be unfair to his predecessors and successors, it remains true today that no other Rays GM has taken the team to post-season play.

The Dodgers were so impressed by Friedman that they lured him to be president of baseball operations in their organization following the 2014 season, in the process rebranding their own very successful GM, Ned Colletti, as “senior advisor”.

At the time of his hiring in Tampa, Friedman had an unusual front-office resume. An avid baseball player as a youth, his career and plans were cut short by an injury while playing college ball at Tulane. Instead, following graduation in 1999 Friedman put his classroom knowledge to work as a young and successful analyst for major investment firms.

That success brought him in touch with Stuart Sternberg, who at the time was putting together a syndicate to purchase the team then known as the Devil Rays from Vincent Namoli. When Sternberg sealed the deal in 2004, he hired the 28-year-old Friedman as director of baseball development. Friedman succeeded Chuck LaMar as GM following the 2005 season.

Since Friedman was not yet 30, many assumed his hiring represented a “save a buck” measure by the new ownership of an under-achieving franchise. Wrong. Drafting well — Jeremy Hellickson, David Price, Reid Brignac – Friedman built a foundation.

In 2008, that foundation exploded upon the American League East. The Rays, who had won just 66 games a season before, won 97, knocked the Yankees out of the playoffs altogether, and reached the World Series before losing in five games to the Phillies.

The Rays repeated in 2009, then made the post-season again in 2011.  In 2012, for the first time Friedman’s moves backfired, actually costing Tampa a playoff spot. But it cemented his reputation as a mover and shaker, representing the third season in four that his decisions had been the reason for his team’s success or failure.

The Dodgers were impressed enough to offer Friedman a five-year, $35 million contract at the end of the 2014 season. In LA, he hired Farhan Zaidi as general manager, then opened up the checkbooks to record levels. It all bought Friedman three NL West championships and one ticket to the 2017 World Series, which the Dodgers lost in seven games to Houston.

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At Tampa, Friedman’s over-riding strength was his ability to grow talent. The standard deviation of his average annual farm system production was +1.46, better than all but four GMs (Aaron Stern, Charles Webb Murphy, Bob Howsam and Syd Thrift) in baseball history. In total farm system production, he ranks seventh behind the above four plus Lee McPhail and Frank Cashen.

With a score 1.79 standard deviations above average, he also ranks among the top 10 in the average long-term value of his free agent signings.

Finally, Friedman was superb at what might be termed taking out the garbage. Among all GMs in history, he stands fifth in average loss of talent via trades and sales. That means Friedman almost never traded away players who had actual value. In other words, competitors acquired players from Friedman at their own risk.

Best all-time general manager numbers: Andrew Friedman

In the first six categories, values reflect the standard deviation of the GM’s performance above or below the historical mean for that category. Category 7 awards or deducts points for seasons in which the GM’s short-term impact exceeded the margin by which his team either reached post-season or failed to do so. Category 8 represents post-season appearances; in categories 7 and 8 indicated points are based on numbers of teams and post-season berths.

1. Short-term average: +1.23.
2. Short-term total: +0.90.
3. Long-term average: +1.22.
4. Long-term total: +0.36.
5. Residual average: +0.58.
6. Residual total: -0.24.
7. GM’s post-season shares.
8. Award +0.44. Friedman aided the Rays by 8.3 games; they qualified for post-season by 8.0. Key moves: Acquired Matt Garza, +1.6; signed Carlos Pena, +3.0; signed James Shields, +1.8; signed Evan Longoria, +3.0.
9. Award +0.44. Friedman aided the Rays by 9.8 games; they qualified for post-season by 7.0. Key moves: Acquired Rafael Soriano, +3.2; promoted John Jaso, +1.5; traded Akinori Iwamura, -2.1.
10. Award +0.44. Friedman aided the Rays by 2 games; they qualified for post-season by 1. Key moves: Re-signed Ben Zobrist, +2.2; promoted Jeremy Hellickson, +2.3.
11. Penalty -0.38. Friedman hurt the Rays by -4.2 games; they failed to qualify for post-season by 3. Key moves: Re-signed Carlos Pena, -1.5; re-signed Hideki Matsui, -1.7; traded Justin Ruggiano, +1.5; traded John Jaso, +2.1.
12. Award 0.38. Friedman aided the Rays by 8.6 games; they qualified for post-season by 1. Key moves: Acquired Yunel Escobar, +1.3; promoted Chris Archer, +1.0.

Category 7 total : +1.32.

1. Credit for post-season appearances (2008, +0.44; 2010, +0.44; 2011, +0.44; 2013, +0.38): +1.70

Grand total: +7.07

So what do you think? Is Andrew Friedman properly ranked among the best all-time general manager list? Comment below!