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Best all-time General Managers: #17 Frank Cashen

By Bill Felber

NEW YORK - JULY 31: Former general manager Frank Cashen speaks during a press conference for his induction into the New York Mets Hall of Fame prior to the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 31, 2010 at Citi Field in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
NEW YORK - JULY 31: Former general manager Frank Cashen speaks during a press conference for his induction into the New York Mets Hall of Fame prior to the game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on July 31, 2010 at Citi Field in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /
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Our #18 in the best all-time general managers orchestrated multiple excellent team before finally breaking through with a World Series win

Baltimore Orioles, 1972-75, New York Mets, 1980-91

For a brief time in the mid-1970s, it looked like Frank Cashen might become commissioner of baseball. Several owners, upset about Bowie Kuhn’s handling of labor matters, attempted to put Cashen, then general manager of the Baltimore Orioles, in the office. Kuhn mustered enough votes to block the effort.

That was probably a good thing for Cashen since it enabled him to continue doing what he did best, assemble winning baseball teams.

A would-be sports reporter, Cashen had taken a job with Jerry Hoffberger’s Orioles in the 1960s, quickly rising to assistant vice president. He was named general manager following the 1971 season, overseeing Orioles divisional titles in 1973 and again in 1974. Give Cashen credit for part of that 1974 divisional title, won by just two games over the Yankees. A trade that brought in pitcher Ross Grimsley (+1.6) was central to that effort.

But Hoffberger needed Cashen elsewhere, so in 1975 he was moved out of baseball and into oversight of other aspects of the owner’s brewing business. Kuhn brought Cashen back into the game in 1979 as administrator for baseball operations. When Nelson Doubleday and Fred Wilpon purchased the Mets, they hired Cashen to run an organization coming off three straight last-place finishes and losing the competition for attention to the Yankees.

It turned out to be a genius move, for Cashen had a consistent eye for talent. The bodies with which he filled the Mets system comprised the heart of the 1986 World Series championship team – Darryl Strawberry, Dwight Gooden, Ron Darling and Lenny Dykstra. He was a superb trader when the need called for it, as exemplified by the deals that brought in Ray Knight, Kevin Mitchell, and Howard Johnson.

You can quantify Cashen’s success in the GM rating, where his image is prismatically strong. Short-term, his 3.13 average impact ranks 12th among the best all-time general managers, and his 42.4 game total short-term improvement was the best ever until John Schuerholz, Dan Duquette and Walt Jocketty came along.

Cashen had a quick-turnaround touch. For eight consecutive seasons between 1982 and 1989, his short-term moves improved the Mets. The average short-term rating of GMs historically is minus 1.1 games, yet for most of that decade, Cashen’s impact on the Mets unfailingly ranged between +1.2 and +9.0. He was deservedly named Executive Of The Year in 1986 for his work with the World Series champions.

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Cashen also should have won in 1975 with the Orioles and in 1982, seasons when the award went instead to Boston’s Dick O’Connell and to Harry Dalton in Milwaukee. As good as the Brewers were in 1982, Dalton actually had very little to do with it beyond firing manager Bob Rodgers in mid-season and hiring Harvey Kuenn as his replacement. Cashen improved the Mets short-term by 8.2 games that season, his misfortune was that the Mets, who still finished last, needed a lot of improvement.

In his mid-60s, Cashen began to lose his short-term touch. In 1990, for the first time since 1981, he failed to generate a positive short-term impact on the Mets. He went negative again in 1991, as the Mets fell from 91 victories to 77, a sub-.500 finish for the first time since 1983. At that point, he retired. Cashen died in 2014.

Frank Cashen

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: +1.55

2 Short-term total: +1.40

3 Long-term average: +0.83

4 Long-term total: +0.68

5 Residual average: +0.34

6 Residual total: +0.41

7 GM’s post-season shares: +0.70.

  • 1974 award, +0.70. Cashen improved the Orioles by +2.1 games; they qualified for post-season by 2 games. Key moves: Acquired Ross Grimsley, +1.3.

8 Credit for post-season appearances: (1973, +0.70; 1974, +0.70; 1986, +0.70; 1988, +0.70) Total +2.80.

  • Total: +8.71

Best all-time GMs: William Hulbert. dark. Next

So that’s our #18 among the best all-time General Managers. Do we have Cashen too high? Too low? Comment below!!

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