Best all-time general managers: No. 12, Arthur Soden

Our #12 in the countdown of the best all-time general managers did a lot of his work before the turn of the 20th century

Boston Red Caps, Beaneaters 1877-1906

Arthur Soden was one of the most important figures in 19^th Century baseball along his way to being one of the best all-time general managers.

Soden was a 34-year-old Civil War veteran and successful Boston-area roofing contractor with no baseball background when he and two friends, J.B. Billings and William Conant, purchased the year-old Boston National League franchise in 1877. The trio selected Soden as team president.

There was never much question among the three that Soden was both the baseball and business brains of the group.

Soden was also the brains behind the notion of the Reserve Clause, the contractual stipulation that tied a player to a team in perpetuity and which held sway for nine decades. If this were a book on baseball management, his leadership in creating the Reserve Clause alone would merit Soden a chapter.  But it should not obscure Soden’s other deeds, many of which were central to the growth and development of the league. Those include his interim term as league president following William Hulbert’s death in 1882 and his stalwart opposition to gambling and game-fixing.

Soden’s record was far from perfect. In 1901, he was part of the cabal that sought to turn the National League into a baseball syndicate, an action which – if successful – would have undermined the game’s credibility.

His most important role, however, was in developing and maintaining a strong franchise in Boston, then the nation’s fifth largest city. His Red Caps won the 1877 pennant with an assist from the Louisville Greys, who threw games down the stretch. The team’s 1878 and 1883 titles, both under their new name of Beaneaters, were legitimate.

Soden also developed the notion that it was permissible to buy and sell players. His 1887 and 1888 purchases of future Hall of Famers King Kelly and then John Clarkson, both for $10,000 from the Chicago White Stockings, were bellwethers in what would soon become an accepted practice.

It was also Soden who uncovered such minor league luminaries as Herman Long, Jimmy Collins and Hugh Duffy for Boston. In 1890, Soden hired Frank Selee as field manager, and Selee brought along pitcher Kid Nichols, whose presence would turn the Beaneaters into a dynasty. With Nichols as the ace, Boston won five pennants between 1891 and 1898.

Had there been an award for Executive Of The Year in Soden’s day, he would have been a perennial contender, and a deserving winner three times: 1877, 1889 and 1896.

As befits the creator of the Reserve Clause, he was by instinct a long-termer. His +6.15 average long-term impact on the Beaneaters is among the upper third. Like many of Soden’s ratings, it would be better if his final decade was excluded.

The 20^th Century portion of Soden’s experience was bitter. The new American League gorged on Beaneater stars such as Collins, Chick Stahl, Buck Freeman, Billy Sullivan, Bill Dinneen and Ted Lewis, most jumping to the cross-town Red Sox. Indeed, when the Boston Americans won the first AL-NL “World Series” in 1903, Dinneen, Collins, Stahl, and Freeman all played key roles.

Soden never recovered from the raid, the shell of his once-great team sinking to the National League basement by the time he sold the out in 1906. It was a first in his tenure. They had finished seventh the two previous seasons, something else no Soden team had done.

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Perhaps attributable to his role in development of the Reserve Clause, Soden ranks seventh all-time in the total value of his rookies.  Those products include many of your ancestors’ favorites: Kid Nichols,

,

,

, Grasshoppper Whitney, and

.

Trades were rare in Soden’s day, but he was the best at that emerging art. Soden ranks eighth all-time in the total short-term value of his acquisition, and ninth in the total long-term value of those acquisitions. Again, the names would have veritably worshipped by 19^th Century fans: Kelly, Clarkson, Dan Brouthers, Herman Long, Tommy Tucker, Tommy McCarthy, Billy Hamilton and Bill Dinneen.

Had he quit in 1898 rather than 1906, Arthur Soden might be even more famous today as one of the dynastic owner-GMs of the game’s history.

Arthur Soden

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: +0.32

2 Short-term total: +0.16

3 Long-term average: +0.62

4 Long-term total: +2.07

5 Residual average: -1.71

6 Residual total: -1.01

7 GM’s post-season shares:

• 1877 award +1.00. Soden aided the Red Caps by +8.9 games; there was no post-season in 1877, but Boston won the pennant by 7 games. Key moves: Signed Tommy Bond, +7.4; signed Deacon White, +2.4.
• 1891 award +1.00. Soden aided the Beaneaters by +5.9 games; there was no post-season in 1891, but they won the pennant by 3.5 games. Key moves: Acquired Harry Staley, +5.4; acquired Herman Long, +2.6; signed Harry Stovey, +2.4.

Category 7 total: +2.00

8 Credit for post-season appearances: (There was no post-season during much of Soden’s tenure, so his points are credited based on pennant-winning seasons as follows: 1877, +1.0; 1878, +1.0; 1883, +1.0; 1891, +1.0; 1892, +0.75; 1893, +1.25; 1897, +0.75; 1898, +1.25) Total +8.00

Grand total: +10.45

So, even though his work was done a century ago, Arthur Soden ranks as one of the best all-time general managers in MLB history.