Houston Astros: The Curious Case of Jeff Luhnow
By Manny Gómez
Known as a polarizing executive in MLB, Houston Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow has finally come under fire for his unscrupulous practices. With the GM Meetings set to begin Monday, how will MLB respond to his latest actions?
From the moment St. Louis Cardinals owner Bill Dewitt Jr. brought Jeff Luhnow, a close business associate with zero baseball experience, into the Cardinals organization to be Vice President of Baseball Development, something was amiss.
Moneyball had just hit the shelves two months prior, and Luhnow’s hiring signaled to every one in the Cardinals organization that they were headed in the direction of Michael Lewis’ groundbreaking book. The Cardinals, like the A’s, were about to become baseball’s next data driven organization.
It didn’t take long before heads started rolling within the Cardinals organization. Luhnow, who the New York Times describe as a “polarizing executive,” immediately started to butt heads with people within the Cardinals organization.
Walt Jocketty, who had been the Cardinals GM since 1994 and Jeff Luhnow immediately clashed.
Jocketty operated more like an “old school” GM would while Luhnow was data driven, and despite the fact that the Cardinals won a World Series just one year prior, on October 2007 team owner Bill Dewitt Jr. fired Jocketty.
“I think we had a little different philosophy and vision with respect to some baseball issues,” DeWitt told AP, “There was clearly tension. We couldn’t achieve our goals given what was going on.”
Joecketty wasn’t the only one to fall victim at Luhnow’s expense. You were either with Luhnow or you weren’t, and as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch describes it, “The turf war left a high body count.”
To Luhnow’s credit, he was good at his job as the guy in charge of player development. Under his watch, the Cardinals organization, according to mlb.com, had “the best system record in baseball in 2010 and (won) five minor league championships.” In the same article it states that Luhnow’s “first three drafts from 2005-2007, produced 24 Major League players, which is more than any other Major League team in that time frame.”
Regardless of all the success he had in the Cardinals organization, on December 11, 2011 Jeff Luhnow was announced as the 12th general manager in the Houston Astros history.