2020 MLB GM Ratings: The National League East

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In the NL East, only the Braves were successful. The other four front offices hurt their teams. Here are our 2020 MLB GM Ratings: NL East.

The 2020 season was not an especially enjoyable one for the NL East’s five front offices.

Only one MLB GM, Alex Anthopoulos of the Atlanta Braves, saw his team play a post-season game. The Braves also had the only front office whose moves actually helped their team.

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This is the second part of a division-by-division review of MLB GM personnel moves leading up to and during the 2020 season.

Our ratings are based on the collective short-term impact, as measured by Wins Above Average, of every personnel move made by every front office since the conclusion of play in 2019. A positive number represents a front office success. In a few cases, those marked by an asterisk, the front office really succeeded; it generated a more positive impact than the margin by which the team qualified for post-season play.

If a rating is negative, that means the team’s front office reduced the club’s talent base during 2020. And woe betides a front office that gets an asterisk for negative performance; that means the team’s execs dealt, promoted, or signed their way out of the playoffs. Those rare instances are marked by an X.

As a general proposition, front offices influence their team’s performance in five ways:

By the players they acquire in trades, purchase, or waiver claims with other teams.
By the players they lose in those deals.
By the free agents they sign.
By the players they release or lose to free agency.
By the rookies they promote.

Findings for the AL East have already been reported. Teams in this analysis of the NL East front offices are not presented in the order of their final standing, but rather on the extent of the front office’s positive or negative contribution to the team profile.

(Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images) /

MLB GM Ratings: Alex Anthopoulos, president of baseball operations; +0.8 games.

In their totality, Anthopoulos’ contributions to the Braves’ success were relatively modest. But in the indifferent atmosphere that pervaded much of the National League, and specifically the NL East, modest success was more than good enough.

There were three headline-grabbing moves, and they basically neutralized each other.

The Braves lost Josh Donaldson to free agency, a departure that looked more significant than it turned out to be when Donaldson hit just .222 for his new team, the Minnesota Twins. Statistically, the more significant loss was Dallas Keuchel, who left for Chicago’s South Side and piled up a 6-2 record and 1.99 ERA.

After they lost Donaldson, the Braves signed Marcell Ozuna to a one-year, $18 million deal and he led the league in home runs and RBIs. The 1.8 Wins Above Average Ozuna generated offset the combined 1.7 WAA produced by Donaldson and Keuchel for their new teams.

Over the course of the full off-season and season, Anthopoulos made 38 personnel moves affecting the team’s 2020 talent base. Those 38 included 14 signed as free agents. Beyond Ozuna’s +1.8, the other 13 included significant bullpen help. Tyler Matzek made 21 appearances that added up to +0.7. Chris Martin added 19 appearances and +0.9.

Here is the annual short-term performance rating of the Braves front office since Anthopoulos was appointed president and GM prior to the 2018 season:

2018: + 3.5
2019: +15.1*
2020: + 0.8

*This was a greater improvement than the margin by which the Braves qualified for post-season play.

MLB GM Ratings: Mike Hill, president of baseball operations; -0.7 games

Hill is in the midst of his second tenure running the Marlins front office. The GM from 2008 through 2013, he was re-appointed prior to the 2016 season and retained when Derek Jeter became team president.

Given Miami’s surprisingly strong on-field performance, the question is how much Hill’s front office had to do with it. The answer: Not much, really. Their Pythagorean record, a calculation of what the Marlins should have done based on runs scored and allowed, was 26-34. That’s five games worse than their actual record.

The Marlins, in other words, were mostly lucky.

At least Hill didn’t get in the way. Driven largely by COVID-elated exigencies, his administration made an astonishing 51 personnel moves, the most significant of which was the promotion of pitcher Sixto Sanchez to the big leagues in August. Sanchez won three of his starts with a 3.46 ERA, netting 1.1 WAA to Hill’s credit, and established himself as a future luminary.

By no means did everything go nominally. In February, Hill signed free agent Matt Joyce and got a powerless .252 batting average for his money. Joyce rated out at -1.0 WAA. The negative moves out-numbered the positive ones 27-18 – six were value-neutral – but hill’s team survived by the grace of God.

The Marlins were 11-8, .579, in one-run games. That’s not a repeatable skill, but it is a desirable one.

Here is the annual short-term performance rating of the Marlins front office since Hill was re-appointed president and GM prior to the 2016 season:

2016: – 3.4
2017: -10.2*
2018: -20.5
2019: -10.0
2020: – 0.7

*This was a greater loss than the margin by which the Marlins failed to qualify for post-season play.

(Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images) /

MLB GM Ratings: Mike Rizzo, GM and president of baseball operations; -1.6 games.

It was probably always asking too much of the Nats to repeat their World Series-winning 2019 season. And if that task wasn’t already hard enough, it got tougher when star third baseman Anthony Rendon left via free agency and ace pitcher Stephen Strasburg went down to an injury.

When Rendon left for the Angels money, he took 1.4 WAA with him. Strasburg was a +4.5 WAA player in 2019; his injury-plagued 2020 netted -0.3 WAA. So those two personnel losses alone explain six games worth of Washington’s decline in 2020.

Rizzo made a fairly conservative 28 personnel moves affecting the 2020 team’s performance, and they not as a group work out well. Only nine produced positive short-term value. Two others were neutral, leaving seven that impacted the team negatively.

Aside from the departure of Rendon, the most consequential was Rizzo’s January decision to sign free agent Eric Thames to a one-year, $3 million deal. Thames returned -0.9 WAA on a .203 average in 140 plate appearances.

Rizzo’s most positive move wasn’t all that helpful. He called up rookie outfielder Andrew Stevenson for 47 plate appearances and Stevenson generated a .366 average with two homers and 12 RBIs, producing a +0.8 WAA.

Here is the annual short-term performance rating of the Nationals general manager since 2016:

2016: +6.6
2017: +1.7
2018: – 0.6
2019: +3.1
2020: -1.6

(Photo by Miles Kennedy/Philadelphia Phillies/Getty Images) /

MLB GM Ratings: Andy MacPhail, president; Matt Klentak, VP and GM; -2.0 games

Only two front offices in all of MLB maneuvered their teams OUT of the expanded playoff in 2020, and Klentak’s Phillies operation was one of them. The collective -2.0 value of his decisions more than account for the one-game margin by which the Phillies finished out of the running.

This wasn’t the way it was supposed to be. Over the past few seasons, Klentak has signed up free agent Bryce Harper, traded for All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto, and brought in ace pitchers Jake Arrieta and Zack Wheeler to team with Aaron Nola, who Klentak re-signed. That’s a lot of star power on the post-season bench.

If Klentak survives to next season – an issue still understood to be in question – it will probably be because of Wheeler. Signed to a five-year, $117 million deal in December, he went 4-2 with a 2.92 ERA in 11 starts. That netted a 2.3 WAA. But that also means that all other moves made by Klentak since the end of 2019 damaged the Phillies to the tune of -4.3 games.

In a 60-game season, that’s damning math. Klentak made 39 personnel moves affecting the 2020 roster. Of those moves, 23 – about 60 percent – produced negative value.

Related Story. Phillies: The hot seat getting hotter for Matt Klentak. light

Here is the annual short-term performance rating of the Phillies front office since Klentak was appointed vice president and GM prior to the 2016 season:

2016: -8.1
2017: -2.7
2018: -4.9
2019: +3.4
2020: -2.0*

*This was a greater loss than the margin by which the Phillies failed to qualify for post-season play.

MLB GM Ratings: Brodie Van Wagenen, general manager; -2.6 games.

Van Wagenen’s Mets approached 2020 with high hopes that turned out to be unjustified. While the -2.6 rating produced by Van Wagenen’s moves was not decisive in setting the team’s fate, it certainly didn’t contribute to any sort of turnaround, either.

The Mets’ rating was influenced by 29 personnel decisions, of which by far the most consequential was the inability to keep starter Zach Wheeler. His accomplishments in Philadelphia were noted above. One footnote: Wheeler went 2-1 against the Mets.