MLB: The century’s worst GMs

An MLB general manager’s job is to build a successful team. Not everybody succeeds with that task.

The MLB general manager has probably the most important job in the organization…team-building. Any ballclub’s success or failure depends to a great extent on the player-evaluation decisions made by the team’s chief executive.

Some guys, of course, do that job better than others. And when a GM fails – usually by mis-evaluating talent either on hand or available – the organization’s prospects for success can be crippled.

A general manager has five primary responsibilities: to acquire talent via trades,  waiver claims or purchases, to acquire talent on the open market, to identify and promote talent from within the organization, to evaluate existing talent for purposes of trade, sale or waiver, and to evaluate the potential of existing talent whose contracts are up for renewal or termination.

Baseball writers devote a significant amount of time to praising the guys who do the GM jobs well. That’s understandable; they’re generally the ones leading their teams to post-season success.

In this essay, we’re looking at the other end of the spectrum. The GMs identified below all struggled, pretty much constantly, and in their struggles, they took their teams down to chronic defeats.

Out judgment criteria is Wins Above Average, a zero-based variant of Wins Above Replacement. For each GM, we’re measuring the overall impact of their moves on their team’s success.

Along the way, we’ll also look at each GM’s career record. That’s obviously important, although it’s not our ultimate standard. After all, a GM who took first place talent and turned it into a fourth-place club ought to be judged at least as harshly as one who began with last place talent and brought it home fifth.

This essay considers MLB general managers who have been active in this century. They are considered in two blocks: the past most recent five seasons and the period between 2001 and 2015.

GMs are presented in order of the damage they did from 10th worst down to the very worst of the era. The headers include the years of each GM’s service, number of games lost due to the GM’s moves, and the team’s record for that period.

2016-2020 (10 through 6)

10. Dan Duquette, Baltimore Orioles, 2016-18, -13.4, 211-285: The disaster came in 2018. Beginning with a core that had gone 75-87, Duquette launched a teardown that in one winter stripped the Orioles of 14 games worth of talent.

To the argument that the teardown was needed, it is only necessary to note that Duquette had been GM since before the start of the 2011 season, so it was his own mistakes he was fixing. Orioles management finally got the message, releasing Duquette following the 2018 season.

9. Matt Klentak, Philadelphia Phillies, 2016-2020, -14.3, 326-382. Under Klentak, the Phillies signed Bryce Harper to a contract that will hamstring Phillies’ decision-making through the next decade.

But his problems do not all flow from that one extravagant decision. In five seasons running the Phillies, Klentak’s personnel moves never produced a positive impact on team success. Ownership finally agreed, terminating Klentak as of the end of the 2020 season.

8. A.J. Preller, San Diego Padres, 2016-20, -16.1, 312-396. Preller is one of two GMs on this list who – based on 2020 results alone –project to be off of it in the near future. Based on the team’s 37-23 record, the signs are good that the groundwork he has laid may be paying off.

For now, though, the facts are that Preller’s moves had hurt the Padres during each of his first four seasons.

7. Jerry DiPoto, Seattle Mariners, 2016-20, -19.2, 348-360. It’s hard to say which was a worse year for DiPoto, 2019 or 2020. His 2019 team utterly collapsed, finishing 68-94. In 2020, the Mariners actually made a run at contending in the expanded MLB post-season format.

They might have made it, if not for DiPoto. He traded for 14 players and signed eight others who combined to impact the Mariners by -3.6 games. The M’s finished three games out of a playoff position. That’s not good.

6. Dick Williams, Cincinnati Reds, 2016-20, -20.7, 309-399. Williams was promoted from general manager to head of baseball ops in 2018, so his precise rating depends on whether you credit/blame him or new GM Nick Krall for the 2019 and 2020 results.

But it does not make a big difference; even in their one playoff season, 2020, Williams’ Reds regressed. The total impact of his moves on the team in what was supposed to be an upwardly mobile 2020 season worked out to -4.6 games.

2016-20 (5 through 1)

5. Neil Huntington, Pittsburgh Pirates, 2016-19, -29.1, 304-342. For much of his tenure, which began in 2008, Huntington was inarguably the most successful Pirates GM since Joe L. Brown 40 years earlier. The Pirates made their first three post-season appearances in more than two decades.

By 2016, however, his team’s development stalled and the Pirates began to shed MLB talent. In 2019, Huntington’s moves – notably his trade of Gerrit Cole — cost the Pirates more than 10 games in the standings. Huntington was released at season’s end.

4. Al Avila, Detroit Tigers, 2016-2020, -32.8 games, 284-420. Avila inherited a roster burdened with high-priced, low-production, long-term contracts. We’re looking at you, Miguel Cabrera, whose deal will tie up another $154 million through 2025.

Still, the facts are that Avila’s actions have produced an annual negative impact on the Tigers averaging about nine games for the past four seasons.

3. Dayton Moore, Kansas City Royals, 2016-2020, -37.8 games, 304-404. Give Moore credit for leading the Royals to the 2015 World Series. It was a momentous accomplishment. But considering only the most recent five seasons, Moore’s reputation has taken a hit.

The rebuilding process prompted by the departure of the team’s championship core of Hosmer, Cain, Moustakas, and Davis has not gone well. Moore’s moves made a negative impact in excess of 10 games in 2016 and again in 2018, and have not yet turned positive.

2. Rick Hahn, Chicago White Sox, 2016-20, -38.2, 314-393. Like Preller in San Diego, the prevailing assumption is that Hahn is not long for this list. He has spent the past several seasons amassing prospects whose time may be now. The tradeoff was severe damage to the team’s immediate standing.

In 2017 alone, the trades of players such as Chris Sale and reliance on fill-ins such as Dylan Covey and has-beens such as Derek Holland hamstrung the Sox by 20 games. The issue now is whether all those prospects—Michael Kopech, Luis Robert, Yoan Moncada, Lucas Giolito, and Eloy Jimenez – are ready to become stars.

1. Mike Hill,  Miami Marlins, 2016-20, -44.8, 307-399. Hill, who left the Marlins at season’s end, has gotten a lot of credit for the team’s emergence in post-season contention this year. The truth is they were average, producing a 31-29 record, beating a deficient Cubs team, and looking inert against the Atlanta Braves.

Hill’s impact on the club was actually negative, although at -0.7 games only modestly so. Between 2017 and 2019, his teardown of the Marlins for the new ownership annually damaged the club by double digit amounts. His legacy ought to be the trades of the game’s best outfield, Giancarlo Stanton, Marcell Ozuna, and Christian Yelich, for 11 players, a few of whom still might prove useful.

2001-2015 (10 through 6)

10. J.P. Ricciardi, Toronto Blue Jays, 2002-09, -27.6, 657-653. In seven seasons at the Jays’ helm, Ricciardi never figured out how to maneuver them to a plane equal with the AL East dominant Yankees and Red Sox. That’s not an unfair expectation; the Rays accomplished it with fewer resources at the same time.

In 2003, Ricciardi’s various moves – notably the loss to free agency of Jose Cruz, the traded of Shannon Stewart, the acquisition of pitcher Corey Lidle and the promotion of rookie Kevin Cash – cost Toronto 9.7 games in the standings; they missed MLB post-season qualification by nine games.

9. Neal Huntington, Pittsburgh Pirates, 2008-15, -28.7, 617-678. Huntington is the only general manager who appears on both the 2001-15 and 2016-20 lists. As previously noted, his tenure had some highlights, chief among them being post-season berths between 2013 and 2015.

The drag on Huntington’s record is that the seasons leading to that success were bleak ones. In his first three seasons, Huntington’s rebuilding efforts annually cost Pittsburgh 10 games or more on the standings.

8. Jon Daniels, Texas Rangers, 2006-15, -29.1, 846-775. Daniels is one of three MLB GMs consigned to this list despite winning records. To his credit, he has to date produced five post-season teams. Four of them came from 2006 through 2015.

On the other hand, in six of his first 10 seasons Daniels’ moves actually injured Texas’ standing, by margins ranging from trivial (-0.1 games in 2012) to damaging (-18.7 games in 2014).

7. Billy Beane, Oakland Athletics, 2001-15, -30.9, 1,326-1,025. Billy Beane is a certified GM genius; even Hollywood says so. How does he wind up here? Beane may have led the front office revolution, and he may have played a role in 11 Oakland post-season appearances, 8 of them between 2001 and 2015. But he was a gambler who lost as often as he won.

In 2004 Beane decided the A’s couldn’t keep Miguel Tejada, the team’s former all-star and MVP and probably its best player. Statistically, Tejada’s loss cost Oakland a post-season spot.

6. Jim Bowden, Cincinnati Reds, 2001-03, Washington Nationals, 2005-09, -34.5, 556-739. Following a sabbatical from his decade-long management of the Reds, Bowden took over the Nationals following their move from Montreal.

In the 1990s Bowden had been a force with the Reds, but he had lost his mojo. His eight final seasons produced seven negative impacts on the teams under his charge.