2022 MLB front office rankings: The American League Central
Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff, Cleveland Guardians
Impact: +5.9
Division rank: first
MLB rank: fifth
Antonetti and Chernoff ran one of only three front office systems — the others being in the Bronx and Los Angeles — to rank among the 2022 top 10 in all three major action areas: trades, free agents and farm system products. The Guardians ranked seventh in net value gained from deals with other teams, fifth on the free agent market, and fifth again for rookie value.
The kind of across-the-board production succinctly explains why the Guardians may have been baseball’s surprise team of the season.
Chernoff kept things pretty tranquil, making only 37 moves that involved a MLB player. Eighteen of those moves produced positive value to the Guardians, 15 were negative and four were neutral.
They were the two major front office actions, both of which tipped the scales decidedly in favor of Cleveland.
Just before the season’s start, Chernoff signed star third baseman Jose Ramirez to a $141 million deal that will keep him in Cleveland through 2028. Ramirez, a fur-time All Star and frequent finalist among MVP candidates, responded with a .280 average, 29 home runs, an .869 OPS and a +3.8 WAA.
Of all player moves prior to and during 2022, only the signings of Justin Verlander in Houston and Max Scherzer in New York, plus the promotion of Seattle rookie Julio Rodriguez, provided the acquiring team with a greater WAA boost.
Chernoff doubled down on that by installing rookie Steven Kwan as the team’s regular left fielder and leadoff hitter on opening day. Kwan batted .298 with a .772 OPS, and he fanned less than 10 percent of the time, an extraordinary accomplishment in a league where the norm is more than twice that frequently. For Kwan, it added up to an additional +3.5 WAA.
That in turn made Chernoff one of only two front office execs — Houston’s Jim Click being the other — to add a pair of +3.4 or higher valued players this season.
Like several small market teams, the Guardians made farm system production a focus of their 2022 movement; they were just better at it. Nearly half of the aforementioned 37 moves involved the promotion of a farm product, others aside from Kwan including outfielder Oscar Gonzalez and pitcher Konnor Pilkington.
The net impact on Cleveland of those 18 callups was +1.5 WAA. If a +1.5 movement doesn’t sound impressive, consider this: Only eight of the 30 major league teams netted positive impact from their system callups in 2022.
Derek Falvey and Thad Levine, Minnesota Twins
Impact: +0.4
Division rank: second
MLB rank: 11th
Levine and Falvey ran a high-risk churn mill of a front office operation in their effort to boost the Twins out of the cellar position they occupied in 2021. The duo was responsible for 55 moves involving MLB talent. Is that a lot? The next highest level of activity in the AL Central occurred in Kansas City, with just 40 such moves.
Perhaps remarkably, the Twins front office handled itself well through all that coming and going. Falvey and Levine added four players who produced a WAA in excess of +1.1 for Minnesota. In order of acquisition, they were:
- A March 13 deal with Cincinnati that also involved a pair of minor leaguers landed pitcher Sonny Gray. He made 24 starts with a 3.08 ERA and +1.3 WAA.
- The March 13 trade with the Yankees cost Isiah Kiner-Falafea, Josh Donaldson and a minor leaguer, but it brought in catcher Gary Sanchez and infielder Gio Urshela. The big catch was Urshela, who hit .285 with a .767 OPS, good for 1.3 WAA.
- On March 22, the Twins came to terms with shortstop Carlos Correa on a five-year, $175 million deal. Whether the Twins will hold on to Corrrea, who has an annual player option, remains to be seen. But he contributed 3.5 WAA, batting .291 with 22 home runs and an .834 OPS.
- Rookie pitcher Jhoan Duran made his debut on April 8, eventually contributing 68 innings of a 1.86 ERA. That works out to +1.8 WAA.
Overall, the Twins ranked a mid-range 14th in net trade impact and 16th in farm system impact. Thanks largely to the signing of Correa, they were, however, sixth in net free agent impact.
J.J. Picollo, Kansas City Royals
Impact: -2.2
Division rank: third
MLB rank: 16th
J.J. Picollo’s introductory season running a Major League front office may have ended with a last-place finish in the division, but that was more a function of what he was given to work with than what he did.
Picollo inherited the contracts of 20 players who saw time with the Royals this season. Of those 20, only six — Scott Barlow, Andrew Benintendi, Joel Payamps, Salvador Perez, Brady Singer and Michael A. Taylor — delivered a positive WAA. The sum total impact of the 20 holdovers worked out to -7.5 WAA, one of the worst legacies in recent history.
To rectify that situation, Picollo made moves involving 40 players who saw MLB time during the season. His focus plainly was on trying to mine talent out of the Royals’ farm system (15 of his 40 moves involved promoting a system product).
The short-term impact of that strategy was not all that great, but Picollo is playing a long game. His promotion of touted infielder Bobby Witt Jr. yielded a -1.2 WAA, but the 2022 Royals were more than willing to pay that price in exchange for the experience they hope will benefit Witt.
The same goes for M.J. Melendez, who debuted in May and whose numbers worked out to -1.3 WAA. If Witt and Melendez comprise the backbone of an ascendant Royals nucleus the next year or two, that will be OK with Picollo and Royals fans.
For the present, Picollo’s most productive move was the signing of free agent Zack Greinke. His 4-9 record was deceiving, for Greinke scored a 3.68 ERA in 137 innings, good for a +1.3 WAA.
The Royals front office was more laid-back in trade dealings, although it did find midseason takers for veterans Benintendi and Whit Merrifield. Kansas City ranked 10th in value obtained from trades, and 11th in free agent value.
The subpar figures for Melendez, Witt and others consigned the team’s substantial rookie class to 27th place. But again, the Royals will gladly overlook that if the 2022 rookie core turns the team around in the next season or two.
Rick Hahn, Chicago White Sox
Impact: -6.2
Division rank: fourth
MLB rank: 21st
To fully assess the performance of the White Sox front office, it is necessary to remember that this team was a virtually unanimous preseason pick to dominate the AL Central.
Instead the Sox finished a break-even 81-81, 11 games behind the surprising Guardians and five games out of a playoff spot.
Hahn’s various personnel moves cost 6.2 games for a team that finished five games out of a playoff spot. Do the math: Hahn cost the Sox a postseason opportunity. In 2022, he was the only front office exec about whom that could be said.
It was not that Hahn overplayed his hand. If anything, the opposite may have been true. Chicago’s front office made only 32 moves affecting players who got in MLB time in 2022, making the White Sox front office one of MLB’s quietest start to finish.
The problem was that whether he was obtaining players or dumping them, Hahn had a hard time getting it right.
Only 13 of his transactions worked out favorably to the Sox, contrasted with 17 that produced negative value.
Statistically, Hahn’s worst move was a non-move: allowing pitcher Carlos Rodon to walk to free agency last November 3. Rodon signed with the Giants in March and won 14 of his 22 decisions, piling up a 178-inning workload. That translated to a +3.9 WAA for the Giants, and made Rodon one of the five most valuable acquisitions of the season … or, if you are a Sox fan, one of the five most costly losses.
And so it went. In December, Hahn reupped veteran Leury Garcia for another season. Garcia hit .210, good for -2.0 WAA.
In April, Hahn unloaded troubled closer Craig Kimbrel on the Dodgers, and got outfielder A.J. Pollock in return. But Pollock’s .681 OPS worked out to -1.2 WAA.
The bright moments were few, but they did exist. Free agent pitcher Johnny Cueto’s 3.35 ERA at times seemed a godsend; it produced a 2.1 WAA. When Tim Anderson was injured, Hahn pried Elvis Andrus away from Oakland to cover shortstop, and Andrus generated another 1.1 WAA.
The positive math, however, is limited. Hahn’s front office ranked 23rd in trade value, 15th in free agent value, and a dismal 26th in farm system value.
Al Avila, Detroit Tigers
Impact: -8.0
Division rank: fifth
MLB rank: tie 24th
Avila was a holdover from the ownership of Mike Illitch, deceased father of current owner Chris Illitch, and he had run the Tigers since 2015. Combine that with the fact that, in eight seasons, Avila’s various moves have only once actually improved the Tigers and it was no surprise when Chris Illitch handed him his release as general manager this past August.
The Tiger front office banked most of its 2022 hopes on one signature move, that being the promotion of 2020 No. 1 draft pick Spencer Torkelson, who hit 30 home runs during the 2021 minor league season. In the big leagues, however, Torkelson found the adjustment difficult. He batted only .203 with eight home runs and a .604 OPS, good for -2.6 WAA.
Over the course of the season, Avila made 39 moves involving players with MLB experience in 2022, but aside from the Torkelson promotion none of them ever held much promise of materially affecting the Tigers’ status. Like Picollo in Kansas City, Avila leaned disproportionately on his farm system as 18 of his 39 moves involved promotion of a system product like Torkelson.
But the net impact of those 18 callups was a desultory -6.7 games, leaving Avila’s front office the distinction of having the worst farm system in baseball — for major league impact — in 2022.
Aside from Torkelson, the most impactful callup was pitcher Elvin Rodriguez, who made just five starts, all of them disastrous. In those starts, Rodriguez piled up a 10.62 ERA and cost the Tigers -1.7 WAA.
dark. Next. Ranking the front offices of the AL East
The Tigers had the 21st-best farm system for trade impact and they ranked 13th for free agent impact, although those moves were inconsequential. Avila’s trades involved only four players. The only trades of consequence involved sending Isaac Paredes to Tampa Bay for Austin Meadows in April and acquiring Tucker Barnhart for a minor leaguer in November. Barnhart was worth -1.0 WAA to Detroit, Meadows +0.2.