General manager vets who are candidates for the Baseball Hall of Fame’s executive suite

The passage of the MLB trade deadline turns thoughts to the guys who have the biggest role in shaping a team’s championship potential: the 30 team general manager/chief executive types.

They’re the people in the spotlight at this time of year because it is their job to determine whether their team is a playoff contender or pretender, and swing deals that are both productive and appropriate to that determination.

The success or failure of those pressurized decisions will greatly shape our view of the talent of the chief execs. In time, it will even impact our assessment of their fitness for baseball’s highest honor, the Hall of Fame.

There are 40 people who have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame for their executive decision-making role. Among those 40, a dozen were inducted primarily for their roles as chief executives of one or more teams. You are familiar with many of their names: Branch Rickey, John Schuerholz, Ed Barrow, and Larry and Lee MacPhail.

Among the current and recent crop of team execs, more than that dozen probably merit serious consideration for induction in the near future. Part of the reason for that high number is the increased focus on the decisive role played by front offices in shaping team destinies. But a second reason is more basic: it so happens that the game has seen a significant upgrade in the talent level of team execs.

For most of baseball it was history for the ranks of team chief execs to be populated by former players or friends of the owner. No longer. Today by far the most common credential in front office management is an Ivy League or elite private school education, probably with a focus on finance or economics.

A look at 15 current or recently retired MLB team executives whose credentials as general manager say they merit serious consideration for enshrinement in the Baseball Hall of Fame

For various reasons, not all of them will make it. For that reason the list is broken into three groups: Five who are mortal locks, five who for one reason or another will probably end up being close calls and a final five who are likely to have a long wait if they ever get in at all.

The locks

Brian Cashman has been general manager of the New York Yankees since 1998. That credential alone virtually ensures Cashman’s enshrinement. By the time his current contract expires in 2028, he will have served as the chief executive of one team longer than anyone in the game’s history who didn’t also own the team.

In 2021 Cashman eclipsed the record of 22 years held by the prototype of Yankee general managers, Hall of Famer Ed Barrow (1921-1943).

Under Cashman, the Yankees have a .587 winning percentage with World Series wins in 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2009, and American League pennants in 2001 and 2003.

It was noted above that Cashman will set the record for consecutive seasons running one team, but that statement comes with a two-word qualifier: Billy Beane. He was also hired in 1998 as GM of the Oakland so either Beane and Cashman will hold the record at the moment the other retires.

Beane’s contribution, of course, is not just his team’s success but his enduring role in changing the way front offices operate. He was the father of the shift from pure scouting to analytics as an evaluative tool, a change motivated by the need to overcome his franchise’s persistent small-market status. Promoted to team president in 2016, Beane’s Athletics have won 11 postseason berths, although that success has not translated to any World Series appearances.

More locks

Theo Epstein won the Boston Red Sox’ first World Series championship since 1918 when he led them to the 2004 title. Then he went to Chicago and in 2016 won the Cubs’ first championship since 1908. Ending droughts of 86 and 108 years virtually guarantees Epstein’s enshrinement, especially when one considers that as an advisor to commissioner Rob Manfred he was also the architect of many of the fundamental rules changes put in place over the last few seasons.

Brian Sabean had extraordinary tenures as general manager of the San Francisco Giants. Taking over in 1997, he led the Giants to three World Series wins (2010, 2012 and 2014), along with the 2002 National League pennant. Among recent GMs, only Cashman (1998, 1999, 2000, 2009) has more.

Sabean did come under criticism in the Mitchell Report on steroid use in baseball for what was identified as his indifference to reports of steroid use on the Giants. It’s possible that could hurt his candidacy. But the numbers are with Sabean: they include a career .534 winning percentage (1,556-1,358).

If nothing else, the candidacy of Dave Dombrowski is enhanced by its length and breadth. Since being named general manager of the Montreal Expos in 1987, Dombrowski has been the chief baseball officer of one-sixth of all the teams in baseball: the Expos (1987-1991), Florida Marlins (1991-2001), Detroit Tigers (2002-2015), Boston Red Sox (2015-2019) and Philadelphia Phillies (2021-present.)

That tenure alone makes Dombrowski a logical candidate for enshrinement. Add to that the championships he won in Florida (1997) and Boston (2018) plus the league pennants his teams captured in Detroit (2006) and Philadelphia (2022) and you have a candidate likely to be enshrined in the near future.

More maybes

Erik Neander is the latest wonder worker in small market Tampa Bay. As general manager since 2017, he has presided over division champions in 2019 and 2020, and a 2020 World Series entry. If the Rays reach postseason play this fall (that seems likely), it will be their fifth straight accomplishment of Neander’s tenure.

When Sandy Alderson stepped down as president of the Mets last year, it ended a 41-season career with five teams. Alderson was GM of the Athletics from 1981 to 1997, moving to San Diego in 2005, to the Mets in 2011, back to Oakland as an aide to Billy Beane in 2019 and back to the Mets as president in 2020. Forty years is its own credential, but Alderson can also point to three straight pennants in Oakland (1988-90), the 1989 World Series win, and the 2015 pennant with the Mets.

If these five entries deserve election, what’s the problem? In most cases it’s simply the backlog of candidates ahead of them; no executive is going in ahead of Cashman and Beane. It’s also true that the Contemporary Baseball Committee (which has charge  of recent front office candidates) did not even consider any on their 2023 ballot. Execs often have to wait their turn behind players.

In a couple of cases tenure may also be an issue. Citing just one, Neander is to this point just seven seasons into his leadership of a team; give him another 12 or 15 and we’ll talk.

And while Colletti laid the foundation for the present Dodger dynasty (players he introduced to L.A. include Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Janssen and Yasiel Puig), he was gone by the time that dynasty really took hold.

Deserving … but

Gerry Hunsicker may be the most successful general manager in the history of the Houston Astros. Taking over following the 1995 season, he presided over operations through 2004, a period that brought divisional titles in 1997, 1998, 1999 and 2001. Hunsicker compiled an 803-665 record, a .547 percentage.

The problem is tenure. Hunsicker only lasted for nine seasons, and the Astros did not reach the World Series until 2005, one season after his departure.

Another problematic Astro exec is Jeff Luhnow. Coming over from the Cardinals to run Houston’s front office prior to the 2012 season, he built the team’s farm system to the point where it produced the heart and soul of the team that since 2017 has dominated the AL West. Luhnow’s Astros won the 2017 World Series, then lost in 2019. They won three straight divisional titles from 2017 through 2019.

The problem, obviously, is Luhnow’s role in the 2020 cheating scandal, for which he was fired by team owner Jim Crane. That black mark is likely to override even his three straight 100-win seasons.

Kevin Towers took over as general manager of the Padres prior to the 1996 season, and booted them to the World Series in his first season. They repeated in 1998, and added NL West titles in 2005 and 2006. Fired after the 2009 season, he signed on to run the Arizona Diamondbacks one year later and immediately won the 2011 NL West title.

The problem for Towers is, first, his firing, and second, the long line of equally qualified candidates ahead of him. It does not help his candidacy that Towers died several years ago; there is a sense that Hall voters prefer their nominees to be alive.

Mostly forgotten

Two relative old-timers also deserve mention, although neither is likely to ever be inducted.

Paul Owens ran the Philadelphia Phillies front office from 1973 to 1983. In the 22 seasons prior to Owens’ arrival, Philadelphians enjoyed just eight winning seasons, the best of which ended in the collapse of 1964.

He inherited a roster that went 59-97 in 1972 and by 1976 built it into a three-time division champion. The Phillies won the 1980 World Series and the 1983 National League pennant, enjoying the best decade in the franchise’s history under Owens’ stewardship.

But the simple reality is that Owens, who died in 2003, has never drawn Hall of Fame consideration and, at this late stage, is probably too far off the radar screen to get the attention his record deserves.

The other old-time candidate is Al Campanis, who ran the Dodgers front office for two decades. The Campanis tenure encompassed the 1974, 1977, 1978, and 1981 National League pennants, that 1981 team winning the World Series.

But his Hall candidacy died during a 1987 televised interview regarding the absence of African-Americans from the game’s executive ranks. Campanis’ fumbling response came across as demeaning, and the resulting outcry got him fired within a short time. Despite his career .546 winning percentage (1,649-1,369), that interview is a shadow on the Campanis record that is not easily forgotten by electors.