MLB front offices load up on GMs

PHOENIX - It's the newest fad in baseball, hiring so many people for various high-ranking front office roles these days that clubs aren't above simply making up titles.

And confusing the daylights out of everyone.

When John Hart was asked what his title was with the Atlanta Braves at the annual general manager meetings, he shrugged his shoulders.

"I really don't know what my title is,'' Hart says.

All Hart knows is that he's not an official general manager, but is at the GM meetings representing the Braves as a GM, because the Braves don't have a GM, and don't plan on hiring one for perhaps a couple of years.

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Hart's official title is president of baseball operations.

The person underneath him, John Coppolella, is the assistant GM, groomed one day to be the GM.

But no one in the organization actually has a GM title for the first time in franchise history.

"It's a little different,'' Hart says. "But there's a lot of things in the game that are different now.''

In Arizona, Dave Stewart was recently hired as the Diamondbacks' new general manager, but the man in charge is actually Tony La Russa, the Hall of Fame manager who was hired to be their inaugural chief baseball officer.

If you really want confusion, check out the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Farhan Zaidi left his job as the Oakland Athletics assistant GM to become the Los Angeles Dodgers' GM, but he may or may not have as much power as Josh Byrnes, who was hired the same day to be the senior vice president of baseball operations.

They're not sure, either, but they do know that they both answer to Andrew Friedman, their new president of baseball operations who earns as much as $10 million, according to one MLB owner, and they all work for club president Stan Kasten.

Got that?

"I wouldn't say it's a complicated situation over there,'' Stewart says, "but if I'm calling over there and talking to the Dodgers, I'm not sure who I'm supposed to be talking to. There's a bit of a gray area. They've got a whole lot of people over there, with a lot of layers.''

The Dodgers may have to remodel their stadium and add another deck just to create enough office space for all of their new hires, but they insist it will work.

If they need any moral support, all they've got to do is turn to the Miami Marlins, who perhaps created the confusion seven years ago when Larry Beinfest became their president of baseball operations, and Mike Hill was the GM.

Now, Hill is the president of baseball operations, and Dan Jennings is the GM.

And they both are considered equals in the front office.

"Really, we're like a baseball married couple,'' Jennings says.

No wonder they were the only tandem that walked into the GM meetings reception together to meet with reporters, with Jennings answering questions mostly about his team, while Hill spent most of his time discussing the Giancarlo Stanton negotiations.

Yet, while they each are cautiously optimistic they can sign Stanton to a long-term contract extension and avoid arbitration, they share responsibility in signing their superstar slugger. There is no point man in the negotiations.

They each are on the conference calls together, and when it's time to talk face-to-face with Stanton, they'll do that together, too.

It's the same with all of the office tasks, they say. When they need to talk to teams or player agents, they equally split up the list, and whoever has the better relationship will be making the call.

"It's not your traditional role,'' said Hill, a Harvard graduate, "but just sharing ideas and thoughts. It makes perfect sense for us because we can complement one another. D.J. has as much contact with the owner as I do. The same with the team president.

"If someone is calling him, it's like they're calling me. And vice-versa. There's nothing he would tell them that I wouldn't. Every team's dynamic is different, but for us, it's never about ego. Communication is what is paramount.''

Besides, since their offices are next to each other, separated by a thin wall, they don't even have to leave their desk to speak.

"We'll just scream though the wall,'' Hill said. "Occasionally, he'll scream a Roll Tide, and I'll hear that, too.''

The Detroit Tigers have made it quite clear that there is only one person in charge. He's David Dombrowski. He not only is president of baseball operations, but general manager too.

"When I became president and GM,'' Dombrowski says, "what ends up happening is that you're building your supporting case to your position. Some of it is just title differences.

"But I guess what's happening in the industry doesn't surprise me because there are more responsibilities than ever. It's a way of bringing two people aboard that are really good.

"But for us, it works.''

The key in these two-pronged titles, baseball executives said Tuesday, is that you better have a harmonious relationship. While it may be impossible for the Dodgers and their cast of six former and current GMs to all get along and agree, it's essential for the smaller operations.

Theo Epstein, the Chicago Cubs' president of baseball operations, really couldn't give himself the title of GM. He wanted Jed Hoyer to join his staff. And since Hoyer was already GM of the San Diego Padres, Hoyer certainly couldn't bolt to become an assistant GM, so he was named GM, even though Epstein continues to do a bulk of the GM duties.

"It works for the two of us because we know each other so well from working together in Boston,'' Hoyer says. "We felt we had a really big undertaking ahead of us, so we were able to split responsibilities.

"But if we didn't have a close relationship, it would be really difficult.''

Ask them individually about baseball decisions - be it raiding the farm system to bring in an ace like Cole Hamels, and it sounds like an echo chamber.

"We spent three years building up our farm system and did a lot of painful trades,'' Hoyer said, "so the idea that we would rapidly deplete it to go for it is pretty unlikely.''

Hart, the former architect of the Cleveland Indians and Texas Rangers, whose understudies are littered throughout the baseball landscape, can only laugh.

He was doing the same thing a couple of decades earlier in Cleveland, he says, hiring an array of bright minds in the Indians' front office. It's the reason why his assistants like Mark Shapiro, Josh Byrnes, Dan O'Dowd, Chris Antonetti and Paul DePodesta all become general managers.

"In Cleveland, I was the first guy to bring this young think tank in there,'' Hart said. "What we wanted to do was to get ahead of the curve as far as an analytical standpoint, and to sort of separate scouting and player development.

"I was the GM. I had an assistant. And we always had a 3-hole guy that was waiting in the wings that got picked up by other clubs.''

The only difference between the Indians and the Dodgers, Hart says, is the experience, and a whole lot of money.

Hart and his entire staff were earning a combined $500,000.

Oh, how times have changed.

"It's more complex now,'' Hart says. "A little unwieldy, too.''

Tell us about it.