GM Candidates

It would be easy, and even lazy to put together a post with names most of you have never heard about and talk about why they may be a candidate to replace Jim Hendry. I seem to remember MLBTR even having a list and Baseball America used to put together similar lists. I’m sure many others have. So there’d be no new information other than regurgitating what others had come up with. I don’t think there’s any real point in coming up with a list of candidates. The reason is quite simple: the Cubs can basically hire whoever they want. 

Let’s start with the most talked about candidate, Andrew Friedman of the Rays. I’ve read today that people think he may not want to leave Tampa Bay and while that may in fact be true, I don’t think anyone saying that had any information one way or another. Here’s what we do know.

• The Cubs can pay Friedman more than the Rays can
• General Managers like to have money to spend on players and the Cubs have significantly more of it
• Friedman’s contract with the Rays expires after the season

It’s possible Friedman is just happy to sit back and enjoy life in Florida. However, it’s more likely he’d prefer a job that could give him more money and spend more money on players. 

Let’s also understand one thing: whoever is the GM of the Cubs when they win the World Series is going to be considered, at least for a brief time, the greatest general manager in sports. The Rays could win a World Series and in 30 years nobody is going to remember who their GM was except a small contigency of Rays fans. If the Cubs win the World Series most people are going to know who the GM and manager were. Considering the egos these guys have, it only makes sense that almost any GM would jump at the chance to be that guy who is forever remembered as the GM to lead the Cubs to a World Series after more than 100 years of failure. We’ve heard managers talk about how great that job would be for that very reason. The Cubs candidates for GM includes every current GM.

The Yankees are without doubt a far more popular franchise than the Cubs. The Reds Sox, too. After them you have a trio of teams in the Cubs, Dodgers and Cardinals who are more popular than the others. Not even the Red Sox owners seems to know how long Theo is signed, but from what I could find on my google machine, it appears he signed a 3-year extension after the 2008 season, which would mean his contract is up after this season. It’s the last I could find of an extension, but perhaps another one was given and we just didn’t hear about it. 

Regardles of that, if the Cubs wanted to hire Theo and he was interested in the job, they’d work something out. The same goes for Brian Cashman, but I don’t know why the Cubs would have interest in him to be honest. If we’re making a list of candidates, it begins with all the current GMs in the game. 

Other than writing a bunch of names down, I see no reason to compile a list. They can get whoever they want. They have the money, they are a franchise that any GM would love to be the one who wins a World Series with, and GMs are just egotistical enough to think they can be the one to do it. They’re always looking for a challenge and certainly, taking over the Cubs would be just that. It is, however, an organization that any GM could turn around quickly enough.