Ranking all 30 MLB teams’ front offices from worst to first
By Eric Cole
20. Red Sox
General Manager: Brian O’Halloran
O’Halloran has the GM title, but this is Chaim Bloom’s team and he was very clearly on the hot seat coming into the season. On the plus side for Bloom and co., the team very nearly made the World Series in 2021 and have a winning record so far this season. The Kenley Jansen signing has worked out quite well and adding Masataka Yoshida has shored up the outfield with real production for the foreseeable future.
The downsides are real, though, as the departures of both Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts did not go well and his draft classes have been decidedly not deep whatsoever. Extending Rafael Devers helps Boston’s cause, but there are still too many holes on the roster and too much uncertainty to rank them any higher.
19. Astros
General Manager: Dana Brown
This is betting a bit on projection here as the Astros’ front office situation was a mess beforehand thanks to the meddling of owner Jim Crane leading the team to losing a good general manager in James Click. However, hiring Dana Brown, one of the best GM candidates on the market, was a strong move and should pay dividends in the future as Brown’s drafts when he was with the Braves always yielded talent even beyond their day one picks.
How Brown fills out his front office over the next year or so as he settles into the job and whether or not he can pull off extensions to key players like Kyle Tucker and Framber Valdez (or at least replace them with comparable talents) will matter a great deal. Unfortunately, it will be hard to rank much higher than this as long as Crane is the owner and he continues to insert himself in decisions.
18. Brewers
General Manager: Matt Arnold
Arnold has not been on the job for long as David Stearns was in charge before he stepped down after the 2022 season (the stated reason was he needed a break, but a lot of folks think he wants to move on to another organization in the near future). However, he somehow managed to insert the Brewers into the deal that snagged Milwaukee William Contreras in the deal, sent Sean Murphy to the Braves and netted the Athletics…well, not much.
Arnold is expected to trim payroll and keep the team competitive which is easier said than done, but they do at least have a strong farm system to help the cause and they are currently at the top of the NL Central (as of 5/17 anyways). However, the team’s relationship with Corbin Burnes was hurt with how things were handled during his arbitration, so it is worth monitoring how the front office handles things going forward.
17. Nationals
General Manager: Mike Rizzo
Mike Rizzo and the rest of the Nationals’ front office is an example of one that can do a lot of good work when contending and given basically limitless resources, but as soon as guys get older and things start waning, the decision-making becomes a lot more suspect. There are also the deals given to Patrick Corbin and Stephen Strasburg that have basically ruined Washington’s payroll in the near-term.
That said, the Nationals’ farm system does have a lot of talent especially on the position player side, so all is not lost. However, the Nationals’ rebuild still looks like it is going to take a while and with the team very likely to be sold in the near future, things could change in a hurry in DC for better or worse.