Ranking all 30 MLB teams’ front offices from worst to first

Braves general manager Alex Anthopoulos (Photo by Adam Hagy/Getty Images)

4. Blue Jays

General Manager: Ross Atkins

The Blue Jays are in a tough position each and every year as they play in one of the hardest divisions in baseball against some of the biggest spenders historically in the Yankees and Red Sox, and probably the most efficient front office in the Rays (more on them in a bit). However, despite that, Toronto has remained competitive thanks to a strong player development department that helped assemble one of the best young cores in baseball, and savvy signings and trades for guys like Kevin Gausman, Robbie Ray, Matt Chapman, and George Springer.

The Blue Jays just do a lot of things right, but there have been some misses. The Hyun-Jin Ryu contract is looking like a sunk cost and Jose Berrios has been meh and certainly not worth the $131 million the Blue Jays invested in him so far. Toronto’s farm system is also not in the best of places at the moment after a series of trades and promotions depleted their ranks. As a result, it will be interesting to see if Toronto ends up having the financial and prospect resources necessary to maintain the run that they are on going forward, but we like their overall approach.

3. Rays

General Manager: Peter Bendix 

The Rays are a unicorn in the game of baseball. Their revenues and payroll are near the bottom every single season. Some of that is because of an owner with a tight grip on their wallet and some of that is because we have yet to see a team in the state of Florida supported by fans there. However, despite all of the headwinds, the team is good nearly every single season thanks to really, really strong work at acquiring amateur players and developing the crap out of them.

Every season, the Rays have an exciting young team and an endless supply of top-end prospects waiting to fill the ranks when needed. The front office knows which of their prospects they can afford to lose in trades and REALLY know the diamonds in the rough in other teams’ farm systems that they want to acquire. On getting the best bang for their buck, the Rays are a clear No. 1, but their inability/unwillingness to spend to keep players long-term and make free agent signings keeps them out of the top two despite the respect we have for what they had done with very limited resources.

2. Dodgers

General Manager: Brandon Gomes

When the Dodgers managed to snag Andrew Friedman away from the Rays, they got one of the finest minds in any baseball front office and it has paid dividends for them. The Dodgers have long had loads of money to play with, but did not always spend it wisely before Friedman arrived. Since he took over as their chief baseball executive, he turned the Dodgers into a perennial powerhouse that are almost always among the World Series favorites each and every year.

Not only has the team drafted well and remained active in the international market, but Friedman has also been responsible for bringing Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Trea Turner, and Manny Machado among others during his tenure. The Dodgers are also rarely beaten in a trade with the move that sent Yordan Alvarez to Houston being a notable exception. Being quiet this past offseason did not help their case, but if it sets them up to be extra active this coming offseason especially with Shohei Ohtani presumably hitting the free agent market, then they will stay at or near the top of the rankings.

1. Braves

General Manager: Alex Anthopoulos

What is else is there to say about the Atlanta Braves under Alex Anthopoulos? All this front office does is make tough decisions and end up on the other side of them better for it. This is the most exciting young team in all of baseball and AA has been very aggressive in locking up a big portion of the roster on mostly team-friendly, long-term deals that have the Braves poised to be really good for a long time with guys like Ronald Acuña Jr., Austin Riley, Spencer Strider, and Michael Harris II in the fold.

One fair criticism of Anthopoulos was that he hadn’t been aggressive on the trade market with the cache of prospects at his disposal. Those criticisms were quashed in the trades that brought Matt Olson and Sean Murphy to the Braves and both of those players are set to be key pieces for Atlanta for a long time. Losing Freddie Freeman and Dansby Swanson to free agency was tough and time will tell if the Braves were right to stick to their guns on their prices for both of those guys. Max Fried’s upcoming free agency will be a big test as well given the uncertain state of the Braves’ future rotation, but our guess is that the Braves will end up just fine either way.