Dave Dombrowski’s dismissal this week as president, CEO and general manager of the Detroit Tigers began what could be an offseason of substantial turnover at the top levels of MLB front offices.
Dombrowski, 59, told me Wednesday that he wants to continue working in baseball and already has had conversations about possible jobs. He wouldn’t specify which clubs had contacted him, but here’s a menu of potential options for Dombrowski, former Angels GM Jerry Dipoto and others in the game.
Two significant positions — Blue Jays president and Angels GM — have been open for weeks (or months, as with Toronto).
Mariners: There will be little surprise in the industry if Seattle is the next site of a front-office shakeup.
Jack Zduriencik was named general manager of the Mariners after the 2008 season; since then, Seattle has the fourth-worst record in baseball. Among teams with the nine worst records in MLB during that span, the Mariners are the only one that hasn’t changed their general manager.
Zduriencik’s contract runs through the 2016 season, a source confirmed to FOX Sports, but Mariners ownership has made no public statements guaranteeing he will return next year. After narrowly missing the postseason in 2014, the Mariners entered Thursday with a disappointing 50-59 record.
Reds: Cincinnati’s winning percentage has declined for a third straight year — from .599 and a division title in ’12, to .556 and a wild-card berth in ’13, to .469 last year and .457 now.
Reds general manager Walt Jocketty has a contract through next year, but team ownership remains silent on the subject of his future.
I reached out to Rob Butcher, the team’s director of media relations, to ask whether owner Bob Castellini has arrived at a decision on whether Jocketty will return as GM in 2016. Butcher declined to forward my request to Castellini.
Thus, we wait.
Brewers: In April, Tom Haudricourt wrote in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that an extension for GM Doug Melvin was a question of “when” and not “if.” Undoubtedly, the report was an accurate portrayal of the Brewers’ plans at the time.
But four months and one managerial firing later, “when” has not arrived . . . inviting plenty of speculation about whether owner Mark Attanasio’s thinking has changed.
The Brewers are last in the National League Central, and neither Attanasio nor Melvin has offered clarity on how the team’s hierarchy will look on Opening Day 2016.
This week, I asked the Brewers whether Attanasio has determined that he wants Melvin to return to the organization in 2016 and whether Melvin is being considered for the role of club president. (Presently, no one on the Brewers’ masthead has that title.) A club spokesperson said there is “nothing to report” on either topic.
Red Sox: Larry Lucchino will leave his dual role as Red Sox president and CEO by the end of this year. Sam Kennedy — the team’s chief operating officer — will replace Lucchino as president, but the next CEO could come from outside the organization.
As the Boston Herald has reported, the fact Kennedy has one title instead of two means he won’t inherit Lucchino’s baseball operations oversight. Thus, the new CEO will become the organization’s top baseball official — above general manager Ben Cherington.
Red Sox owner John Henry and chairman Tom Werner will evaluate CEO candidates during the coming weeks; presumably, the CEO will have a baseball background and ultimately decide whether Cherington will continue as GM.
Tigers: A few final notes on Dombrowski’s former team . . .
Already, there’s speculation in Detroit as to which Tigers front-office personnel will remain with new GM Al Avila and who will leave to join Dombrowski at his next post.
It’s worth noting that when Avila was named scouting director of the Florida Marlins in 1998, one of his first moves was to promote David Chadd to the position of Midwest crosschecker. Chadd, now the Tigers’ vice president of amateur scouting, was with Avila at Comerica Park for Thursday’s game against the Kansas City Royals.
Avila had worked with Dombrowski for more than two decades, so it’s hard to imagine a dramatic philosophical shift in the Tigers’ baseball operations. But Avila is said to place a greater emphasis on analytics than Dombrowski, so it won’t be a surprise if Samuel Menzin — the team’s baseball operations analyst — assumes greater responsibilities.
Finally, the Tigers will have a new representative at MLB’s upcoming quarterly owners’ meetings. Dombrowski typically held that role in recent years, because of his triple title (president/CEO/GM) and the fact that travel can be difficult for 86-year-old owner Mike Ilitch. Next week, though, Ilitch and/or his son Christopher will be in attendance.
