The D-backs yesterday "cleaned house" after a fourth place finish in the NL West, firing Senior VP & GM Dave Stewart, manager Chip Hale and "seemingly doing the same" with Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa, according to Nick Piecoro of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC. La Russa could "remain with the organization but will not wield the clout he had in recent years." The moves are the latest for an organization that "recently has had a sort of revolving door in leadership positions, cycling through three front-office regimes and three managers in the past six years." The moves bring an end to a regime that for the past two-plus years was "viewed with curiosity by the rest of baseball." While most teams are "moving more toward analytics," the D-backs "planted their flag as an old-school group." La Russa "had never worked in a front office before" being hired in May '14. Four months later, the club hired Stewart, who "hadn’t worked as an executive for 13 years." D-backs Managing General Partner Ken Kendrick and club President & CEO Derrick Hall "did say the organization will seek more experienced candidates." Hall "intimated that the organization will seek to make one hire -- a GM -- rather than finding a new chief baseball officer." Whoever they hire, Hall said that the goal "remains to find someone who will be with the club 'a very long time.'" As for La Russa, it "sounds as if he is in a similar position" as former GM Kevin Towers, in that the team "would like him back only in a different capacity" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 10/4).
STARTING TO ADOPT ANALYTICS: Hall yesterday said that the new GM will "likely have more of an analytical bent while still striking a balance" with some old-school mindsets (MLB.com, 10/3). ESPN's Keith Law said the D-backs "need to actually establish an analytics presence." Law: "You don’t have to be a numbers-driven franchise, but you have to find a department of people who can do this stuff like every other organization." ESPN’s Tim Kurkjian said the D-backs when they brought on Stewart and La Russa "said, ‘We're going to build this team the old-fashioned way, we’re going to have baseball people run it,’ which I'm all for." However, teams currently need to have a "young general manager in there who understands how the game works." Kurkjian: "You can still have a former player right there to go tell that guy whether that guy over there can play or not." But every MLB team is "going with an analytics department." ESPN's Karl Ravech said, "This is like the anti-establishment organization. 'We have no input sabermetrically, no statistical analysis.' That doesn’t exist. I can't believe it doesn't exist” (“Baseball Tonight,” ESPN2, 10/4).
GONE TOO SOON? The ARIZONA REPUBLIC's Piecoro notes Stewart yesterday would not "say anything critical of his former bosses, but he clearly did not believe he received enough time." Stewart, who had previously been a player agent, said, “If I had known this was just going to be a two-year stint I would not have left the business I was doing. It was a good business and I worked for myself." He said that he "might return to being an agent, but he ... also has received messages from GMs with other clubs about possible opportunities." But Stewart said that he "believes he’s leaving the [D-backs] in far better shape than how it’s perceived" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 10/4). MLB Network’s Jay Jaffe said two-and-a-half years is "really not enough time to execute a full turnaround." He said, "Most baseball executives in that position would have at least a little bit longer leash to turn things around." However, the D-backs have "always been trigger happy in that regard" ("MLB Now," MLB Network, 10/3).
LOOK IN THE MIRROR: In Phoenix, Paola Boivin writes, "This season’s disaster is on management." As a single hire, Stewart, Hale or La Russa "would have been fine." But the "combination of the three when there’s so much at stake?" Boivin: "Not a great decision. It lacks an environment of checks and balances, of accountability" (ARIZONA REPUBLIC, 10/4). ESPN's Law said, "This is a badly run team that has made fundamental mistakes -- rules mistakes, misspending their money in the draft, internationally, misevaluating their own players, misevaluating prospects in other organizations" ("Baseball Tonight," ESPN2, 10/3). ESPN.com's David Schoenfield noted while it is "imperative" Kendrick and Hall hire a "new front-office regime that utilizes all the new tools available in this day and age, the real failures of this front office was its poor judgment in talent" (ESPN.com, 10/3).
