MLB is "conducting a full-scale review" of its HQ and Advanced Media operations with the aid of management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., a study "likely to produce major changes to the league structure and personnel," according to Eric Fisher of SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. The review, initiated in August, now "dovetails directly" into MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred's task to "determine how the sport's commercial business will be run" without MLB President of Business & Media Bob Bowman, who will step down at year's end. Manfred said that the McKinsey work was "prompted in large part by the deal last summer" with Disney to buy a majority stake in BAMTech. Manfred: "After the second Disney transaction (with BAMTech), I felt it was appropriate as a large organization to take a comprehensive look at the entire operation, who stayed, who left, and what the entire organization should look like going forward, and make the necessary adjustments" (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 11/13 issue).
ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? THE ATHLETIC's Ken Rosenthal wrote most MLB managers today are "considerably less powerful than they were 20 and even 10 years ago." Clubs view them primarily as "middle-management functionaries, deploying statistical information prepared by the front office and providing intangible benefits when they communicate well with players and push them to better performance." The 21st-century manager has "little say in a team's overall direction." Rosenthal: "The less experience he brings, the easier he is to control, and the more inexpensive he will be" (THEATHLETIC.com, 11/10).
