August 28, 2015

Jack Sacked

The Mariners fired general manager Jack Zduriencik.

Team president Kevin Mather announced the decision to fire Zduriencik, with assistant general manager Jeff Kingston taking over on an interim basis. Kingston joined the Mariners’ front office in 2009 after spending seven years as the director of baseball operations with San Diego.

“We have reached the point when change of leadership of our baseball operations is needed for the Seattle Mariners to reach our goal of winning championships,” Mather said in a statement. “We are very disappointed with the results this season, and are not satisfied with the current operation. The search for a permanent general manager will begin immediately, and while there is no deadline, we expect to have a new GM in place as soon as practical.”

I guess Mather no longer had a cotton for Jack. U.S.S. Mariner remembers the hope when Zduriencik took over:

December 18, 2009 at roughly 10:40am Pacific. The rumor that the M’s had swapped Carlos Silva for Milton Bradley of the Cubs had just been confirmed, and there were unconfirmed stories and quotes from unnamed sources floating around on the still-new platform of Twitter. One of those rumors, one that no one could actually source, was that the deal was a straight swap – despite somewhat unequal contracts and even more unequal 2008 stats, Zduriencik possibly rid himself of the entirety of Silva’s contract. Jon Heyman harshed our buzz and said the M’s were sending $6m to the Cubs, but that wasn’t until 10:45. About 48 hours before, Zduriencik pried Cliff Lee away from Philadelphia for a package headlined by Phillippe Aumont and JC Ramirez. He turned the M’s worst starter into a Cy Young favorite at a cost of a couple of decent prospects AND somehow come out with a league-average bat with the potential for a lot more. It still sounds impossible, even when you know exactly how bad everything went on and off the field. At 10:40am on 12/18/2009, I, and I suspect many other M’s fans, thought the only real worry the M’s had about their GM is that he might ascend to another plane of existence, or force MLB to make rule changes to restore competitive balance (“Jack, you’re not allowed to look directly into other GMs eyes anymore, because wheeeeennnn ok, MLB will allow the Mariners to begin each game with a 2 run lead.”).

It seems that Zduriencik simply could not manage people.

A leader can be vital in creating and nurturing a culture that works for player development or pro scouting, but it takes an entire organization to make it work. As fans, we thought at one point that Zduriencik was a kind of cheat code – his blend of scouting acumen and willingness to listen to newfangled metrics would blend the best of old school and new and make the Cardinals look like the St. Louis Browns in short order. Instead, what we saw was a front office that seemed to be at war with itself. Instead of creating a culture, the GM created a growing list of enemies. Nearly every group – from Pro Scouting to Player Development was overhauled, and nothing much seemed to change.

Interestingly, one of the candidates to replace Jack is Ben Cherington:

Ben Cherington – His odd tenure with the Red Sox came to a conclusion 10 days ago. He was at the helm for a World Series in 2013, though. Maybe the Mariners try to sell that to their fans? He’s only 41 and this would be a fresh start in his second go-round as GM.

As an aside, the picture of Cherington at that page reminds me of Simon Oakland.

The main difference between Cherington and Zduriencik is that Cherington had one good season. As time goes on, 2013 is looking more and more like a fluke. I’m not sure Ben is the answer.

1 thought on “Jack Sacked

  1. pft

    I think Ben was not truly independent in Boston. The owners meddle there, and Larry had a big say.

    2013 was a lucky year. But if you look at this team going forward, they have a nice base with Bradley, Betts, Boegarts, Castillo, Moncada (maybe 2017), Swihart, Vazquez, Owens, E-Rod. Also, Porcello is bound to bounce back

    Now if Ben was not forced to sign Hanley and Pablo and not prevented from signing a good FA pitcher, he probably should not be hired, but likely this was the owners reactionary desire following a last place finish that was due primarily to regression and teething issues with their younger core, and their irrational fear of long term commitments which are required to get the best FA pitchers.

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