Our friend Sean recently wrote about the decision making of Indians general manager Mark Shapiro. Sean wrote:
“How many ridiculous contracts and millions of Dolan dollars has Mark Shapiro wasted on mediocre players since he replaced John Hart?… What is his success rate when signing free agents or extending contracts? Maybe the owners need to take a very close look at how their finances have been spent this past decade.”
Well Sean, that’s a question I get asked a lot, believe it or not. Honestly, I always feel stuck in the middle when trying to answer it.
Understand that I grew up in Cleveland and have always been a Tribe fan, so there’s plenty in me that wants to like management and trust their decisions. I have covered a lot of different sports, but baseball and the Indians have always been my heart.
Yet, I also have this curse of being a jaded sportswriter the last 15 years. So I really do try to balance the two as much as possible.
When it comes to Shapiro, I personally admire him for his honest communication with the media and willingness to listen to the fans. I firmly believe his heart is in the right place.
But his best work – up until last season – had come in trading proven talent that had gotten too pricey for Cleveland, i.e. Bartolo Colon years back.
Landing proven talent hasn’t been Shapiro’s strong suit, and I don’t really need to go any further than David Dellucci, do I? But I often wonder how much of what Shapiro can and can’t do rests on the Dolan’s willingness to open the family’s pocket book.
That’s why the Indians so often have to take chances on getting only the “name” players coming off injuries or bad seasons. As fans, we’re always told the problem is that Cleveland is a mid-market team. But is that the lone reason?
If Cleveland is such a mid-market, then how to explain the stunning sucess Cav’s owner Dan Gilbert has had just across the street from Progressive Field at Quicken Loans Arena?
Doesn’t that prove that winning in Cleveland will bring out the sports fans and their hard-earned cash?
That being said, last season I was FURIOUS with Shapiro’s deals for Cliff Lee and especially Victor Martinez at the deadline. Sure Lee was headed the route of C.C. Sabathia and planning to jump ship once he became a free agent.
And yes, the front office would have a big decision to make in bringing back their All-Star catcher Martinez after this season.
But neither of those trades needed to be made at that time for any other reason than saving the Dolans cash. Those trades – and for the very same return – could have been made at this year’s trading deadline. If nothing else, it would have given the team a chance to try and compete early in 2010.
But once Dolan took a look at his finaces, he needed Shapiro to dump salary – NOW. Should Shapiro have put up a fight? Should he have put his job on the line for his players?
Maybe. Still, the Indians were deadling from a point of strength with Lee and Martinez. They would at least get sufficient return, especially for Lee, with Shapiro’s background for these kind of deals, right?
Not this time. I’m all about building from within and having a strong farm system, as I’ve covered the minor leagues for years. And while selling big “name” players has been Shapiro’s formula for restocking the system, in this case, he got burned by the Phillies in settling too quickly for grade “B” prospects.
That doesn’t make him a bad GM, it makes him human. No GM gets it right all the time. Shapiro has made good trades as well as bad, as I’ve pointed out.
In fact, Sean, I personally am more concerned about the Dolan’s ability to finance a winning franchise than whether or not Shapiro can run it.
For, how do we really know who Shapiro is capable of bringing in – such as Orlando Hudson a few weeks ago – if he’s not the one with the final decision?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
You make some arguable points, but Shapiro’s poor decision-making goes back to his first two years, when the team had two of the highest payrolls in history. The Dolans quickly saw that throwing good money after bad was producing nothing; while the Marlins were winning with stripped-down rosters. Just how long do we expect our owners to sink deeper in debt while the team loses and fans abandon the Jake/Pro?
Even when dealing from strength, the C.C. and Lee trades, at this point, appear to be debacles. Brandon Phillips? Jason Michaels / Dellucci? Jason Johnson? It’s been a horrible string of losing quality, and receiving junk.
Meanwhile, are our own prospects being developed? Or do we even HAVE legit prospects? It’s a quagmire. I’ll give Mark kudos for the Colon deal, but can’t even think of another one with a passing grade.
Sean, how about Eduardo Perez for Cabrera? He fleeced the Mariners on that one. Stephanie’s got it right, in this case the fault lies with the Dolans. They’re weak and the whole “Competing for a playoff spot every 5 years and a WS every 10 is about what this market can bear” is still the worst thing they could have come forward to say. Shapiro is not the greatest GM and he’s not the worst. As for the farm system, let’s remember that the killer run on the 90s was nearly all generated with our own homegrown handpicked talent. Right now the system seems to be plagued with injuries to those who would have been promising up and comers. John Farrel did a tremendous job with the minor league guys, his departure had a great effect IMO on how things have gone for bringing up finished players. Hopefully some of the new appointees can right the ship a bit.
The inability to “right the ship” with Fausto Carmona and Fernando Cabrera was/is troubling.
Bringing a .200-hitting utility infielder to Cleveland in Sept. instead of the AAA batting champion was troubling.
Signing Kerry Wood to a mega deal after one fair year in the pen….troubling.
Going halfway ’round the world for aging gopher-baller Kobayashi…troubling.
No, I’m not ready to blame this mess on the owners. There have been PLENTY of idiotic decisions made by our “Executive of the Year” geniuses in the front office.
There is more than one way to waste money. I’d rather they waste it on one guy like Sabathia Cliff Lee than on three or four like Michaels and Delucci, which has been what they’ve done in recent years. I’m hoping that changes with Wedge gone.