The Diamondbacks appear to have compiled at least a preliminary list of potential general manager candidates to take over for the departing Dave Stewart, according to Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe (Twitter link). In addition to a quartet of men with ties to the organization, MLB senior VP Kim Ng is under consideration, per the report.
Ng has long been discussed as a front office target for organizations, and has interviewed for top baseball ops positions on several occasions. A former assistant GM with the Dodgers, Ng would become the game’s first-ever female general manager if she is hired for this or another open job.
Additionally, Arizona is looking at current AGM Bryan Minniti and farm director Mike Bell — as has previously been reported. Minniti just completed his second season in that role for the D-Backs after previously serving in a similar capacity with the Nationals. Bell has held his post with Arizona for six seasons.
Former D-Backs’ scouting guru and current Brewers vice president of scouting Ray Montgomery is also under consideration, as is former Arizona AGM Peter Woodfork, who currently works with Ng in the league office. Montgomery went to Milwaukee before the team brought in David Stearns as its GM, a post for which he was also considered. And Woodfork, who has also spent time with the Red Sox, was a part of the Diamondbacks for five years before returning to MLB in March of 2011. MLBTR highlighted his GM candidacy back in 2011.
It is not immediately apparent how complete this list of candidates is, and certainly it wouldn’t be surprising to see it grow. After all, the team only parted ways with Stewart on Monday.
*First ever female GM
No, I think she’d be baseball’s first ever GM, male or female.
She might be the DBacks first GM in a long time
great thread
First ever general womanager*
Joke
How do you pronounce Ng?
I’ve always wondered that.
It’s pronounced Jones
This made me LOL.
Depends on what region their family is from. But most people I have met it is pronounced like “win”.
I always heard it like -ing
Yep, I was mistaken, I was thinking of Nguyen
That is more of a n-when
It’s ing and will definitely not win
You crack me up!!!
FYI here is a video on how to pronounce it and I think it is correct. youtube.com/watch?v=qhTSFdjVf14
I’ve long wondered how to pronounce “Ng.” Can anyone help?
lmgtfy.com/?q=how+to+pronounce+%22ng%22
Ng I’ve always heard pronounced like the suffix -ing.
Ng would become the game’s first-ever general manager? There have been plenty of general managers up to this point.
I think Jeff is making a commentary on all GM’s. Like there have been a bunch of “general managers” in title, but Ng would be the first one to actually “general manage.”
I propose a trade: The Diamondbacks Chief Baseball Officer Tony La Russa to the White Sox for their highest ranking baseball official, Executive Vice President Kenny Williams.
It seems to me, both would benefit from a change of scenery with La Russa returning to the city in which he began his managerial career. He and White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf have remained good friends throughout and La Russa would pretty much be guaranteed a job for life as a White Sox front office executive.
That puts both organizations in almost the exact same situation.
Ng is an excellent candidate for the job that her lesser onetime Dodger co-worker DeJon Watson recently held, namely a senior administrator and strong operations professional to pair with an up-and-coming AGM or Director-level star becoming a full-fledged GM for the first time.
While disastrous in its execution, I believe the theory behind the Watson-Stewart pairing was sound and that Ng could kill it in a role that would combine what had been La Russa’s and Watson’s responsibilities with a strong direct report in the GM seat.
Wrong, she is a token side show. Of all these names, not one of them is truly qualified for the position, there are plenty to choose from, sounds like they will settle
Not what I’ve heard directly from Dodgers FO people who worked with and for her here, but we’re all entitled our own opinions and however we each decide to form them.
The people you heard from directly are the same ones she took with her to MLB, Branch out a little, maybe increase your sample base to 3 or 4
What’s yours, 0?
How is she a side show? I can’t wait to hear this one.
The same as Hilary, who cares what their gender, sexual preference, or race are. The only thing that matters is her abilities/qualifications which are few and that’s why people refer back to her gender. You can stop waiting!
You’re an idiot. She’s plenty qualified. Way to mask your sexism with a “who cares about her gender” comment.
And you know if she is qualified, mask that!
what about her makes her unqualified for the job? she has a fairly long history of working on the executive side of baseball in various positions and is well respected by just about every baseball insider you can name
There are a few male GM/president i can think of who have proven themselves less qualified for at the very least an interview
this might shock you, but girls can understand baseball as well as men these days
I would agree with the few male GM statement, but as far as girl GM understanding baseball it has nothing to do with gender, but more to do with lack of playing experience. Believe me, she has been mediocre at best, but does have history. She has been carried by Joe Torre and vice versa.
If you think you need playing experience to be a successful GM, then Hoyer and Epstein are the worst ever.
This is by far the dumbest excuse to not give a person a chance to a GM position
your head would probably explode if i told you most front office personnel these days don’t have any playing experience… the most successful ones have a back round in computer science and just been lifelong fans of the game,
Tony La Russa and Dave Stewart were former players… look and how invaluable THAT experience was.
and as for you ‘carried by Joe Torre’ statement… do you even know what she DOES for MLB?
it’s the 21st century, dude, you can leave the cave now
Welp that’s probably the most ignorant uneducated thing I’ve heard you say, but hey we’ll stay off your lawn. You don’t have to play to be a GM, but you just have to surround yourself with the right people. You also do have to have a basic understanding of basic rules maybe like international signing rules (cough cough LaRussa and Stewart.)
This isn’t a money ball Hollywood made position where GMs go rouge. In fact the ones that really make the crucial decisions are advanced scouts and your area/cross checking scouts. So if you think GMs need to have played well your dead wrong.
GMs gather team needs. Discuss with advanced scouts on who fits, cross checkers scout teams farms. So in a simplistic reality GMs are responsible for signing FAs recommended by advanced scouts and making trades by consulting with yes you guess it advance/area scouts. So she’s held lead on one major front with handling FA signings and resigning players. And she’s unqualified how? Because she’s a “token” women? Usually the first to do something is usually a “token” because it’s never been done before. In her capacity as a an assistant GM she’s probably also been in on trade talks.
But hey thank goodness baseball doesn’t follow attitudes like this. I mean if they did I guess we never would have seen the Robinsons of the world or the Latin American players………..Actually scratch that it’d be easier to say you’d only see white baseball players. Because those darn tokens. Thank god society advances!
Yeah, all that playing experience Dave Stewart had made him a great GM, right? Here’s the best GMs in baseball: Billy Beane (no longer a GM, but still…), Jon Daniels, Ben Cherington, Jed Hoyer/Theo Epstein, Brian Cashman, Bobby Evans, the Dodgers braintrust, Luhnow….how much playing experience did they have, collectively? Basically none. Beane was a minor leaguer. The rest, zilch.
While you might like to believe that the GM role is one carried by ex-players, that’s not the case in the game anymore at all. It’s an administrative role, and the skills for the job have nothing to do with being able to throw or hit, but everything to do with analyzing data, hiring the right people, understandin information and using good processes to effect outcomes. By most accounts Ng is quite good at all of these things; this is why MLB hired her.
Yes, because playing experience helped Dave Stewart so much with the job. I really hope you don’t have any daughters…
The comment had to do with Understanding the game not with being successful. The names you listed just happen to be strong in the analytical field, leadership/team building roles. List her skills? Scouting? Plyr Development? Analytics? Leadership? Next!
That was his skill, sure didn’t help him do his job better, read the threads meat! Didn’t say it was the only criteria. 3 daughters by the way, all capable of standing on their own two feet
how’s about 25+ years of actually working at all levels of baseball management? Starting as an intern right out of college the same way people like Theo Epstein did.
She’s worked for over half a dozen different organizations in a variety of roles from the scoting department to handling player arbitration cases. She’s currently working directly for MLB in a senior management position
I think if she didn’t have a solid fundamental understanding of the business of baseball, she’d have switched careers by now.Just because she didn’t play, which frankly adds little if anything to one’s ability to run a baseball team (all she needs to be good at is finding good baseball players, not coaching them), but these days that may be more of a positive than a negative considering how many ex-players find themselves completely overmatched by the ‘geeks’.
She’s interviewed for at least 3 GM positions in the past, so you treating her like this is just a pr stunt by the Dbacks is immensely disrespectful to her. And paints you in a very poor light, since you clearly know nothing about her except that she’s a woman, and have already decided based on that alone that she’s isn’t qualified for the position
Yeah, all that playing experience Dave Stewart had made him a great GM, right? Here’s the best GMs in baseball: Billy Beane (no longer a GM, but still…), Jon Daniels, Ben Cherington, Jed Hoyer/Theo Epstein, Brian Cashman, Bobby Evans, the Dodgers braintrust, Luhnow….how much playing experience did they have, collectively? Basically none. Beane was a minor leaguer. The rest, zilch.
While you might like to believe that the GM role is one carried by ex-players, that’s not the case in the game anymore at all. It’s an administrative role, and the skills for the job have nothing to do with being able to throw or hit, but everything to do with analyzing data, hiring the right people, understandin information and using good processes to effect outcomes. By most accounts Ng is quite good at all of these things; this is why MLB hired her.
Exactly, 25 years, 6 or so clubs, do the math, not good. Correct, she did interview for 3 GM jobs, How many did she get? Handling arb cases, very few, LAD had to hire an outside firm to do it. Many different front office positions, why? NYY’s picked J. Afterman over her, ? By the way, Jean is also a woman and much more talented than ing, so much for your sexist point of view. She is not even with a team and had to go to MLB, who took her Torre. I could go on all day, but obviously you would rather point blame and not do your homework
she worked arbitration cases for the White Sox, not the Dodgers… so way to prove once again you know what you’re talking about there, champ
You really shouldn’t even be here if you know this little about how front offices work. changing teams is fairly common as people look for new opportunities to advance their careers. There’s few chances for upward mobility within a fairly small organization, so assistants change teams fairly often as openings appear with other teams.
Fans just don’t hear about it because it’s not covered by the sportswriters..
Why don’t you quit digging this hole for yourself deeper by constantly reinforcing that you don’t know what you’re talking about, you just don’t want to see another non-player GM, much less a girl, proving that you don’t need to be a jock to know baseball
Quite difficult to argue with incoherency.
You claimed earlier that Dave Stewart was only hired because he was black. Then you have claimed Kim Ng has only been hired for the jobs she has because she is a woman.
Nonsense things you bring up, like, “hey, she interviewed three times for a job she didn’t get” are straw men, of course. Alex Anthopoulas, an incredibly talented GM, has missed out on three jobs; not the right fit.
Or lets just extrapolate that thinking to the playing field, ok? Rickey Henderson is one of the ten best players in baseball history. Played for ten teams. By your logic, he must have been terrible.
I’m not sure what I’m “pointing blame” at, btw. Enlighten me.
Frozen is a Trump fan obviously.
Wrong again, the sexist thing does not apply.
“A former assistant GM with the Dodgers, Ng would become the game’s first-ever general manager if she is hired for this or another open job.”
Hmm. If she will become the first ever general manager, then what are the other so-called GMs actually called? Puppets?
you could make worse analogies about Dave Stewart, i suppose…
Yes you could, He was given the job for 2 reasons, the 1st because he was a warrior for LaRussa, the other you can guess.
he could handle his liquor as well as Tony?
Hire ray Montgomery he will do it right brewers should of hired him his experience is what a gms should look like
I think the Brewers got the right guy with Stearns…
Of course he doesn’t like Stearns. His name says it all, and Stearns was under Luhnow. Brewers wouldn’t have Carter, Villar w/o Stearns.
They also probably wouldn’t have the farm system in the shape that it currently is.
Or the .450 win %, that’s impressive, not the right guy if your a Brewer fan
The winning percentage for a team in one year with a new GM that has said explicitly that he is rebuilding, in a small market, for a sport that does not boast quick turnarounds and volatile teams like the other sports and actually requires YEARS of progress and development in order to be successful means that Stearns is not the right man for the job? At this point in my longwinded sentence I figured out that you were sarcastic.
Of course they are “rebuilding” that’s what guarantees these frat boys extra years on a contract and if it does turn around they look great! ie….Cubs
If she isn’t the gm people will be TRIGGERED
If she is such a catch, why didn’t the McCourts select her or the NYY’s prefer Jean Afterman, Trigger that !
are you really going to use the McCourts as an example of competent baseball minds?
Odd that no team tries to raid the Giants Front Office…not one higher from their club externally since Ned Coletti I believe.
probably because of what happened to the Dodgers under Ned Coletti….
What happened? 7 post season appearances in 10 or 11 years, no team has more, 2 others equal that.
over a billion dollars wasted for no WS rings
Coletti spent a lot of money, never won anything with it though. Not really an innovator in any sense of the world. Probably why he’s not even being considered by any of the openings lately
yeah, if he’s an example of what you learn under the Giants, the lack of interest isn’t really surprising
And you’re wrong again they made the playoffs 5 of 9 times. Well let’s see here 2 teams have more. 4 have equal (TB,Det, Phils, Boston) And of the <amount of playoff appearances SF has 3 rings, phils 1 ring, cards has 2 rings. So besides severely burdening the payroll…. what has he done again?????
Giants have 3, Cards have 2, Soxs have 2, phils and Yankees have 1. Oh btw, the lowly spending Roxs and TB have more WS appearances. So what has Colletti accomplished? Oh I forgot in three nlcs appearances in the Colletti era they are 4-12… Bravo Bravo Bravo
Billion dollars wasted, a lot of that money is still winning divisions in LA. WS rings, how many do you have ? what the 29 other teams are not trying or have not spent $. Not really an innovator, he started the analytical dept. over there, brought them back from Maloney/De Podesta and bankruptcy and all he did was win, that sucks!
And the last 2 years he has been the Sr. Advisor to the Pres. With most of the roster, and all of the prospects being part of his tenure, recalculate that
Add the last 2 years as the Sr. Advisor to the Pres. W/about 80% of the current roster and all of the former prospects playing being part of his regime, recalculate!
Ng is a Senior Vice President to MLB, and yet you insist that’s a meaningless job and everyone else is doing all the hard work.
and seriously, ‘advisor’ is baseball shorthand for ‘well, he comes around the office occasionally but doesn’t actually have a job”. It’s a ceremonial title given to someone who’s either famous and useful for PR purposes… or under contract anyway but not doing the job he was initially hired for because he wasn’t very good at it (like, you know, Coletti.)
You might want to recalculate that right? So in terms of Colletti calculate his last two years of the Dodgers playoff rosters and you get 48% and 40% of “his prospects and players”. But let’s not kid ourselves really those are Logans prospects right?
That darn gug group they didn’t spend billions to bring them back from bankruptcy Colletti did! Of course! We figured it out.
Ng. Surround her with credible baseball minds. MLB, ADBs, history all would be made in a way that moves baseball forward.
Great PR overall, but AZ ownership needs to do this one without mistakes.
Just a thought…