Ned Colletti Reportedly A Candidate In Diamondbacks’ GM Search

Former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti is on the Diamondbacks’ list of potential GM candidates, reports J.P. Hoornstra of the Southern California News Group.

The 62-year-old Colletti served as GM in Los Angeles from 2005-14 before giving way to current president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman at the end of the 2014 campaign. The Dodgers retained Colletti as a senior advisor to team president/CEO Stan Kasten, but he no longer plays a role in the decision-making process when it comes to baseball operations. Hoornstra adds that whoever is ultimately hired will not report to Tony La Russa — a sentiment that meshes with previous reports which have indicated that La Russa will no longer be calling the shots in the Arizona front office even if has not been let go by the team.

The Dodgers reached the postseason in six of Colletti’s nine seasons as general manager, and he was the GM for a number of critical trades, free-agent signings and extensions that still impact today’s iteration of the Dodgers. Most notably, Colletti helped orchestrate the blockbuster trade that sent Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto from Boston to L.A. in exchange for James Loney, Ivan De Jesus, Allen Webster and Rubby De La Rosa back in 2012. He also signed Zack Greinke to a six-year, $147MM contract with an opt-out clause after the third season (which Greinke exercised, netting the Dodgers a 2015 first-round pick after rejecting a QO) and worked out extensions for Andre Ethier (five years, $85MM) and Clayton Kershaw (seven years, $215MM with a third-year opt-out). Colletti also acquired Manny Ramirez in 2008 — arguably the most successful half-season rental in recent history — and re-signed him to a two-year, $45MM deal that proved less successful. Los Angeles’ two-year, $36.2MM deal for Andruw Jones late in his career also proved to be a significant misstep.

On the international front, Colletti gave the approval on a number of expensive signings that yielded no return for the Dodgers, including Erisbel Arruebarrena and Alex Guerrero, though the team’s signing of Yasiel Puig to a seven-year, $42MM contract has to be deemed a success even if Puig’s performance never returns to its 2013-14 heights. And, the signings of Hiroki Kuroda out of Japan and Hyun-Jin Ryu out of Korea both provided tremendous value to the pitching staff, though Ryu’s contributions have been cut short due to shoulder problems that have sidelined him for nearly all of the 2015-16 seasons after two terrific years in 2013-14.

Colletti is one of six names that has been linked to the D-backs since the season ended, as reports have indicated that league executives Kim Ng and Peter Woodfork (a former D-backs assistant GM) are in the mix, as is Brewers VP of scouting Ray Montgomery (a former D-backs exec himself). Internal candidates reportedly include assistant GM Bryan Minniti and farm director Mike Bell.