Ned Colletti

NHL’s San Jose Sharks Hire Former Dodgers GM Ned Colletti

By Steve Adams | September 6, 2019 at 12:43pm CDT

In case last night’s report that Carlos Correa has hired Bobby Flay’s agent wasn’t strange enough for you — fear not, cravers of odd baseball news! The NHL’s San Jose Sharks announced today that they’ve hired former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti as a professional scout. Sharks general manager Doug Wilson offered the following statement on the matter:

Ned has an extensive background working in professional sports and talent evaluation and he will bring a fresh perspective to our organization’s evaluation process. This was a unique opportunity to add someone of Ned’s experience to our staff.

Colletti has never worked in hockey before but does join the Sharks with more than three decades of experience working in a Major League front office — including 18 seasons as an assistant general manager or general manager of a Major League team. Clearly, the Sharks are convinced enough of Colletti’s hockey acumen to make a decidedly outside-the-box hire.

Colletti isn’t the only notable executive to completely change sports in recent years, but it seems he’ll have a more direct say in player evaluation than Paul DePodesta took on when joining the NFL’s Cleveland Browns as their Chief Strategy Officer in early 2016. (DePodesta, per the Browns, is “tasked with implementing systems and processes to strengthen the Browns organization and decision making” in his role with the team.)

Since being replaced by the Dodgers following the 2014 season, Colletti has been rumored to be a part of the GM searches for both the Diamondbacks and the Orioles, but he’s never signed on as an executive with another MLB organization. Colletti served as an adviser to Dodgers president Stan Kasten after being removed as GM and has also served as a television analyst with Sportsnet Los Angeles.

Latest On Orioles’ GM Search

By TC Zencka and Jeff Todd | November 10, 2018 at 11:18am CDT

It’s a time of change for the Orioles. Most notably, John and Lou Angelos have taken over regular operations from their father, Peter Angelos. The club has been without a manager since dismissing Buck Showalter, though that post figures to remain open for the time being. That’s because there’s an even more important hire in the works for the Angelos brothers, who are working to identify the person who’ll head up their baseball operations department.

In the interim, there is a small group of executives left over from Dan Duquette’s regime who are currently responsible for overseeing the roster moves in Baltimore this offseason. Brian Graham, the director of player development, is said to be handling the day-to-day operations as the interim GM. VP of baseball ops Brady Anderson and amateur scouting director Gary Rajsich are also present to weigh in on the offseason’s earliest action.

To this point, the Baltimore organization hasn’t settled on a job title for whomever becomes the organization’s top baseball decisionmaker. In and of itself this doesn’t mean much, but as the Athletic’s Dan Connolly pointed out in early October, there is a perplexing lack of clarity regarding division of labor moving forward. Brady Anderson, for one, has had significant negotiating responsibilities in the past, so his continued involvement is certainly notable, despite ownership’s claim that the new hire will have “final determination on all baseball matters”.

Here are the latest on the Orioles search:

Latest Updates – 11/10/18

UPDATE: The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal now tweets that Tigers AGM David Chadd is no longer under consideration for the position in Baltimore. This coming on the heels of Chadd supposedly being a finalist for the position as of two days ago. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale had named Chadd as a finalist for the top spot in Baltimore (via Twitter), but that appears to no longer be the case.
The Orioles are keeping most of the details regarding their GM search close to the vest, but Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reminds us (via Twitter) that their first priority is identifying the executive to head their baseball ops – that hire will have the prerogative to name their top assistant. The original plan was for the top hire to be given the title of President, but the exact nomenclature (more than the responsibilities) remains TBD. Presumably, this will depend upon who they bring aboard and what kind of title bump that individual requires.
Regardless, there will be two eventual new hires to head up the O’s front office, and some names are starting to emerge. The oft-mentioned AGM of the Houston Astros Mike Elias remains in consideration, per the Athletic’s Dan Connolly, but two new names have entered the field as well: Phillies assistant GM Ned Rice and MLB Diversity Pipeline Director Tyrone Brooks. Before moving to the Phils front office in 2016, Ned Rice was an official with the Orioles for 11 years. Tyrone Brooks, for his part, took on the responsibility of driving diversity hires throughout MLB’s administrative levels in 2016 after Commissioner Rob Manfred created the role. He does has front office experience as well: he was a scout in the Indians organization before serving as an assistant GM with the Pittsburgh Pirates from 2009-2016.
Also of note, vice president Brady Anderson did not represent the Orioles at last week’s GM meetings, despite his home being only an hour away. Connolly wonders if this might have been a signal from ownership that the runway is, in fact, clear for the next hire to run things without demonstrative input from incumbent front office holdovers like Anderson.

Click to review the potential names under consideration and prior updates to the process:

Previous Updates – 11/6/18

Astros assistant GM Mike Elias is seen as a top potential candidate to run things in Baltimore, per MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter). He was boosted to an AGM role under Jeff Luhnow after David Stearns left Houston to run the Brewers’ baseball ops department. Elias is said to focus on player intake, including the draft and international amateur market.
Several other executives have emerged as possible candidates, per Joel Sherman of the New York Post (via Twitter). Phillies assistant GM Ned Rice, whose roots are in the Orioles organization, has taken an interview. Likewise, John Angelos (who’s said to be running the process) has chatted with Tigers AGM David Chadd.
There’s still no indication, however, that the process will move particularly quickly. Sherman tweets, in fact, that the O’s may not settle on a choice for several more weeks, explaining that ownership is “valuing thoroughness rather than overemphasizing this offseason’s work.” We heard recently that the club is also using the interview process to study other organizations, per Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun.
While thorough deliberation seems a sensible approach on the whole, it’ll likely mean missing on some opportunities in the meantime. (Though indications are that the Orioles are open for business. According to Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com, all players are open for discussion in trade talks.) Beyond the potential impact on the team’s roster decisions, the internal uncertainty will impact personnel. Indeed, the organization just lost its top analytics employee, Sarah Gelles, per Rich Dubroff of BaltimoreBaseball.com (via Twitter). Her departure for the stats-savvy ’Stros will surely represent a big loss for the O’s fledgling statistical department. Previously, the Orioles moved on from several other key members of their organization: Triple-A manager Ron Johnson, director of Dominican baseball operations Nelson Norman, East Coast scouting supervisor Kirk Fredriksson, special assistant Matt Haas, area scout Dana Duquette, as well as senior advisor Joe McIlvaine and special assignment scout Wayne Britton.

Under Consideration

Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun lists several names potentially under consideration, though he notes their current status is not quite clear. Blue Jays baseball ops VP Ben Cherington, former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti, assistant general manager for the Oakland A’s Dan Kantrovitz, and Houston Astros assistant general manager Mike Elias have at least drawn some consideration.
Two of those men have experience at the helm of other organizations. Cherington, the former Red Sox GM, has previously expressed interest in building an organization from scratch, and the Orioles would certainly check that box. Colletti, meanwhile, has been in “consistent contact” with Orioles ownership. Way back on October 5th it was reported that Colletti had met with Orioles president John Angelos during the summer – but that meeting was before Duquette had been let go, and it remains unclear if Colletti’s discussions with ownership are at all related to a possible candidacy.

Other Potential Candidates

At present, per Meoli, the Orioles do not plan to sit down with MLB executive Kim Ng. It’s still possible she’ll be brought into the search, however. Meoli also notes it’s possible the O’s will now look to speak with some of the executives who had been tied up in the World Series, though it’s not yet evident whether that’ll be the case.

Cafardo’s Latest: Corbin, Eovaldi, Pomeranz, O’s, Nats

By Connor Byrne | October 20, 2018 at 8:27pm CDT

The Yankees (previously reported), Dodgers, Giants and Braves are among the teams that are expected to “show a lot of interest” in left-hander Patrick Corbin once free agency starts, Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe writes. The 29-year-old Corbin is coming off a career season at the perfect time, having logged a 3.15 ERA/2.47 FIP with 11.07 K/9 and 2.16 BB/9 over 200 innings in 2018. As a result of that top-notch production, it’s likely Corbin will price himself out of Arizona and perhaps ink a nine-figure contract with someone.

East Notes: Orioles, Nationals, Phillies, Mets

By Steve Adams | October 5, 2018 at 9:26am CDT

The Orioles face a pivotal decision in naming their successor to recently dismissed general manager Dan Duquette in the coming weeks, and Jon Meoli of the Baltimore Sun and Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com run through some speculative candidates for the job. Both mention former Red Sox GM and current Blue Jays VP of baseball ops Ben Cherington as a logical candidate, and it’s worth noting that The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported yesterday that Cherington “wants to build an organization from the ground up” (which likely played a notable role in his decision to withdraw from consideration for the Mets and Giants vacancies). Kubatko adds that executive vice president John Angelos met with former Dodgers GM Ned Colletti earlier this summer but emphasizes that there’s no clear indication it was in connection to a potential GM role or that any formal interview will take place. Meoli, meanwhile, suggests that the team will pursue younger execs from data-driven organizations.

Over at The Athletic, Dan Connolly campaigns for the Orioles to place Cal Ripken Jr. in a president-type role (subscription link), though Ripken has no baseball operations experience. Rosenthal has previously suggested a role similar to the one Derek Jeter holds in Miami, but Ripken would still presumably need an experience exec to work underneath him, and it’s not clear that the organization is even pursuing that type of reunion with the franchise icon.

More from the game’s Eastern divisions…

Following yesterday’s report that the Nationals decided not to renew the contract of assistant GM Bob Miller, Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post reports that GM Mike Rizzo didn’t want Miller to leave the organization (likely indicating it was an ownership decision). Miller, as Janes explains, was instrumental in helping to orchestrate the trade that netted the Nationals both Trea Turner and Joe Ross, and he was also involved in contract negotiations, among other key front-office responsibilities. The Nats also let go of advance scout Chris Rosenbaum, Janes reports.
Phillies president Andy MacPhail met with the media earlier this week, discussing a number of topics ranging from potential free-agent acquisitions to the team’s disappointing finish (link via Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer). Phils fans have long been clamoring for Bryce Harper and Manny Machado to head to the city of brotherly love, and while MacPhail said he expects the team’s payroll to trend closer to its pre-rebuild heights, when the Phillies had one of baseball’s five highest payrolls, he also spoke somewhat cautiously about being too aggressive in the market. “I guess if you were to invest all you had on one star-type player, then that would be sort of an acknowledgment that you think you may be one player away,” said MacPhail. “Is that really going to solve the problems that I articulated earlier — the defense, playing within our division better, being more consistent, striking out less?” MacPhail did suggest that the Phils will be “active” in free agency but suggested that the inconsistent performance of the 2018 Phillies also makes it difficult to determine exactly how good the roster is, as currently constructed.
There are some notable changes taking place in the Mets’ minor league coaching ranks, per MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo (Twitter links), with pitching coach Frank Viola set to leave the organization after eight years. Double-A hitting coach Val Pascucci, Class-A Advanced pitching coach Marc Valdes and Appy League manager Sean Ratliff all getting cut loose as well. Viola has been mentioned as a potential big league coach in the past, and DiComo notes that the 1988 American League Cy Young winner remains interested in finding his way onto a big league staff.

Heyman’s Latest: Harvey, Reds, Brewers, Royals, Smoak, Orioles

By Connor Byrne | September 8, 2018 at 4:59pm CDT

Even though the Reds are out of contention and right-hander Matt Harvey is a pending free agent, the club opted against trading him to the NL Central rival Brewers before last month’s waiver deadline. Milwaukee won the claim for Harvey, but it turns out the Brewers only offered “Triple-A non-prospects” for the 29-year-old, Jon Heyman of Fancred hears. Considering that, not to mention Reds owner Bob Castellini’s reported affinity for Harvey, Cincinnati kept the ex-Met and will likely try to prevent him from leaving via free agency. Pitching will be an area of focus in general for the Reds during the offseason, per Heyman, who adds they may also be on the lookout for one or two outfielders.

More rumblings from Heyman…

Royals general manager Dayton Moore said back in April that the team wants skipper Ned Yost around beyond this season. At 46-94, the Royals have since endured a horrific campaign. Nevertheless, Yost remains in their plans, Heyman reports, adding that they plan to offer him a one-year extension. Whether Yost wants to keep the job for 2019, when he’ll turn 64 years old, isn’t yet clear. Yost is in his ninth season as the Royals’ manager, with the team’s World Series title in 2015 serving as the crowning achievement of his tenure.
Blue Jays first baseman Justin Smoak cleared trade waivers last month, but “a couple teams” did check in on him and some of Toronto’s relievers, Heyman writes. That’s not surprising in Smoak’s case, as the switch-hitter’s amid a second straight strong offensive season and comes with another affordable year of team control in the form of an $8MM club option. Perhaps the clubs that have shown interest in him this season will circle back over the winter, then.
Earlier this summer, Orioles vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette denied a report that the O’s had interviewed former Dodgers GM Ned Colletti for a front office position. However, an interview between one of Orioles owner Peter Angelos’ sons and Colletti did occur, according to Heyman. It’s still not known which position the two sides discussed, though, nor is it clear if Baltimore continues to have interest in Colletti. Notably, Duquette is about to reach the end of his contract – which could put the O’s in the market for a new baseball operations chief – but it’s not a lock he and the club will part ways, Heyman writes.

AL East Notes: Yanks, Torres, Gardner, Rays, Ramos, O’s

By Connor Byrne | June 16, 2018 at 6:14pm CDT

If the Yankees are going to acquire a front-line starting pitcher this summer, it’s not going to come at the expense of rookie second baseman Gleyber Torres. General manager Brian Cashman suggested to Brendan Kuty of NJ.com and other reporters Friday that the 21-year-old Torres is untouchable. Asked if he’d consider dealing Torres, Cashman quipped, “C’mon now. I have to walk around this city.” Cashman estimates that he has talked trades with around 20 teams since June 6, though it’s no surprise that he’s uninterested in sending Torres anywhere. Torres has made good on the considerable hype he had as a minor league prospect by opening his MLB career with a .290/.345/.568 line and 13 home runs in 178 plate appearances. As a result, Torres may be the American League Rookie of the Year front-runner.

Torres is part of the new guard with the Yankees, whose longest-tenured player, outfielder Brett Gardner, remains a quality major leaguer at the age of 34. Gardner, who debuted with the Yankees in 2008 and is controllable through 2019 on a $12.5MM club option (or a $2MM buyout), discussed his future with Kuty earlier this week. While Gardner revealed that he’s aiming to play “two or three more years,” preferably with the Yankees, he admitted he’d consider finishing his career elsewhere if they “don’t want me here anymore and I still wanted to play a couple more years.” Whether Gardner will remain a Yankee in 2019 is far from certain – they may still boast outfielders Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Hicks and Clint Frazier without him next year, after all – but he has made a strong case to stick with the franchise. Through 269 PAs this season, Gardner has batted .258/.350/.384 with five homers and seven steals. His above-average offensive output and outstanding work in the field (14 Defensive Runs Saved, 5.9 Utimate Zone Rating) have already led to 2.0 fWAR thus far.
Like Gardner, Rays catcher Wilson Ramos could find himself in another uniform next season. However, the free agent-to-be informed Bill Ladson of MLB.com that he’d be content to continue in Tampa Bay, in part because it gave him a chance after he tore his left ACL and meniscus while with the Nationals in late 2016. “I’m very happy with this organization because they gave me the opportunity to have my career, especially after the knee surgery,” Ramos said. “A lot of teams were behind me before the knee surgery. After the surgery, everybody turned around and didn’t pay attention to me. But [the Rays] helped me to get better, helped me with my rehab. So I’m very excited with all the little things they have done for me. If I stay here, I’ll be happy.” The Rays guaranteed Ramos $12.5MM over two years on the heels of his injury, and while his production went backward in 2017, he has rebounded this season. The 30-year-old has slashed .282/.326/.437 with eight HRs in 227 PAs, also earning plus marks as a pitch framer. Ramos’ bounce-back efforts not only bode well for another potential trip to the open market, but they could make him an attractive trade chip in the next couple months.
A report Friday indicated the Orioles have interviewed former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti for a front office position, but O’s executive vice president of baseball operations Dan Duquette shot that down Saturday. “My understanding is it’s not true,” Duquette told Dan Connolly of BaltimoreBaseball.com. “That’s all I can tell you.” If hired, Colletti would perhaps help replace Duquette, who’s in the last year of his contract and has reportedly lost power in the team’s front office. However, Duquette informed Connolly that he’d like to continue with the Orioles, who hired him back in 2011.

Orioles Interview Ned Colletti

By Jeff Todd | June 15, 2018 at 9:32pm CDT

The Orioles have brought in former Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti for an interview, according to a report from Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter links). It’s not known if Colletti is a serious candidate to join the organization, and if so in what capacity. The report also indicates that other, as-yet-unreported names could also be under consideration.

Now a broadcast analyst, the 64-year-old Colletti served as the GM in Los Angeles for a decade before Andrew Friedman was hired just after the 2014 season. Colletti continued on as a senior advisor to president/CEO Stan Kasten, but certainly no longer carried the status as the top baseball decisionmaker in the Dodgers organization.

We haven’t heard Colletti mentioned often as an executive candidate elsewhere, but he did pop up in some rumors for the Diamondbacks job when it was open in 2016. There was never any indication that Colletti was a serious candidate for that gig, which ultimately went to Mike Hazen. But it did provide an opportunity for MLBTR’s Steve Adams to run through Colletti’s transactional track record.

This news takes place against a backdrop of ample uncertainty in Baltimore. Some change is evidently afoot at the ownership level, with Peter Angelos’s sons said to be increasingly grasping the reins. Both executive VP of baseball operations Dan Duquette and manager Buck Showalter are operating on expiring contracts, with VP of baseball ops Brady Anderson widely viewed as an increasingly important voice.

The future is just as murky from a roster perspective. Despite making a few veteran additions and deciding against any significant sell-side trades over the winter, the team has stumbled to a horrific start and is completely buried from a competitive perspective this year. Meanwhile, key players including Manny Machado, Adam Jones, and Zach Britton are now months away from free agency.

With a mid-season sell-off of some kind all but certain, and the future baseball ops leadership in question, it could be that the O’s are considering a move to bring in a veteran hand before making tough calls. Whether such an executive would supplement or displace Duquette is unclear, though it’s tough to imagine that he’d be particularly amenable to a power-sharing arrangement.

As far as other potential candidates go, it’d be foolish to guess at the possibilities, but one imagines that the Baltimore organization is considering other people who come with experience at the highest levels of baseball ops departments. Rosenthal does note that the Orioles haven’t yet sought to speak with anyone who’s currently employed by a rival team.

Ned Colletti Reportedly A Candidate In Diamondbacks’ GM Search

By Steve Adams | October 7, 2016 at 8:39am CDT

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.

NL Notes: Lackey, D’Backs, Kimbrel, Colletti

By Jeff Todd | September 18, 2015 at 7:33pm CDT

MLBTR has learned the full details of the incentives clause negotiated last winter between the Cardinals and righty John Lackey. (Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has already reported major elements of the clause.) The provision calls for $400K payouts to Lackey for reaching each of five innings tallies. His first milestone was 100 innings, with successive markers every 25 innings thereafter. When Lackey reached 200 frames last night, he maxed out the bonus at a total of $2MM (on top of the league minimum salary that was already called for in his deal).

Here are some more notes from the National League:

The Diamondbacks face several contract questions regarding pitchers even before considering outside additions, as Zach Buchanan of AZCentral Sports writes. Whether to tender Jeremy Hellickson and Jhoulys Chacin, exercise a club option over Josh Collmenter, and pursue a reunion with free agent-to-be David Hernandez are among the matters that Arizona will need to address. Chief baseball officer Tony La Russa discussed all four pitchers with Buchanan. Most interestingly, perhaps, is the situation regarding Chacin. La Russa says that he has “seen enough from Chacin” to know that he’d be “in the competition” for the club next year. The 27-year-old looked good at Triple-A this year and has put together three nice outings for Arizona. Because of his limited MLB time this year, he is arb-eligible. Chacin had agreed to a $5.5MM deal with the Rockies before he was released in the spring before signing successive minor league deals with the Indians and D’Backs. My guess would be that the club will look to work something out with him before the tender deadline.
Padres closer Craig Kimbrel says it’s been a frustrating first season in San Diego, as Dennis Lin of the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Kimbrel says that he expects the club to improve next year, citing the assembly of new faces as one factor that may have slowed down the Pads this year. Of course, as Lin writes, it’s certainly plausible to imagine a scenario where Kimbrel is dealt elsewhere to address other areas of needs or re-build the farm system.
Former Dodgers GM Ned Colletti, who now works with the organization as an adviser, is “right in the middle of everything, but nowhere near anything,” Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times writes. But as Plaschke points out, Colletti — who says it’s been “a different kind of year” — was responsible for bringing in many of the team’s key pieces. That includes not only players like Clayton Kershaw and Zach Grienke, but youngsters such as Joc Pederson and Corey Seager. All said, the piece suggests, Colletti’s nine-year tenure as the head of the organization’s baseball operations department was probably more successful than many have acknowledged.

Quick Hits: Craig, Red Sox, Colletti, Coke

By Jeff Todd | March 6, 2015 at 11:11pm CDT

Hector Olivera’s newly-reported free agency could make for an interesting weekend. While we await further word on his market, let’s have a look at a few stray links to round out the evening:

The Giants do not appear to have interest in pursuing a trade for Red Sox first baseman/outfielder Allen Craig to fill in for the injured Hunter Pence, tweets Jon Heyman of CBSSports.com. While that could change if the asking price is “oddly low,” per Heyman, San Francisco is not inclined to make a move of that magnitude with Pence expected to return around the first of May. While a prior report had suggested the possibility of a Craig acquisition, the team would have no apparent role for him upon Pence’s return.
Alex Speier of the Boston Globe takes a close look at the evolving ownership and leadership situation with the Red Sox — and, in particular, Fenway Sports Group part-owner and president Michael Gordon. Though some speculated that Gordon was attempting to build his influence over the ballclub as he gained control of the second-largest stake of the FSG umbrella entity, Speier explains that the notion of a power struggle in Boston is just not true.
Displaced Dodgers GM Ned Colletti is enjoying his “respite” from the decisionmaking seat, as Bill Dwyre of the Los Angeles Times writes in a fascinating look at the former top baseball man in Los Angeles. Now working as a senior advisor to club president Stan Kasten — who actually extended his contract through 2016 — Colletti says that he is enjoying a more grass-roots role than he could ever have hoped to play in the GM position. At the same time, he indicated that he does not intend to slowly ease out of the game. “The song isn’t over,” says Colletti. “It is just a pause.”
Addressing the facially odd decision of lefty Phil Coke to take a minor league deal with the Cubs rather than a reported MLB deal elsewhere, CJ Nitkowski of FOX Sports says it is all about opportunity. Nitkowski says that he, too, made the decision to take a better opportunity on a non-guaranteed deal, though in his case it did not work out as hoped.

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