23 May 2018

Brady Anderson Tells The Sun He Doesn't Want To Be GM

No one said hoping for the best was going to be easy. Earlier this morning, Eduardo A. Encina and Peter Schmuck of The Baltimore Sun discussed the current structure of the Orioles front office, including a closer look at the roles of the two Angelos sons, John and Louis, along with Brady Anderson. 

I'll make this quick: It's a must-read, but it's an incredibly depressing article for any fan looking for some clarity in the O's decision-making process. And to make matters worse, it includes Anderson dismissing the notion that he'd want to become the next general manager while publicly lobbying for a higher ranking position, the role of club president. Get a load of this:
Anderson’s growing role in the front office has spawned speculation that he might replace Duquette as general manager, but he told The Baltimore Sun recently that he is not interested in becoming the team’s general manager because the requirements of that role might inhibit his ability to work directly with players. Since becoming a special assistant to Duquette in 2012 and then vice president of baseball operations in 2013, Anderson has had a unique multifaceted role that includes working one-on-one with players and overseeing the team’s strength program.

“I want responsibilities and I have a lot of responsibilities," Anderson said, “but a lot of things I do I might not be able to do if I were the GM. I have aspirations to do more and more and more. There’s no doubt. I’m not going to hide that and I never have. I certainly believe I’m capable of doing more. Look, if I’m doing what I want to do, if I’m doing things that are helping the team, I can help the GM keep his job and keep that sort of continuity."

There also has been speculation that Anderson might be elevated to club president in a role similar to the one played by MacPhail during the late 2000s. Anderson does not deny that such a possibility interests him.

“As far as president and more responsibilities, sure, I’m ready for them,” Anderson said. “But that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with Dan’s current status. It really doesn’t. They’re not mutually exclusive — my desires and the current GM having to do something else.”
This is madness. It's stunning to see Anderson feeling this comfortable to talk about exactly what he wants and doesn't want.

It's a wonder how the Orioles were ever able to return to their winning ways from 2012-2016. Whatever goodwill the team built up from their return to relevancy is almost used up, and articles like this describing the current level of dysfunction give fans a glimpse at just how chaotic things really are.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

This is EXACTLY why I don't want the Orioles trading away any assets other than Machado/Brach/Britton whose contracts expire after this season. This is pure insanity. And the fact that it's Brady Anderson of all people? This sounds like he's taking advantage of ownership dysfunction to creep his way to the top. A straight power grab. The last person on earth you want running a baseball team is Brady Anderson.

Obviously this is speculation, but I'm willing to bet he was in Angelos' ear begging him to give Davis that contract. That whole situation seemed very Brady Andersonish.

Jon Shepherd said...

I wonder why next year will be any different from this year. With that in mind, I would not mind them dealing out those who are under control beyond this year. The idea being that if you are going to screw up, then you will have a better chance of accidentally doing something good if you are dealing away with something of great value as opposed to less value.

Pip said...

So what skills DOES Brady have?
Does he actually have any of the skills needed to be a team president?
Or even a Gm for that matter?

Unknown said...

Brady’s only Resume Asset is
Friends with Angelos Sons
Steroids in 50 hr year
Capacity to interfere with gm and manager function and disrupt the clubhouse

Jon Shepherd said...

Why would he use steroids in one year and no other?

Unknown said...

Trade Machado, Schoop, Trumbo, Beckham, Britton, Brach, O'day, Cashner, Jones, Cashner, and i'll listen on offers for Bundy and Gausman.

Buck - I'm open to the idea of rebuilding with him at the helm of a younger team but I have a sneaking and ever-growing suspicion that he'll leave at the end of this year. I would caution anyone who thinks, "Well Brady Anderson will be GM and keep Buck around," to recall that Brady Anderson is the reason Chiti and Wallace fled south. That had to irk Buck to some extent...

Duquette - I actually like Dan, he gets a lot of grief from the Baltimore area sports reporters. I understand he messed up the Parra trade and some other moves, but I think he's done more good than bad, and hes fairly shrewd and competent as a GM. I wouldn't read to much into anything he says to Melewski or other sports entities, specifically regarding Machado's trade situation. He's found a lot of value and return given the limited extent of whats he been allowed to do. I also have a fair amount of compassion for those good at bin dipping for value, however, its probably time for him to move on. I think it should be said, before the lay fan and sports beat begin to celebrate the storming of the bastille, that Duquette tried to modernize the organizations baseball structure by predicating it on more international scouting (Wada, Wei-yen Chen, an Israeli 3B we signed but never materialized, his name eludes me) and advanced metrics, obviously, somewhere along the line he was spurned by Peter Angelos and the dynastic nepotism with Brady Anderson. I wish Duquette well going forward, I wouldn't be surprised to see him wind up somewhere else, be succesful and have a nice rebuild and begin to compete again. That being said - if he (Duquette) is leaving at the end of the year, shouldn't someone else be in charge of the potential firesale and not someone whose checked out and already has irons in the fire for new jobs? Why not fire Duquette tomorrow and hire the next GM to give them the greenlight to get this bonfire started with a clear unified vision in mind?

(I swear i'm not a Duquette apologist but some of the things said about him in the local sports media are non-sensical)

Which brings us to Brady Anderson. Listen, I understand and share the trepidation with many of the fans that Brady Andersons only qualification for the position is that he got drunk with Lou and John before. I would argue, however, that the current way the organization does business, one part anti-advanced analytics, one part lack of trust of international scouting (there twain), is the biggest hurdle this franchise has to getting back to relevancy. I don't care if you hire Theo Epstein, with the limitations ownership puts on this franchise, with regards to its analytics and international presence, he would struggle to field a 70 win ball club.

Brady Anderson - I'm not really sure he has the patience and the general knowledge of all the niche and arcane items that go into being a general manager, in fact I think he would hate that job given that he just appears to me to be a very tactile individual. He's probably better suited for team president, if ownership insists that he has a part to play going forward. Whatever position he's in, he needs to be held accountable, right now he appears to answer to no one other than the Angelos family. He also needs to be neutered with the whole reclamation project nonesense hes got going in with marginal talents like Mike Wright and the late Chris Tillman.

Anywho, love the blog, my personal favorite within "Birdland", sorry for the sermon but I get worked up over this team, especially when the season is over by the 1st of May like it was this year and I have to scrap until football season for something to watch again.

Matt Kremnitzer said...

Appreciate the kind words. Thanks for reading, Michael!