Haudricourt:
Melvin productive as general manager
Cutting through speculation in Doug Melvin’s move.
The informal media session to announce the Brewers are transitioning to a new general manager had concluded Tuesday. Principal owner Mark Attanasio departed to participate in a labor board session at baseball’s quarterly ownership meetings at the Four Seasons Hotel. Doug Melvin, who announced he would step aside at some point into an advisory role, remained behind in the otherwise deserted board room to do a series of telephone interviews with media back in Milwaukee. He periodically checked social media to see what was being said about the news.
“Some people are acting like I’ve died,” Melvin said, shaking his head.
Well, contrary to some reports, Melvin is alive and well. And he’s still the Brewers general manager until a replacement is named, likely some time after the postseason.
There seemed to be some confusion about that after the Brewers finally announced their transition plan that day. Some thought Melvin was stepping aside immediately. Some thought he was fired. Some thought he had quit.
None of that was true. But it was easy to understand why folks were uncertain exactly what was happening. Because the Brewers had stayed mum for so many months about Melvin’s status, it resulted in speculation by some that was off-base.
So, here’s what happened. Melvin, who has been on the job as Brewers’ GM since September 2002, informed Attanasio over the winter he likely would be ready to step aside after his contract expires at the end of this season.
As Attanasio explained it, the two had a handshake agreement in spring training that a transition process would be devised to find a new general manager. The two worked on details for Melvin to remain on hand as a paid adviser afterward to help with the transition, the details of which were completed in May.
Attanasio and Melvin agreed no announcement would be made until after the June draft and the July 31 trade deadline, eliminating possible distractions at those key junctures of the season. When the Brewers did a massive pratfall out of the gate and immediately fell from playoff contention, figuring out what to do with the team became the top priority, and rightly so.
Once the wheeling and dealing was done, officially signaling the Brewers were embarking on a reshaping of the team (they don’t like the word “rebuilding”), the timing was right to announce the plan. With Attanasio, Melvin and other club officials gathered for the ownership meetings in Chicago, it became the perfect locale to deliver that news.
It also allowed Attanasio to get the ball rolling by asking other owners for permission to interview candidates who have drawn the Brewers’ interest. As Attanasio noted, it was no trouble to quickly put together a list that included as many as 30 candidates.
The Brewers will not interview 30 people, however. They will work down to a shorter list and concentrate on those candidates. The recent trend in baseball has been to hire younger GMs with Ivy League backgrounds, or something similar, and a keen interest in the ever-expanding world of baseball analytics.
Listening to Attanasio describe what he’d like in a new GM, there was little reason to expect the Brewers would stray far from that path. Attanasio also made it clear he considers new manager Craig Counsell part of team’s rebuilding process. Counsell previously trained in the Brewers’ front office and was considered a possible successor to Melvin, but all involved now agree he is better suited to help the team as manager.
Some people have suggested it won’t be palatable to the new GM to “saddle” him with a manager signed through 2017. And it is true that GMs often prefer to bring in their own managers after taking the reins of a club.
But too much has been made about a possible conflict between a new GM and Counsell. Consider what happened in Chicago after the Cubs brought in Theo Epstein to oversee their massive rebuilding project. One of the first things Epstein did was hire former Brewers coach/interim manager Dale Sveum on a three-year deal as skipper.
When the losing was worse under Sveum than anticipated and Epstein worried the rebuilding project might stall, he fired his manager after two seasons and replaced him with Rick Renteria. When Joe Maddon became available a year later, Renteria was dumped.
So much for the new GM bringing in his own manager to start a rebuild.
Counsell is a smart, young, progressive baseball person who understands all aspects of the game, including new-age analytics (Melvin prefers the phrase “baseball research”). In other words, he’s the managerial version of what the Brewers want in their new GM.
Let’s face it. The Brewers aren’t going to win next year anyway. So, it’s not like Counsell is going to get in the way of progress. If, after a year together, the new GM decides he can’t live with his manager, the Brewers wouldn’t let the final year of Counsell’s contract stand in the way of a change. Don’t forget, Ron Roenicke was punted one month after his contract was extended through 2016.
Truth be told, it will be just as important for the new GM to mesh with Attanasio, who after settling in as owner became more involved in player acquisitions. He was the front man for several free-agent signings, including those of Kyle Lohse and Matt Garza.
Among the candidates the Brewers are expected to have on their list are Tampa Bay’s Chaim Bloom, Atlanta’s John Coppellela, the New York Yankees’ Billy Eppler, Boston’s Mike Hazen, Oakland’s Dan Kantrovitz, the Los Angeles Angels’ Matt Klentak, Cleveland’s Mike Chernoff and Texas’ Thad Levine. All are GMs in training who fit the profile of the Brewers’ search.
The Brewers can only hope the new GM moves the Brewers forward as proficiently as Melvin did after taking over in September 2002. The team was at the end of the worst season (56-106) in franchise history and the baseball operations department was in complete disarray. The talent level of the on-field personnel was shockingly low.
Melvin hired Atlanta coach Ned Yost, his second choice, and the two embarked on improving the talent and teaching players how to win. It took longer than they wanted, but when the team was finally ready to win in 2008, Melvin made the brilliant midseason acquisition of CC Sabathia and the Brewers ended a 26-year playoff drought by claiming the National League wild card.
Three years later, when Melvin knew he had no chance of keeping slugger Prince Fielder from free agency, he went for broke by trading for pitchers Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum. The result was the best record (96-66) in franchise history and a playoff run that fell two wins short of the World Series.
Melvin understood what he was up against as a small-market GM with financial restrictions and rarely complained about it. Attanasio bought the club in 2005 and raised the payroll, but the Brewers always have been destined to lose stars such as Sabathia, Fielder and Greinke to bigger spenders.
Yes, the Brewers fell short of a title during Melvin’s tenure. And, yes, it took too long to develop homegrown pitchers. Other franchises fall short in those areas as well. But, as bad as the team’s current situation is, it’s not nearly the mess that Melvin inherited in ’02.
The new GM will have those same challenges, especially in an era in which other clubs are hip-deep in money generated by local TV revenues. The St. Louis Cardinals, already the class of the NL Central, recently signed a lucrative deal well beyond the Brewers’ reach.
The game has changed and the demands of the job have expanded greatly. But if Attanasio does as well with the GM he hires as he did with the one he inherited and kept, the Brewers should be in good hands.