USA TODAY International Edition
MLB minority hiring trends
Nightengale: Ex- GM says ‘ it’s just getting worse’
MLB has the power to discipline front office personnel for egregious acts.
The league can fine players for wearing the wrong type of shoes to throwing their helmet after a strikeout.
It can suspend players for using performance- enhancing drugs, executives for illegal signings, and perhaps those allegedly involved in the Astros’ cheating allegations.
“But what ( MLB) can’t do is make owners hire someone they’re not comfortable with,” former general manager Dave Stewart told USA TODAY Sports. “It’s the same as it’s always been.”
There were eight managerial and three GM vacancies after the 2019 season. One was filled by a person of color: manager Carlos Beltran of the Mets.
Dave Roberts, hired by the Dodgers in 2015, remains the lone African American manager.
“I don’t know where it’s going,” said Dusty Baker, who has had one job interview since leading the Nationals to division titles in 2016 and ’ 17. “But we’ve gone backwards in a lot of ways. I get guys calling me asking how to deal with the system, saying things aren’t fair or equal. Well, it’s a whole lot less than equal now. I don’t know what the solution is, but very few seem to really care.”
Stewart, hired by the Diamondbacks on Sept. 25, 2014, but fired two years later, is the most recent African American GM in MLB. “To me, it’s just getting worse,” Stewart said. “It’s disgusting. No offense to anyone doing their job, but some guys leave one position to do a bad job, go to another job and do a bad job, and keep getting hired.”
There are six minority managers in baseball, the most since 2011. Al Avila of the Tigers and Farhan Zaidi of the Giants are the only minority GMs, while Ken Williams of the White Sox and Michael Hill of the Marlins are the only African Americans in charge of their baseball departments.
“I’ve had a unique position sitting in different rooms and watching people come and go since 1993,” said Williams, a former major league outfielder, farm director, GM and now vice president representing the White Sox with chairman Jerry Reinsdorf at the owners’ meetings. “There have been years where I felt progress was really being made, and I didn’t feel so alone in that respect. Now, there are times that, well, I’ve never been easier to spot in a room in executive meetings.”
‘ It’s just going to take some time’
Commissioner Rob Manfred addressed the dearth of minorities last month, pleading with owners to open their doors to those who aren’t white males with Ivy League educations.
“Manfred expressed his frustration in a very emotional way,” Williams said, “not an angry way. But the frustration is very real. And I trust it.”
MLB has had five African American GMs, and three franchises have never hired a minority to be a GM or manager: the Cardinals, Twins and Athletics.
Deputy commissioner Dan Halem and Tyrone Brooks, MLB’s senior director of the front office and field staff diversity pipeline program, are hopeful there will be an increase simply because more candidates are being interviewed. There were 13 minority candidates interviewed for the managerial openings, six for the first time: Eduardo Perez, Johnny Washington, Will Venable, Luis Rojas, George Lombard and Rod Barajas. And with the hiring of Hensley Meulens by the Mets, there will be six minority bench coaches in 2020, in position to be considered for managerial openings.
“Individuals are now getting themselves on the radar,” Brooks said. “It was great for them to have the opportunity, get them into the preparation process, and what to expect going into it. Ideally, you want to have depth in your search, and that’s what we’re encouraging each club to do. And we automatically remind clubs of our minority interactive policy.”
It’s called the Selig Rule, adopted in 1999 by former commissioner Bud Selig.
It requires teams to interview minority candidates when filling a top- level position. Brooks’ office also provides assistance for those wanting to prepare or go through mock interviews, just as Charlie Montoyo did when he landed the Blue Jays’ managerial job a year ago.
“We want as many diverse GMs and mangers as possible,” Halem said. “We have a very structured program, formal training programs and resources. We’re not leaving anything to chance. I think our numbers are going to improve. I think we’ll see more success in the future. It’s just going to take some time.”
The Giants interviewed four minority candidates when searching for a GM this fall before hiring the Cubs’ Scott Harris. The Red Sox, who hired the Rays’ Chaim Bloom, didn’t interview anyone else outside the organization. The Pirates bypassed assistant Kevan Graves and hired the Blue Jays’ Ben Cherington.
Except for Omar Minaya, who was appointed by the league to be the Expos’ GM in 2002 when MLB operated the franchise, Stewart is the only minority hired as a first- time GM who wasn’t promoted from within his organization.
“And the only reason that happened,” Stewart said, “was because of my relationship with Tony ( La Russa).”
La Russa, the Diamondbacks’ chief baseball officer, had known Stewart for 30 years and was his manager with the Athletics. Stewart was a player agent when La Russa hired him and previously had been a special assistant with the A’s and Padres and the Blue Jays’ assistant GM. Stewart hasn’t had a job interview since and is a player agent again.
Hiring practices can limit change
Maybe you don’t want to believe it’s racism, but certainly, Baker said, there’s institutional discrimination in baseball. “There’s big- time discrimination of age and salary, along with the intellectual thing,” he said. “It’s not a question of whether you went to school, but where you went to school. It appears they’re just hiring their friends. Nothing against the Ivy League, but how many minorities are friends and fraternity brothers of those who went to those schools?”
The frustration is growing as baseball’s minority community thinks the industry has turned its back on those who have prepared for the opportunity.
“The natural assumption is that it’s a racial problem,” Williams said, “and it’s easy to jump to that. But there’s much more to it. The Ivy League- educated, analytically- based, Power Point- savvy individuals are being hired because they speak the same language as ownership groups. They’re hiring people in the limited circle that are new to the industry because they can relate to them. ... That doesn’t lend itself to the exclusion of race, that lends itself to the exclusion of people.”
It makes no sense that A’s assistant GM Billy Owens, one of the brightest scouting minds, isn’t a GM. How can Nationals special assistant De Jon Watson not be running his own team, or even get an interview for a GM job? How about Rockies special assistant Danny Montgomery? Pirates scouting director Steve Williams? Peter Woodfork, MLB vice president of baseball operations? Twins senior adviser Deron Johnson?
That said, MLB executives are convinced Dartmouth grad Graves is on the fast- track to become a GM. An African American, he interviewed for the Giants’ and Pirates’ GM vacancies.
MLB implemented a six- month internship program designed to provide front office and field- level jobs to explayers from diverse backgrounds. Eighteen clubs are participating; their first orientation will be at the winter meetings starting Sunday in San Diego.
“No matter what your analytic skills are, or what type of programs you have in place,” Williams says, “at the end of the day you need people that can evaluate talent. ... But when I look at guys like Billy Owens, there are a lot of people that aren’t being heard.
“It’s not just the pipelines that need to be filled and paid attention to, it has to be done at the executive- level positions. If you bring people in at those positions, then we will have a natural diverse group that can be talked about. We’re all waiting for that day.”