Game of GIFs, runs and emojis
The art of communication among GMs involves mastery of mobile phone technology
In the annals of texting, $38 million (U.S.) doesn’t often change hands with a few taps of the thumb. And yet, that’s exactly what happened this off-season when the Miami Marlins sent Dee Gordon and the money left on his contract to the Seattle Mariners.
It started before the annual meeting of general managers in November, when Jerry Dipoto, the GM of the Seattle Mariners, called Michael Hill, the president of baseball operations for the Marlins, to inquire about Gordon’s availability. At the general managers’ meetings, they spoke again. At length.
But weeks later, when it came time to complete the trade, a problem emerged: Dipoto was going to be on a plane for several hours, flying to Seattle. So, using the airplane’s Wi-Fi, Dipoto fired text messages back and forth with Hill to finish a deal that would send Gordon to Seattle in exchange for several prospects.
“I’ll call you when we’re on the ground, but we’re good on this end,” Dipoto texted Hill from the plane. And when Dipoto landed and called, Hill asked if he had ever before made a trade by text. “Yes, Mike,” Dipoto said, “but I hope this one works out better.”
This is the 24/7 life of a modern baseball executive, who operates in a world where analytics have already altered the way rosters are constructed and in-game strategies are carried out. Technology has also altered how the sport’s decision-makers communicate with one another.
The haggling over the phone, or even in person, still goes on, of course, but is now being supplanted in part by more and more text messages, emojis and GIFs.
“My wife, in particular, loves that we’re texting and calling people all the time,” Cleveland general manager Mike Chernoff said with more than a little sarcasm in his voice. “It’s really helped our relationship.”
In the life cycle of baseball, the two periods of intense front-office activity are the days leading up to the July 31 trade deadline and the off-season, when rosters are revamped, more trades are arranged and free agents are signed.
During his15 years as the GM of the Colorado Rockies, from 1999 to 2014, Dan O’Dowd said most of the trades and negotiations with agents were done over the phone. But near the end of his tenure with the Rockies, communication began to change dramatically.
O’Dowd said at the last of his winter meetings, which are essentially baseball’s December convention, “I spoke almost exclusively via text to GMs despite being in the same exact building.”
“I’m not saying that’s a good thing,” he added, “but that’s what it’s evolved to.”
When Thad Levine, the general manager of the Minnesota Twins, started working in baseball in the late 1990s, most general managers travelled frequently with their team — as well as to the all-star game or World Series, and, of course, to the general managers’ and winter meetings — with the express purpose of meeting face to face with their counterparts to initiate trades.
“But today, we negotiate hundreds of millions of dollars of contracts and make massive trades without ever picking up the phone and speaking directly with one another, let alone meeting face to face,” Levine said. “You kind of learn the personalities of guys — who needs a phone call, who can do it on text, who prefers emails, who likes to be lighthearted. The art of the negotiation has almost been trumped by the art of communication.”
Over the years, general managers have trended younger — most now are in their 30s and 40s — which means they stay on their phones constantly. They came of age in an era when texting was used for everything.
“The day that I feel like I leave my cellphone somewhere, that’s when panic will set in,” said Dipoto, 49. “I’ve been known to respond with some GIFs and occasional emojis.”
Even Sandy Alderson, the New York Mets’ general manager, who, at 70, is the oldest person doing that job in baseball, is getting in on the action.
“I did send a smiley-face emoji to Brian Cashman the other day,” he said recently in reference to the New York Yankees’ general manager. He declined to say why.
Not everyone has gone non-verbal. Alex Anthopoulos, 40, the new general manager of the Atlanta Braves who previously ran the Toronto Blue Jays, mostly uses text messages to set up phone calls. The back and forth via text takes too long, he said.
“My preference is more on the phone,” he said. “You don’t know how something is going to get delivered in tone.”
Still, messages can be lost in translation.
Chernoff, 36, said emojis may cause confusion. His favourite interaction was when he was negotiating with an agent and made a formal offer. “And I got back just this,” Chernoff said, imitating a thumbs up emoji. “Not to accept it but to say that he got it.”
The change in the way general managers communicate has also had an impact on agents. Scott Boras, baseball’s best-known agent, said he built a1,500 square-foot “negotiating compound” in his Southern California home where he spends much of his day in the off-season. He has workout equipment, a bathroom, a refrigerator, numerous televisions and computers, and a view of the ocean.
Boras still meets in person with team owners and general managers, but he also has a phone number solely for their text messages. He also maintains a list of which general managers prefer to text and which prefer phone calls. The modern way of negotiating is “grossly more efficient,” Boras said. But the bulk of negotiation is still done by talking and text messaging is only for nailing down the details, he said.
“I end up talking a lot because I have a lot of information to exchange and it would take me hours to text it,” he said.
But texting can also be quick and quite to the point.
During the recent winter meetings, Cleveland team president-Chris Antonetti thought he was making progress with another general manager on a potential trade.
“I guess I gave him an answer he didn’t like and he sent back a GIF that was quite colourful,” he said.