Baseball Season Thoughts on a Winter Day
As a baseball fan student of the subject, it has occurred to me that certain factors are key to the decision any general manager candidate may need to consider before accepting a job with any major league club.
If you are such a candidate, consider accepting the General Manager job, if:
- The club is already on the way to getting younger, not older, at the time you will start.
- The minor league system talent pool you will inherit is not completely dry.
- Ownership wants you to develop a club that can win it all; not to merely do enough to make the fans only think the club is trying to win, while you really are trying only hard enough to help the club afford a lower cost team that wins enough to keep the gate healthy.
- Ownership of the club (most of the time) will let you run the ship and stay out of the way.
- Think long and hard about taking a job with a late George Steinbrenner prototype owner, unless you don’t mind being fired and rehired routinely anytime “the boss” is in a bad mood – and you clearly understand going into the job that eventually you will be fired for “cause” and gone for good.
- A reputation for winning is strong with the interviewing club; be wary of jobs with clubs that haven’t won a World Series since 1908.
- Your team salary budget is big enough to acquire or sign a few star players.
- You are free to hire a field manager who will not try to do your job or resent you for taking a lot of credit for any success the team enjoys on the field.
- The big bucks you get for doing your job well are big enough to float your life style requirements.
But that’s not all. – The Pecan Park Eagle would love for the rest of you to submit your own recommendations by comment below on what you think a GM candidate should consider on his or her way to a new MLB GM job.
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The Pecan Park Eagle 
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