Another day, another Twins front office search update.
Once the Twins began publicly searching for their new President of Baseball Operations and/or General Manager, speculation on the candidates began almost immediately.
Notably (and relevantly), two key members of the Chicago Cubs front office – Assistant GM Shiraz Rehman and Senior VP of Player Development and Amateur Scouting Jason McLeod – were reportedly among the execs the Twins might want to target.
That list, of course, was not limited to just the two Cubs execs, as former Blue Jays GM, and the current Vice President of Baseball Operations for the Dodgers, Alex Anthopoulos, was considered something of a front runner. Given his experience, pedigree, and the fact that he had only just joined the Dodgers’ team, he appeared to be a fairly obvious candidate …
… and now he’s taken himself out of the running.
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In an article at The Score, Brandon Wile writes that Alex Anthopoulos has taken himself out of the running for the Twins President of Baseball Operations job, citing timing and family issues as his main concern. “In general terms, I just obviously moved my family to L.A.,” Anthopoulos told Sportsnet 590 The Fan. “When we made the decision to move out here, the thought was long-term implications and the kids just started school on Tuesday.” He want on to explain that his family has taken really kindly to Los Angeles and he does not intend to uproot their lives once again.
Understandable.
It’s not as though he never got a shot to run an organization, and it’s not as though he doesn’t have a plenty impressive position right now (VP of Baseball Ops with the Dodgers is hardly a small job). While he remains open-minded about the potential to run another organization sometime in the future, it’s simply not something he’ll explore right now.
So what does that mean for the Cubs two candidates? Well, it’s hard to say.
On the one hand, Alex Anthopoulos appeared to be an extremely attractive target for the President of Baseball Operations gig, given that he’s already run an organization, so this promotion would simply be one step up for him. Are McLeod and Rehman – talented as they are – viewed in the same way, even though they haven’t had that top gig before? That much isn’t clear.
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In fact, the Twins goals in general aren’t quite clear.
It’s entirely possible, it seems, that the Twins will look to add/hire/create roles based upon who’s available. Perhaps now that Anthopoulos is out of the running, they’ll focus more seriously on adding someone for the GM position, as opposed to a President-type. And it’s important to remember that it’s not as if these three men were going to be the only candidates in the Twins’ search. It’s just that these seem to be the three names that have been mentioned out there publicly in recent weeks.
Even still, both McLeod and Rehman have previously indicated that they happy with Chicago. Unfortunately, you can never be too sure in these types of situations. It’s possible that both are extraordinarily happy with the Cubs, but simply receive an offer too good to pass up. We’ll just have to wait and see.