A real journalist would support this with a source and some substance… but me? Just a hunch. I have a theory the Padres are for sale. This seems crazy because Fowler, the O’Malley’s and the Seidler’s have only owned the team for a year or so, and now they’ve gotten rid of their inherited President/CEO Tom Garfinkle and their inherited GM Josh Byrnes. They should just be getting settled in, right?
Maybe. Or maybe they’ve realized they made a terrible mistake? Maybe they saw the Clippers up the street go for a cool $2 BILLION. Maybe they’ve seen what they get in return for investing more money into their ballclub… a team that is absolutely terrible. So, maybe the team is on the market… just not publicly.
If they are for sale, I’d assume this is common knowledge in baseball’s inner circle. A circle that I’m not in. But if there’s one thing we know about new ownership groups, it’s that they want “their guy” to run their team. Would you want to be hired as the GM of a team that is for sale? You get hired, then somebody buys the team, then you get canned and you have to start over from scratch? Why leave a cush job where you’re an assistant GM somewhere? Or where you’re a legitimate candidate to succeed the current GM, or potentially fill a vacancy for another club that can score more than 1 run a game?
The U-T gave us a list of 5 potential GM candidates. So far, we know of two potential GM candidates that have pulled their name of the running for the Padres GM vacancy. If you guessed they were two names from the five that the U-T provided, you win a lollipop. One of those guys was Forst (A’s), and the other was McLeod (Cubs).
David Forst has pulled his name from consideration for the Padres GM position
— Alan Torres (@cuppingmaster) June 25, 2014
Either team made up its mind quickly (doubt it) or he’s 2nd to pull out. RT @MDGonzales McLeod w/draws name from consideration for SD GM job — Jay Posner (@sdutPosner) June 30, 2014
Isn’t this fun? Lucky for Padres fans with no memory, Kevin Towers’ GM job is thought to be on thin ice, since the D-backs brought in Tony LaRussa, so he’s probably all ears. If you do have a memory, that probably wants to make you scratch your eyeballs out. So, are the Padres for sale? I think so. If they’re not, then I’m just an idiot blogger with a stupid theory. If they are… well, maybe I’m not so stupid after-all? *update- even the Padres own internal candidates are opting out of the job*
Ron Fowler said baseball operations VP Omar Minaya has decided to not pursue Padres GM job but does want to remain with the team.
— UTKevinAcee (@UTKevinAcee) July 1, 2014
-bp