There is no question that the time since Jacobs/Progressive Field opened in 1994 has been the golden age of Cleveland baseball. Yes, there was that period of when Bill Veeck owned the team and the GM tenure of Hank Greenberg from 1947-1959 where the Indians went to two World Series and won the last one for the franchise in 1948.
Since 1991, the franchise has basically had three men in charge of the baseball operations. John Hart was hired by Hank Peters in 1989 as a scout and assumed the GM duties in 1991 and remained in that spot until 2001. Mark Shapiro took over and was in that spot until 2010, when he moved to team president and promoted Chris Antonetti.
Antonetti became the president of baseball operations in 2015, and Mike Chernoff was promoted to the GM spot then. Really, the franchise has had three people running the baseball team on the field since ’91. That’s 35 years.
Going further, the promotions all came from within. Shapiro was hired by Hart in ’91, became Director of Player Development, and then assistant GM before taking over in ’01. Antonetti has worked for the team since 1999 and was named Shapiro’s successor in 2010.
Chernoff was hired as an intern in 2003 while still enrolled at Princeton, and rose through the organization becoming assistant GM under Antonetti in ’10.
There have been people hired from outside in various positions, but really, the franchise hasn’t hired anyone outside of the organization in a top leadership position in the front office in 37 years. An era where they have won three American League pennants, the same number they won from 1901-1994.
Stability is a good thing. That’s one way to look at it.
Another way to look at it has it become stale.
We know about the recent success of the franchise. Since Antonetti was put in charge, the Guardians have made eight playoff appearances and went to the World Series in 2016. Unfortunately, they haven’t built on that success, winning just one playoff series (the 2024 Division Series) since.
Look, we understand the executives, particularly Antonetti and Chernoff, have been hampered by the lack of financial support by the ownership, but that is a story for another time. The biggest move from outside the organization was the hiring of Terry Francona as skipper following the 2012 season.
Francona brought some outside thoughts to the organization, and he might be the last person to do that with this group.
After the World Series appearance in ’16, the ownership ponied up some cash (perhaps carried away with the excitement) and signed slugger Edwin Encarnacion as a free agent. That’s the last large signing of a player from outside.
Last season, the team finished with one of the worst offenses in the sport and still made the playoffs. The front office didn’t go out and get any bats in trades or free agency, instead saying they wanted to give their young hitters a chance. The Guardians still rank among the worst teams in baseball in scoring.
They seem to be unable to make judgments on their own prospects, holding on to some of them until all the value is sapped from them and thus, have no value to other teams on the trade market.
They seem to overvalue defense, sacrificing offense at times, when the minor leagues are full of players who have good gloves but cannot hit.
Even their production on television is worn, seemingly turned into a group of “yes men” continually telling viewers how great everything is, which is an insult to the people who understand the game a bit.
Maybe the Guardians will duplicate last year and go on a run to make the playoffs again, but it doesn’t seem likely. And maybe the current organization will not have to make any tough decisions until 2028 because of an impending lockout next year.
Maybe you don’t have to have a catcher who cannot contribute offensively because defense and handling the pitching staff is ultra important.
This era of Cleveland baseball has been great for a long time, and it can continue, but it seems to need a jolt, some fresh ideas. Perhaps the last two months are a blip on the radar, but it could also be the same old ideas are lost in a world of change.
Cleveland Sports Perspective 