Baseball’s Wall Street-style Executives Get Titles to Match
The New York Times
As M.L.B. front offices get more and more corporate, titles have steadily inflated. Yesterday’s general manager is today’s president of baseball operations … or chief baseball officer.
The Tampa Bay Rays recently bestowed a new contract and a new title on their baseball operations leader, Erik Neander. He began the season with dueling corporate epaulets — senior vice president of baseball operations and general manager — and is now president of baseball operations. This was not, however, an elevation in rank.
“This position is the same as it was yesterday, it just happens to have a different title,” the Rays team president, Matt Silverman, said. “It’s not a promotion — he’s been leading the department for years. But the title change itself is really just to make it more consistent with how the industry currently titles the department.”
A week after Neander’s title change, the Kansas City Royals installed their own president of baseball operations, only their news release included the word “promoted” to describe Dayton Moore’s ascension from general manager to president as well as J.J. Piccolo’s move from assistant G.M. to G.M.
