Young execs waiting in GM wings (And so it begins)

Doug Miller (Pravda) provides a list of young potential GM candidates. Some are familiar of course, but they've pointed out some new ones.

Jeff Kingston

Current job: Assistant GM, Seattle Mariners

Age: 32

The latest: Kingston joined the Mariners last September, replacing longtime assistant GM Lee Pelekoudas, and made a big impact this winter, being a key operator in the negotiations that ultimately led to the signing of staff ace Felix Hernandez to a five-year contract extension.

The resume: Kingston graduated from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania in 1999 with a degree in economics, started in baseball when hired by Epstein as an intern for the Padres, and spent the last nine seasons working his way up through the San Diego baseball operations department. Kingston was named the Padres' director of baseball operations in November 2002, a title he held until being hired by Seattle. While in San Diego, he was primarily responsible for assisting former GM Kevin Towers and assistant GM Fred Uhlman Jr. in all player acquisitions as well as roster, payroll and budget management, contract negotiations and salary arbitration efforts and overseeing statistical analysis and scouting efforts.

Quotable: "I am excited to add Jeff to our front office staff. He assisted in several capacities with San Diego, and his skill set and diversity will aid this organization as we move forward." -- Mariners GM Jack Zduriencik when Kingston was hired

over 2 years ago ThundaPC 3 comments 0 recs |

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Kingston is ours and you cant have him!

by ARock on Feb 16, 2010 5:52 PM PST reply actions

The USSM/LL community has talked about this before.

Growing your own talent isn’t exclusive to on field performance but also front office and behind the scene people as well. I think USSM did a wish list piece for the new GM before Zduriencik was hired. On that wish list was the development of an in house stats department, which future front office talent could be pulled from.

When I heard that Kingston oversaw the detail work on Felix’s extention I realized the guy could be GM material in the next few years. Realistically, Jack Z is not going to be around forever, and keeping an eye out for quality people to carry on, is just part of being a good manager.

by mark sobba on Feb 16, 2010 10:52 PM PST reply actions

But it's not just growing your own replacement

It’s about developing talent and letting it go, too. It’s quite likely (and I certainly hope) that Kingston will be ready for a GM job long before Zduriencik leaves. But wherever Kingston goes, he’ll be a guy Jack knows how to deal with — that’s the way it works in MLB: it’s such a small world, everybody works for or with just about everybody else, sooner or later.

by wandergeist on Feb 18, 2010 10:44 PM PST up reply actions