Kim Ng Makes History, Becomes 1st Female General Manager

Posted on by Charlie Ricker

At 10:38 this morning, Jon Heyman of MLB Network announced on Twitter that the Miami Marlins hired Kim Ng to be the team’s new General Manager.

 

This is significant. At almost 52 years of age, Kim Ng is now the first female GM in Major League Baseball. Notoriously slow to adapt to modern ways, Major League Baseball showed it wants to shed it’s archaic ways. It took a young owner like Derek Jeter to break the mold. Furthermore, she is the first female general manager of ANY major sport (MLB, NFL, NBA, NHL) in the United States.

While Ng is new to the GM title for the Marlins, she is anything but new to MLB front offices. Starting at the bottom, Ng began her career thirty years ago with the Chicago White Sox, working her way up to the title of Assistant Director of Baseball Operations. Wanting to advance, she left in 1997 to take a position in the offices of the American League, where she was Director of Waivers and Records, approving transactions.

Ng joined the New York Yankees in 1998 as Assistant General Manager under Brian Cashman, himself a new GM. She stayed with the Yankees through the 2001 season, and left for the Los Angeles Dodgers where she held the same title, while adding the title of Vice President. In 2005, Ng interviewed for the Dodgers vacant GM position, but lost out to Ned Colletti. Wisely, Colletti kept Ng in the same position, where she stayed until early 2011.

Undeterred, Ng interviewed for General Manager positions up and down the West Coast. She applied from San Diego to Seattle and everywhere in between. In March 2011, she left Los Angeles for a job as Senior VP of Baseball Operations for MLB, while reporting to Joe Torre. Ng stayed with MLB until Jeter and the Marlins made her historic hiring official this morning.

 

This is a great day for Major League Baseball and humanity in general. Ng’s hiring is more proof women can do what historically has been known as a “man’s job”. I would bet she will do it better than most men. I wish Ng the very best in her new job in Miami.

 

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Yankees Extend Aaron Hicks

Posted on by Charlie Ricker

Just before 8 o’clock this morning, Jack Curry of the YES Network announced via Twitter that the New York Yankees signed center-fielder Aaron Hicks to a 7 yr./70 million dollar contract extension.

The extension begins with this season, replacing the one year contract Hicks signed in January, and extends through his age-35 season. This is an extremely wise move by Yankees GM Brian Cashman and the front office. It ensures that Hicks, Aaron Judge, and Giancarlo Stanton will stay together through 2022 at the earliest.

Hicks will man centerfield for the foreseeable future, at least until highly-touted OF prospect Estevan Florial is ready for major-league action. Florial is in Yankees camp as a non-roster invitee, but probably two years away. Chances are Hicks will shift to left field when that time comes.

For this season, it looks like long-time Yankee Brett Gardner will get most of the playing time in left. Gardy is 35, and wears down as the season goes on. He could split time with Clint Frazier, or Jacoby Ellsbury (remember him?) if he actually plays. The Yankees have to pay Ellsbury anyway, so they may as well see if he can contribute.

Long term, I have a feeling Cashman will try to trade Frazier if he has a healthy spring. With Hicks, Judge, Giancarlo and Florial, there’s really no room for Clint. They may as well trade him for prospects and start replenishing the farm system for the future.

Also of note, according to Jon Heyman, the Yankees are now shifting their attention to try to sign Dellin Betances to a long-term deal.

The Yankees play this afternoon against the Toronto Blue Jays at 1:00 on YES Network. The Big Maple, James Paxton makes his spring debut against Marcus Stroman. See you there!

Wild Horse Galloping to Cincy

Posted on by Charlie Ricker

Things had been mostly quiet on the western front since the end of MLB’s Winter Meetings more than a week ago. A late afternoon trade between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds was equivalent to pouring gasoline into the proverbial hot stove.

At 4:25 PM EST, Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan fired off a tweet that warned the baseball world that a trade was imminent.

As you might predict, that got baseball Twitter all kinds of fired up. Several tweets from the winter meetings resurfaced regarding the possibility of Dodgers OF Yasiel Puig being involved in a potential deal. Nine minutes later, Passan sent out another tweet, this time with the specifics.

This is clearly a salary-dump move that benefits each team. Homer Bailey had been absolutely dreadful since signing his deal with the Reds a number of years ago, and moving Kemp and Puig allows the Dodgers room to make their much anticipated run for Bryce Harper in their now-vacant right field. It also has been noted on Twitter that Kemp and Puig weren’t very happy with manager Dave Roberts‘ platoon system and were looking to move on from LA because of it.

In other news, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweeted that free agent shortstop Manny Machado won’t be making any decision on a new team until after the New Year.

This also likely means Bryce Harper won’t be making a decision until after New Year’s Day either. So grab a Snickers bar and your blanket and toss another log into the stove. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Stay warm, be safe and enjoy your loved ones! 😎🎅🏽