I think Luhnow would have kept the team as a contender thru at least 2025. And he likely would have gone down as one of the most successful executives in baseball history. But that’s not what happened. Instead, right as he crested .500 career winning %, the enemies he made along the way were able to get the better of him. And so instead of being evaluated over 2012-2025+, he was only GM from 2012-2019, during which he presided over a few of the worst teams in history (bad) and a few of the best teams in history (good). He won a World Series (good) and went deep in the playoffs a few times (good) but got busted for cheating (bad) and roasted for trading for a wifebeater (bad). I take all that together, and I see an extremely talented guy with a fatal flaw, so all in all a good (but not great) GM.
I think this is fair. He was pretty exceptional at a lot of facets of his job but he had some blindspots that ended up getting him merked. He just never seemed to realize that he wasn't at McKinsey anymore and he needed to publicly defend his decisions in terms beyond simple efficiency and value maximization.
Calling Luhnow a .500 GM is freaking crazy!! Not every move is going to work out but his record speaks for itself. He built a team that won a WS, went to a game 7 in another, and an ALCS in another. Team is still loaded with talent (guys that he drafted, traded for, and signed in FA). You're being blind if you're just looking at the W-L record.
His fatal flaw was doing things differently and being the best in the MLB doing things that way. I don't see the things you see as a fatal flaw. I see it as doing things the big market teams were doing in order to give his team a chance to win a championship.
It's just pure hatred for the man and another case of making numbers say what you want them to say. Fact is no avg GM builds a team that wins 100 games for three straight seasons.
Calling him a .500 GM isn’t crazy, it’s an observable fact. There’s a valid argument that evaluating him solely on that is leaving out a lot of context, which is why I don’t do that. Like I said, I take in his whole tenure: his .500 record, his 100 loss seasons, his 100 win seasons, his playoff wins, his World Series win, his trade for the wifebeater, his getting caught cheating...all of it adds up to a guy who did some amazing things but was ultimately flawed in a way that marred his legacy such that he is merely good not great. Just like every ****ing thing else in today’s world, people feel the need to eliminate nuance. It’s not a binary choice of Luhnow is the greatest GM ever or a total piece of ****. He can be just a guy who did great things but also made big mistakes, so just good not great.
Luhnow might have some legitimate grievances in how he was disciplined for the sign stealing scandal given the scant evidence MLB was able to drudge up directly linking him to the cheating and the fact that MLB didn't similarly discipline the Red Sox or seriously investigate other teams suspected of cheating. However, he did do other things like acquiring Osuna at a domestic abuser discount and apparently attempting to draft a convicted child molester where there is no one to blame but Luhnow. Had he been the GM of the Dodgers, Yankees, or Red Sox, he might still be GM. But he's not, and the way Houston would be treated versus those other franchises should have been known by him and taken into account even if that difference in treatment isn't fair to Houston.
I don't agree with you entirely about Luhnow, but this statement right here is solid gold. It feels like we've lost all capacity for critical thinking and everyone is either a villain or a hero, a winner or a loser. This is the age of the polarized false dichotomy, and it's exhausting.
Only an agenda driven opinion would scoff at three consecutive 100 win seasons.... and include the rebuilding years to try and make the win percentage look bad.
The Cardinals “system” hasn’t been the same since he left there (and since their hacked passwords stopped working). Time will tell if Houston will reach the same pinnacle at any point. For somebody who didn’t totally realize he was in “baseball”, he had some major accomplishments in over a decade in the sport.
Realmuto fractured his thumb and may not be ready for opening day. Would of loved to read all the people saying Click sucks for not signing him saying Click sucks for signing him.
A’s bullpen doesn’t lose much from last season. That rotation is still gonna get hammered like in the ALDS though
I have no reason to hate Jeff Luhnow. I’m just taking a broader analysis of his performance that accounts for more than just the ring he won.
I didn't know we had so many people interested in writing a biography on Jeff Luhnow..... Can he play CF or close a game?
Thoughts on bringing back Osuna similar to a deal that Ken Giles just signed? Reddick on a MiLB deal?
Osuna didn't have the surgery. It would have to be a totally different deal. A one year deal near minimum salary with a bunch of incentives based on appearances.
