Sox hire Carlos Rodriguez for Assistant GM role

[caulfield12]

By the way, he left his job with the  Rays at the conclusion of this past season.

So he'd been looking for a new opportunity for about two months or so now.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/rays/2025/10/23/hamilton-marx-assistant-gm-carlos-rodriguez-samantha-bireley/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiHzaWPpsaRAxV6kyYFHUDSCgUQFnoECAgQAg&usg=AOvVaw2jEksjpHzU6onK6o0QlgVy

 

"Bokhari and Banner should be mentioned in future GM searches, especially if the Cubs rebuild faster than anticipated. Hoyer’s GM search also included two finalists who are on similar trajectories: Rays VP of player development and international scouting Carlos Rodriguez, a native of Puerto Rico; and Cleveland VP of player development James Harris, a Black man who previously held high-level jobs in football, serving as Chip Kelly’s chief of staff at the University of Oregon and with the Philadelphia Eagles."

Long long article about the Cubs' attempts to diversity their front office.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/2975520/2021/11/24/as-major-league-baseball-talks-about-diversity-the-cubs-have-to-put-words-into-more-action/

Edited 18 hours ago by caulfield12

[WhiteSox2023]

4 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

By the way, he left his job with the  Rays at the conclusion of this past season.

So he'd been looking for a new opportunity for about two months or so now.

https://www.tampabay.com/sports/rays/2025/10/23/hamilton-marx-assistant-gm-carlos-rodriguez-samantha-bireley/&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwiHzaWPpsaRAxV6kyYFHUDSCgUQFnoECAgQAg&usg=AOvVaw2jEksjpHzU6onK6o0QlgVy

Two months is really nothing.  If the timing was right, this dude probably could have gotten a GM role.

[Chicago White Sox]

This is a home run fucking hire.  I’m actually shocked the Rays did not promote him to GM after Bendix left, but their loss is our gain.  And candidly speaking, our front office size was still light compared to others prior to this addition.  Glad that Getz didn’t rush to add muscle and instead waited for the right guy to come along.

[caulfield12]

2 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Two months is really nothing.  If the timing was right, this dude probably could have gotten a GM role.

Yes he was already a finalist for the Cubs' job that Carter Hawkins eventually got four years ago...that will be repeated numerous times, surely.

[chitownsportsfan]

Royals personnel seeing this news wrt to their career prospects:

[WhiteSox2023]

3 minutes ago, chitownsportsfan said:

Royals personnel seeing this news wrt to their career prospects:

Dudes be updating their resumes.  No sure thing with the Sox anymore!

Edited 18 hours ago by WhiteSox2023

[caulfield12]

Here's the HUGE elephant in the room that was excised from his official bios.

Both a plus on the scouting board, but a huge minus on the character/maturity/background side of things, quite obviously.

It turned the fate of the entire Rays' organization around, and led dealing most of their core veterans away the last 2-3 seasons.

 

"Wander Franco, who hails from Bani, Dominican Republic, was scouted and signed by the Rays' director of international scouting Carlos Rodriguez and Dominican Republic scouting supervisor Danny Santana."

Edited 18 hours ago by caulfield12

[Chicago White Sox]

3 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Here's the HUGE elephant in the room that was excised from his official bios.

Both a plus on the scouting board, but a huge minus on the character/maturity/background side of things, quite obviously.

It turned the fate of the entire Rays' organization around, and led dealing most of their core veterans away the last 2-3 seasons.

 

"Wander Franco, who hails from Bani, Dominican Republic, was scouted and signed by the Rays' director of international scouting Carlos Rodriguez and Dominican Republic scouting supervisor Danny Santana."

?

[WhiteSox2023]

9 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

Here's the HUGE elephant in the room that was excised from his official bios.

Both a plus on the scouting board, but a huge minus on the character/maturity/background side of things, quite obviously.

It turned the fate of the entire Rays' organization around, and led dealing most of their core veterans away the last 2-3 seasons.

 

"Wander Franco, who hails from Bani, Dominican Republic, was scouted and signed by the Rays' director of international scouting Carlos Rodriguez and Dominican Republic scouting supervisor Danny Santana."

Eh, so he was supposed to know that Wander Franco was a pedo?  That’s a stretch, unless he was able to do forensics on Wander’s PC/laptop/phone while he was scouting him.

Edited 18 hours ago by WhiteSox2023

[beautox]

I really like this hire, nice job Getz.

[chitownsportsfan]

nevermind. wander has nothing to do with anything here is the point.

Edited 18 hours ago by chitownsportsfan

[WhiteSox2023]

Here’s a thought — perhaps Getz would be better served in an EVP role like Kenny toward his end, with Rodriguez actually being the GM.  Getz has shown that he is better at the operations side of a baseball front office moreso than the scouting and choosing of talent himself.  I’d be down with that…

Edited 18 hours ago by WhiteSox2023

[caulfield12]

https://www.draysbay.com/2021/11/21/22793071/the-rays-newest-prospect-junior-caminero

On the other hand, the quietest great trade in MLB history...

Tobias Myers (later started for Milwaukee in 2024-25 after CLE minors and Charlotte AAA flops) for budding young 3B Junior Caminero.

Myers was a 40 man roster crunch victim in Tampa.

[WhiteSox2023]

8 minutes ago, caulfield12 said:

https://www.draysbay.com/2021/11/21/22793071/the-rays-newest-prospect-junior-caminero

On the other hand, the quietest great trade in MLB history...

Tobias Myers (later started for Milwaukee in 2024-25 after CLE minors and Charlotte AAA flops) for budding young 3B Junior Caminero.

Myers was a 40 man roster crunch victim in Tampa.

Tobias Myers could still be pretty good but yeah, that is a pretty impressive assessment of offensive talent.  Hopefully, Rodriguez was the dude who identified Caminero as a target.

[caulfield12]

23 minutes ago, WhiteSox2023 said:

Tobias Myers could still be pretty good but yeah, that is a pretty impressive assessment of offensive talent.  Hopefully, Rodriguez was the dude who identified Caminero as a target.

The main point he never even pitched once for CLE in the majors...

Edited 18 hours ago by caulfield12

[Boopa1219]

I love this hire for the Sox. Some great minds from around the game and outside the org have bought into what Getz is building. I'm curious to know what his role is with the Sox, he has a background in scouting, player development, and the international side of things, departments that are headed by others currently.

There's two front office moves that I would like to see the Sox make. I would love for them to hire away someone to be their head of analytics, and I would like to see Getz bring in an experienced GM as an advisor, something I'm still shocked that he hasn't done. 

[caulfield12]

44 minutes ago, Boopa1219 said:

I love this hire for the Sox. Some great minds from around the game and outside the org have bought into what Getz is building. I'm curious to know what his role is with the Sox, he has a background in scouting, player development, and the international side of things, departments that are headed by others currently.

There's two front office moves that I would like to see the Sox make. I would love for them to hire away someone to be their head of analytics, and I would like to see Getz bring in an experienced GM as an advisor, something I'm still shocked that he hasn't done. 

TLR lol...Rodriguez is more than experienced enough to be the actual GM.

Edited 17 hours ago by caulfield12

[Chicago White Sox]

41 minutes ago, Boopa1219 said:

I love this hire for the Sox. Some great minds from around the game and outside the org have bought into what Getz is building. I'm curious to know what his role is with the Sox, he has a background in scouting, player development, and the international side of things, departments that are headed by others currently.

There's two front office moves that I would like to see the Sox make. I would love for them to hire away someone to be their head of analytics, and I would like to see Getz bring in an experienced GM as an advisor, something I'm still shocked that he hasn't done. 

Do we know who is leading the analytics department at the moment?  They fired Matt Koenig last year and it’s hard to tell on the website who replaced him.  I know they have made changes to better engrain analytics throughout the org.  I’m assuming the new “Acquisitions” department led by Matt Grabowski reflects an analytics driven counterpart to Gene Watson’s old school pro scouting function.  Regardless, I think both of your ideas make a ton of sense for us.

[caulfield12]

1 minute ago, Chicago White Sox said:

Do we know who is leading the analytics department at the moment?  They fired Matt Koenig last year and it’s hard to tell on the website who replaced him.  I know they have made changes to better engrain analytics throughout the org.  I’m assuming the new “Acquisitions” department led by Matt Grabowski reflects an analytics driven counterpart to Gene Watson’s old school pro scouting function.  Regardless, I think both of your ideas make a ton of sense for us.

What happened to Dan Fabian/ND that ran things for at least 10-15 years?

[caulfield12]

"As for Rodriguez, it’s not surprising to see the Cubs explore poaching a Rays’ executive. The Rays have proven adept at building a farm system that should keep Tampa competitive for years to come. Former Rays’ executives hold top positions in Los Angeles, Boston, and Houston, and they’ve proven successful both in and outside of Tampa Bay. Rodriguez is their vice president of player development and international scouting.

For the Cubs, they are desperate to build a development team that can do a better job of sustaining success than their previous efforts."

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2021/10/cubs-narrow-search-for-new-general-manager.html

 

Out of those Cubs' interviews, James Harris went on to interview for the Houston Astros' GM position and is still one of three Asst GMs with Cleveland under Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2022/01/guardians-announce-several-organizational-promotions.html

Edited 16 hours ago by caulfield12

[caulfield12]

"The Rays have formally announced the departure of longtime Assistant General Manager Carlos Rodriguez.

When Chaim Bloom (current StL GM) departed the Rays to run the Red Sox in 2019, the team did not elevate a General Manager due to the equity found in talent between Peter Bendix, James Click, and Carlos Rodriguez.

Since that time, James Click was recruited to be the General Manager of the Houston Astros in 2020 (winning the World Series in 2022), and Peter Bendix was named General Manager ahead of the 2022 season before being recruited to become President of Baseball Operations of the Miami Marlins after the 2023 season..."

 

https://www.draysbay.com/rays/85871/rays-announce-departure-of-agm-carlos-rodriguez

This article neatly summarizes the rationale for Rodriguez's departure.

Basically as part of a four headed Asst GM situation and under both Eric Neander and advisor Jon Daniels (ex Rangers)...there was nowhere left to go organizationally under new ownership as Matthew Silverman and Auld both stepped down from top exec roles.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/46295886/rays-presidents-silverman-auld-step-part-sale&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwifz_aA38aRAxUAHUQIHUNCL2AQFnoECBQQAg&usg=AOvVaw2NwCh9zLK7AsmRKOQjryjA

 

Rays during the Carlos Rodriguez years

 

2010  96 wins

2011  91

2012  90

2013  92

2014-2017  *77/80/*68/80

2018  90

2019  96

2020  40-20  (108-54 pace)

2021 100

2022  86

2023  99 

2024  80

2025  *77

Edited 14 hours ago by caulfield12

[PaleAleSox]

If you can’t see the positives around what Getz’ vision seems to be and the people around the league buying into it, then you are just continuing the narrative you want to have. 
 

He is selling himself to some pretty damn bright baseball minds. 

[Chicago White Sox]

3 minutes ago, PaleAleSox said:

If you can’t see the positives around what Getz’ vision seems to be and the people around the league buying into it, then you are just continuing the narrative you want to have. 
 

He is selling himself to some pretty damn bright baseball minds. 

The foundational changes he has made should not be understated.  He basically wiped out the previous group of international scouts and has built a brand new team under David Keller.  He has modernized what was a terribly broken Analytics department and has integrated it throughout all major functional areas of the org.  He has built a new, beefed up Acquistions group under Matt Grabowski to bring a more data-centric element to player evaluation alongside traditional pro scouting under Gene Watson in new position in that area.  He’s invested in key technologies like Hawk-Eye and iPitch machines to enhance both our biomechanics and player development functions.  He’s added designated leaders to oversee pitching and hitting across the org.  He’s greatly expanded the size of the front office by hiring three Assistant GMs with specific responsibilities and has added other new roles including a Director of Major League Strategy and Director of Leadship, Culture, & Education.  I’m sure there are many other changes & hires I’m not outlining above, but his efforts have been substantial and should warrant some praise from fans.

[Chicago White Sox]

Will be interesting to see how they split areas of responsibility between Rodriguez and Barfield.  It seems likely to me that our international operations will go under Rodriguez.  Keller has always had a weird title and I feel like that might change now with Rodriguez in place and likely sitting in between him and Getz.  Both Rodriguez and Barfield have backgrounds in player development so not sure what happens there.  No idea on ops, acquisitions, pro scouting, amateur scouting, strategy, sports performance, etc.  R&D / systems infrastructure probably needs it own senior leader that isn’t one of the Assistant GMs given the technical knowledge there.  Jin Wong should continue to have his own area of responsibilities focus on budgeting, payroll planning, contract negotiations, etc.

Edited 10 hours ago by Chicago White Sox

[oldsox]

I can't help wondering if anyone besides Getz pulled the trigger on this hire. If it was all Getz, then good for him.