caulfield12

This source seems VERY familiar. I've seen it pop up quite a few times for various professional sports articles the last 2-3 years.

Well, I will gladly take Carlos Rodriguez over either Hahn/Getz in a heartbeat.

They aren't/weren't morons. The end. Hahn maybe a baseball moron...outside of contracts and public speaking.

OF/CF 1B/DH pitching pitching pitching

Eye for talent is one half of it. Developing that talent and also finding players with that burning internal drive to be great...well, look what happened to Moncada Kopech Jimenez and Robert, Jr. I mean...I literally taught narco trafficantes' kids in Colombia, but also one student whose parents both attended Harvard and earned doctorates in opthamology, and their daughter also got in and excelled, too. The lines are blurry when money gets involved with education. Girls are forced by society there to grow up too quickly into young women, and the machisimo culture also dictated that beauty was prized over brains...that being too smart was actually a big negative to the majority of "prized" men. About half of my female students had multiple plastic surgerhe's already at ages 15-16-17. But at least they never had to make that choice to utilize their beauty in order to save their families financially, thank god. That was the saddest part of the Franco case...how much the mother manipulated her daughter to target famous athletes to provide a better lifestyle for herself. Afaik, she was also charged and held criminally responsible for her actions as well.

Except those morons went to Stanford Northwestern/Kellogg Harvard Law and Michigan. Not morons...just not well suited to working together as an executive team and sharing decision making power when KW and Paddy still wanted to overrule Hahn on talent evaluation/trades.

KW stopped caring, simply got acclimated to a comfortable executive lifestyle with all the perks (2005's long shelf life) and Hahn just never had the eye for talent. Rodriguez was the first to sign an eventual Brazilian major leaguer in Yan Gomes. That was at the same time the White Sox were going after Andre Rienzo and Anderson Gomes, middle of the Wilder scandal days when Jerry Krause was also scouting Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia.

It will fun to now shade every Sox transaction with Friedman/Rays-colored glasses from this point onwards. We did it with McKinven visit a vis Milwaukee players and Barfield on the ill-fated Mena deal. There will be the same debates behind every good and bad move depending on if you want to stake a position...just like the ubiquitous Hahn vs. KW inquisitions that went around in interminable circles.

If it's so ridiculous, why is there no mention of it anywhere in his bio? Wander Franco was a generational talent, his biggest signing ever and the first $100+ million contract for the Rays. Obviously it wasn't Rodriguez's fault...anymore than Sherrone Moore's delfish individual actions can only be blamed on himself and not Harbaugh/UM. From having lived in that Latin American world, one can certainly see everyday the temptations and potential snares that are out there for young and rich athletes who transformed entire villages with unimagined wealth virtually overnight. But sometimes it's also just time to move on for both sides. A fresh start. The same thing kind of gut check reassessments happened in the Marlins' organization when Jose Fernandez passed away. There are a number of individuals who felt responsible then, all the way up to the owner's box. At any rate, Rodriguez would probably tell you the same exact thing after 16 years with the same organization. Time for a change and challenging new opportunity.

"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

"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

What's the latest out of this new role?

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

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

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

Promoting the most diverse group of coaches and front office execs over the years of any team in baseball over the last 45 years, arguably. Loyalty Loyalty Loyalty ... double-edges sword. Add to the list as you wish...this just off top of my head in reaction to Carlos Rodriguez front office announcement. Kim Ng J.Barfield Carlos Rodriguez Kenny Williams...more diversity than other 29 teams' front offices combined arguably Jin Wong formerly KC contracts guy, Bobby Witt, Jr. extension Venable/Jose Leger (DR Academy) Terry Francona R.Renteria TLR Grifol C.Montoyo (even if Robert didn't know him) Ozzie Guillen and family (almost hired Cito Gaston) Man Soo Lee ... first Korean coach in the majors, 2005 WS team Willie Harris Jason Bourgeois Marcus Thames D.Boston/Dave Wilder (not so great) Loyalty to most of those guys, except Razor Shines, Raines, S.Santos and Vizquel (beyond obvious reasons there) All the various Sox ambassadors like Baines, Minnie Minoso, Jose Contreras Entire long history of the Cuban Connection... L.Aparicio/C.Carrasquel Don Wakamatsu Takatsu/Iguchi Joey Cora coaching tree/Camp Cora Pre-JR (Can thank Veeck here...who was an absolute pioneer starting with Satchel Paige) Larry Doby later served as the second black manager in the majors with the Chicago White Sox, and in 1995 was appointed to a position in the AL's executive office...played with Sox twice and retired from MLB with them before going to Japan to finish career. Two biggest negatives to me were treatment of Frank Thomas (KW 50% to blame) as well as HoFer Dick Allen.

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.

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."

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.

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/

From 2015-19, Rodriguez served as director of international scouting after three years as director of Latin American scouting (2012-14). During this time, he expanded the Rays’ global scouting presence and refined their international evaluation and acquisition processes. He played a key role in scouting and signing notable players such as José Alvarado, Jonathan Aranda, Vidal Bruján, Genesis Cabrera, Diego Castillo, Yonny Chirinos, Ronaldo Hernández, René Pinto, Cristopher Sánchez and Jesús Sánchez. Rodriguez joined the Rays in 2010 as a professional and international scout after four seasons as an area scout with the Blue Jays. In 2009, he signed Yan Gomes, who became the first Brazilian-born player to reach the major leagues. A native of Puerto Rico, Rodriguez attended the University of North Florida, where he played and later served as an assistant coach. He graduated in 2004 with a double major in international business and economics. He and his wife, Omayra, reside in Tampa with their daughter, Eva Marie. mlb.com

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/twins-dan-altavilla-agree-to-minor-league-contract.html Altavilla to Twins' pen likely

What happens with Robert (and eventually Benintendi) should tell us a lot...

Sponsorships/promotions/t.v. advertising rates falloff as well.... You also have to account for Dominican academy costs. Brewers reportedly spent $20-30 million there, for example. We don't have any reason to believe Ishbia would write a check to completely bail JR out of a $130-150 million debt. It's probably spread pretty evenly with the Reinsdorf family, Ishbia and 10-15% remaining minority shateholders. https://www.mlb.com/news/munetaka-murakami-deadline-to-sign-with-mlb-club-is-december-22 Sox not listed as an option here. DBacks added.

https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2025/12/giants-designate-joey-wiemer-for-assignment.html Joey Wiemer instead of NPB stars lol?