Baseball’s top 40
USA TODAY Sports looks at Major League Baseball’s most influential people,
With so many different powerful personae in baseball, here are some of the ones who have the most influence on the future of the game. 1. ROB MANFRED A protégé of Hall of Fame commissioner Bud Selig, Manfred has shown a radically different approach in his two years as chief executive. While Selig was painfully slow adopting change, awaiting strong consensus among owners, Manfred is quick to make change. He is showing a strong willingness for innovation and a burning desire is to speed up the pace of play, marketing it to youth without damaging its fabric of being a timeless sport or offending baseball’s conservative and traditional fan base. 2. DAN HALEM Halem is Manfred’s right-hand man, performing all of Manfred’s duties before he became commissioner. A brilliant man, he is the point person on the labor, economic and legal fronts and was the driving force on the new collective bargaining agreement and baseball’s Biogenesis drug investigation. He widely is viewed as Manfred’s successor if he stays in baseball. 3. TONY PETITTI Petitti is the creative force in Manfred’s inner circle in baseball’s hierarchy as the chief operating officer. Petitti, former executive vice president of CBS Sports, created and developed the Major League Baseball Network. He also is behind baseball’s vision of speeding up the pace of the game to engage younger fans and the viewing audience. 4. BILL DEWITT Dewitt, CEO of the St. Louis Cardinals since 1996, has risen to considerable power under Manfred and is Manfred’s closest ownership ally. He is a former chairman of the executive council and former chairman of the commissioner’s succession committee that helped elect Manfred. He succeeds Jerry Reinsdorf as the most powerful owner in the game. 5. SCOTT BORAS Still — and probably always — the über agent. Boras Corporation enjoyed $132.3 million in commissions last year, according to Forbes magazine. Even as some of its legacy players retire, the client list remains deep, relevant and lucrative. Bryce Harper will hit the market in two years; come 2021, Kris Bryant might surpass whatever Harper fetches. Players love Boras for getting top dollar; ownership and front offices have no choice but to respect his clout, passion and knowledge of the industry and game. 6. BOB BOWMAN The longtime president and CEO of MLB’s über-successful advanced media wing, Bowman has helped the league generate billions in income due in large part to a successful — if sometimes frustratingly territorial — online video product that governs and profits off all the sport’s streaming broadcast packages and highlights. Since the 2015 implementation of Statcast in all 30 MLB parks, MLBAM now tracks an overwhelming amount of raw on-field data to be synthesized by its teams, broadcasts and in-house analysts. 7. TONY CLARK Clark, in his fourth season as executive director of the players association, is the first former major leaguer to hold that position. In December, he and MLB officials negotiated a collective bargaining agreement that extends through the 2021 season and increases the minimum player salary to $535,000 this year. The MLBPA has long been regarded as the strongest union in major pro sports, and baseball remains the only one without a salary cap. 8. TERRY MCGUIRK The Atlanta Braves CEO since 2001, McGuirk is a powerful voice among baseball executives while also having the ear of Manfred. The former Turner broadcasting executive maneuvered the deal that led the Braves to move from downtown Atlanta to the $672 million SunTrust Park, with a surrounding $452 million mixed-use development, without it being publicly known before an announcement. 9. CASEY CLOSE He helped keep Derek Jeter’s name out of blaring headlines for the better part of two decades, and now Close is making his own name by controlling much of the ever-lucrative pitching market. Close changed the game by negotiating opt-out clauses into deals for Zack Greinke, Masahiro Tanaka and Clayton Kershaw. Greinke already cashed in, to the tune of a $206.5 million deal after the 2015 season. Tanaka and Kershaw are up next the next two offseasons. The low-key approach combined with lucrative results will ensure blue-chip players arrive in the Excel Sports Management stable. 10. ROB MCGLARRY President of MLB Network, reporting directly to Bowman. McGlarry, an executive at the network since it launched in 2009, has played an instrumental role in negotiating MLB’s broadcasting agreements since arriving in 2003. 11. BRYCE HARPER He’s supposedly second to Bryant in fan recognition and likability among active major leaguers, but Harper’s relevance can’t be denied. He cast himself as the unofficial torchbearer for the expressive, occasionally brash young ballplayer with his “Make Baseball Fun Again” exhortation. The rare athlete who lived up to and perhaps exceeded the significant hype preceding him, Harper was an MVP by 22 and now boasts endorsements for almost every significant MLB corporate partner: Gatorade, T-Mobile and Under Armour, to name a few. After the 2018 season, it’s almost certain he will set a new standard for biggest contract. 12. KEVIN PLANK Under Armour signed a deal in December that will have the sportswear company supplying Major League Baseball’s uniforms beginning in 2020. The company’s logo is set to feature on the front of jerseys once it takes over. MLB fan apparel has become a big part of Under Armour’s business, challenging Nike’s long-standing dominance. 13. ERIC SHANKS He’s the co-president and COO of the powerful Fox Sports Media Group, Major League Baseball’s largest broadcast rights holder, which annually produces the World Series. At 38, he is believed to be the youngest leader of a broadcast network sports division. 14. JOE TORRE The Hall of Fame manager and former star player brings an onfield and dugout perspective to his job as chief baseball officer, the main connection between the commissioner’s office and the teams and umpires in matters related to the playing of the game. Torre oversees discipline for onfield actions and has been involved in the implementation of instant replay and pace-of-play rules. 15. TOM RICKETTS The Ricketts family owns the Chicago Cubs, and Tom is the chairman of a board of directors that includes siblings Pete, Laura and Todd. Under the Ricketts’ ownership, the Cubs have embarked on a $550 million renovation of Wrigley Field and its surroundings that is still ongoing. The product on the field also has been upgraded, as confirmed by last year’s World Series championship — the franchise’s first since 1908. In the pipeline: a possible Cubs TV network. 16. THEO EPSTEIN When you build potential dynasties in Boston and Chicago and break century-long “curses” for the Red Sox and Cubs, it puts you in a different stratosphere. Epstein, president of baseball operations for the Cubs, has broken even further from the pack of genius general managers, building not just a champion but, by all appearances, also a perennial powerhouse in Wrigleyville. Ricketts gave him a reported $50 million deal to stick around; then-President Obama suggested he run the Democratic National Committee. Still just 43, Epstein and his trusted lieutenants will almost assuredly keep the Cubs humming, but the baseball industry — and beyond — can’t help but ponder his next move. 17. BRIAN SEELEY Seeley is MLB’s top investigative cop. As a former assistant U.S. attorney, he has a prosecutor’s mind-set and a rich legal background. In 2014, he led the investigative unit that exposed the Biogenesis doping scandal — one of the most extensive drug investigations in sports history — that resulted in 14 player suspensions. 18. HAL STEINBRENNER For a few years after George Steinbrenner ceded control of the New York Yankees to his sons in 2008, it appeared brash and outspoken Hank Steinbrenner might carry on the family’s tradition of hands-on, front-facing, controversy-courting ownership. But Hal Steinbrenner seems instead to be guiding the club toward an unlikely pragmatism now culminating in a fruitful youth movement. The new-look Yankees seem primed to foster a core of good young players apt to complement whatever big fish they inevitably lure in free agency, all while still raking in significant revenue from the YES Network. 19. MARK WALTER Los Angeles Dodgers owner. Walter, a Chicago financier, and his investment group bought the Dodgers for a record $2.15 billion in 2012, then parlayed that purchase into an $8.3 billion TV contract. The Dodgers finished second in Walter’s first year as owner and have won four consecutive National League West crowns since, though they’re still seeking their first World Series appearance since 1988. 20. JERRY REINSDORF Reinsdorf, who owns the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls, is one of only three men who have owned sports franchises that won championships in multiple sports. Reinsdorf, who has owned the White Sox since 1981, was former commissioner Bud Selig ’s closest ally and easily the most powerful owner in the sport during Selig ’s reign. He still wields considerable power among owners. 21. JOHN HENRY The 67-year-old investor is the principal owner of the group that purchased the Red Sox in 2002, two years before the team won the World Series for the first time since 1918. Since then, the Red Sox have won twice more and are ranked third on Forbes’ list of the most valuable franchises with a value in 2016 of $2.3 billion. His Fenway Sports Group owns 80% of the New England Sports Network (NESN), which broadcasts Red Sox games. He also owns The Boston Globe. 22. DEREK JETER Long the face of baseball and a future first-ballot Hall of Famer, the telegenic former Yankees shortstop still carries a lot of weight in the sport. His online media outlet,
The Players’ Tribune, offers baseball’s biggest stars a direct means of communication with fans. And Jeter soon might make his longheld dreams of ownership come true. He has been reported to be part of an ownership group vying to purchase the Miami Marlins. 23. JOHN SKIPPER President, ESPN. Skipper greenlighted the eight-year, $5.6 billion deal with MLB that extends both sides’ partnership through 2021. Though ESPN televises three games a week during the regular season, the network has become a minor presence in the postseason, with rights only to one wild-card game. As ESPN feels the financial strain of cord-cutting, its relationship with baseball in future years will bear watching. 24. STUART STERNBERG He owns one of MLB’s smaller fish, the Tampa Bay Rays, and voted against the most recent collective bargaining agreement, calling it a missed opportunity “to address the ... widening competitive gap that exists on-field between higher and lower revenue clubs.” But the Rays stadium situation is untenable; the franchise, while not a free agent, has a greater potential for mobility than any other. The twists in their venue saga bear watching as 2027, when their lease at Tropicana Field expires, approaches. 25. JAMES ANDREWS The foremost authority in the elbow reconstruction procedure known as Tommy John surgery, Andrews has extended the careers of hundreds of pitchers. 26. LARRY BAER Baer was one of the key figures in keeping the San Francisco Giants from moving to Tampa in the early 1990s and in getting their privately financed ballpark built; he has since ascended to CEO. The club’s streak of 489 sellouts is the majors’ longest. The Giants have won three World Series under Baer’s stewardship. 27. ANDREW FRIEDMAN The Dodgers president of baseball operations since 2014, Friedman first rose to prominence in baseball when he was named the Rays general manager in 2005 at 28. His analytic approach turned the perennial losers into a playoff team when they reached the World Series in 2008. With the Dodgers, he has assembled an allstar front office that includes former MLB GMs Josh Byrnes (San Diego) and Farhan Zaidi (Oakland). 28. JEFFREY LORIA Five years after opening a stadium made possible by strong-arming area taxpayers, the Marlins owner is hard at work on a multibilliondollar exit strategy: selling the club. Numerous bidders reportedly have emerged, including names such as Jeter and the Kushner family. 29. BILLY BEAN Still one of only two former MLB players to publicly come out as gay, Bean serves as the league’s Ambassador for Inclusion. In that role, Bean tours clubhouses every year to engage with players in the hopes of fostering environments more accepting than those he confronted during his playing days in the late 1980s. Bean’s visits have come with some controversy, but he persists in shepherding the league into the 21st century. The results are already evident: The club has outlawed cross-dressing as a rookie hazing ritual. 30. JANE FORBES CLARK Hall of Fame chairman. The granddaughter of Hall of Fame founder Stephen C. Clark, she’s a major mover and shaker in Cooperstown, N.Y. She also serves as a liaison between the Hall and the players who return yearly to welcome new inductees. 31. BILL JAMES The impact of James as a baseball writer, historian and statistician cannot be overstated in the game we know today. He was the first to use what’s now known as sabermetrics (a term he coined from the Society for American Baseball Research’s acronym) as a new way of looking at and measuring the game. His annual self-published
Baseball Abstract spawned a new generation of analytically minded sportswriters. He is a senior baseball operations adviser for the Red Sox, a position he’s held since 2002. 32. DAVID ORTIZ Even in retirement, Big Papi remains an influential figure. Ortiz still appears in national TV commercials and is revered by American and Latino players, especially those from his native Dominican Republic. He is baseball’s quintessential ambassador and has the commissioner’s ear. 33. MARK SHAPIRO Shapiro, president and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays, is one of the most powerful disciples of Braves vice president John Schuerholz. He was a fixture in the Cleveland Indians organization for 24 years and groomed GMs and executives such as Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff of Cleveland, Ross Atkins of Toronto, Neal Huntington of Pittsburgh, Derek Falvey of Minnesota, David Stearns of Milwaukee and Mike Hazen of Arizona. 34. MIKE TROUT The best player in baseball by far, Trout enters his sixth full bigleague season with two MVP awards, five All-Star nods and countless statistical accomplishments on his résumé, but a low Q rating only partly explained by the Angels’ middling performances in 2015 and 2016. 35. BRODIE VAN WAGENEN Van Wagenen, co-head of Creative Artists Agency’s baseball division, teamed with Jay Z’s Roc Nation for two years, during which he negotiated a $240 million contract for Robinson Cano with the Seattle Mariners. He also managed to fetch $137.5 million for Yoenis Cespedes despite an iffy market for the slugger after the 2015 season. And he’s also the man who deftly brought you Tim Tebow, baseball player. 36. FRED WILPON Wilpon’s involvement in Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme and ensuing financial crisis made the Mets a laughingstock in the early part of this decade. Things have calmed down since, and the team is winning, due in large part to Wilpon’s patience with general manager Sandy Alderson. 37. NEAL ELATTRACHE The team doctor for the Dodgers and Rams is known as the orthopedic surgeon to the stars. El-Attrache is also an expert on Tommy John surgery. 38. KRIS BRYANT Perhaps the most prominent and promising young star on a Cubs roster chock full of them, brighteyed Bryant represents a rare Northside player who has known only success. Off the diamond, his matinee-idol looks are on display as a pitchman for Express. 39. CLAYTON KERSHAW Baseball’s highest-paid player at $33 million a season, Kershaw is a three-time Cy Young Award winner and generally regarded as the game’s top pitcher. 40. KIM NG The highest-ranking woman in baseball, Ng, as senior VP of baseball operations, oversees MLB’s international operations. Ng was an assistant general manager with the Yankees and Dodgers and interviewed for the Los Angeles GM post before joining the MLB office in 2011. Her name has surfaced in connection with other GM jobs, but so far no female has been hired for such a post.