McCourt, DePodesta Have Two Meetings
Despite a busy schedule that included a late-morning staff meeting, an early afternoon live radio appearance and an evening flight to Boston, new Dodger owner Frank McCourt found time to interview Oakland assistant general manager Paul DePodesta not once but twice Friday.
McCourt discussed the Dodger general manager’s job with DePodesta during a morning meeting and again in the evening before he and his wife, Dodger Vice Chairman Jamie McCourt, caught a flight to Boston, where they will tend to personal business before returning to Los Angeles on Wednesday.
The general manager search will continue Wednesday or Thursday. According to a Dodger source, DePodesta is the only candidate McCourt has interviewed or sought permission to speak to so far.
“It was fine, it was nice,” DePodesta, 31, told the San Francisco Chronicle at an A’s fan-fest event in the Bay Area on Saturday. “The process will play out over the next seven to 10 days. At this point, it’s their decision. [Current Dodger General Manager] Dan Evans is a friend of mine, so it’s not fair of me to speculate on anything.”
McCourt said Evans was a “legitimate candidate” for the job, and he met with Evans informally twice last week, but the chances of Evans’ retaining his position appear slim.
McCourt is expected to interview at least two other candidates, and former Seattle, Baltimore and Toronto general manager Pat Gillick, who is currently a consultant for new Mariner General Manager Bill Bavasi, is still believed to be high on McCourt’s list.
Oakland front-office executives have touted DePodesta as one of the brightest young minds in the game, and Oakland General Manager Billy Beane, who has built the A’s into an American League West power on a limited budget, said DePodesta had been “as responsible for our success as I’ve been.”
DePodesta, who graduated cum laude from Harvard, was offered the Toronto general manager’s job two years ago but turned it down because he didn’t feel it was the right fit for his family. He spent three years in the Cleveland organization before becoming the A’s assistant general manager in November 1998.
DePodesta has been working since the end of the 2003 season without a contract, and if the Dodgers were to hire him, they would not owe Oakland compensation in the form of players and/or draft picks.
Among the first orders of business for the new Dodger general manager -- or Evans -- will be to hire a farm director, a position that has been vacant since Bavasi left for Seattle in November.
Evans has been criticized for failing to acquire a middle-of-the-order bat to improve baseball’s weakest offense, but he earned praise from Bavasi for constructing one of baseball’s best pitching staffs, spearheading the improvement of the Dodger farm system and keeping the team in playoff contention for the last three years despite inheriting a roster bloated with contracts that left him little flexibility.
“Danny has done a great job there digging out from other people’s messes,” Bavasi said. “He is not getting and has not gotten enough credit.”
