Gillick: Special Assistant to the GM?

Joel Sherman had a really good idea: Cashman should hire outgoing Phillies GM as a special assistant/consultant.

The Yanks should jump at that, because Gillick can enhance their sketchy player-choosing process.

"He might be the best evaluator I have ever been around," said Philadelphia's director of major-league scouting, Gordon Lakey, who has worked with Gillick in three locales over 38 years.

Cashman considers Gillick the role model for all GMs. That admiration, in conjunction with Gillick being 71 and not wanting to be a GM any longer, should remove any threat Cashman would feel employing Gillick.

I think this idea has some merit. Gillick hasn't been perfect; no GM ever has been.

Of course, Gillick has made mistakes. The Phillies are in the NLCS despite Gillick having signed Adam Eaton as a free agent. But they also are here because of the skills that helped four different Gillick GM-ed teams reach at least the LCS.

He transitioned the Blue Jays from expansion to champions. He is the lone GM to guide the Peter Angelos-owned Orioles to the playoffs. He was the architect of the record 116-win 2001 Mariners.
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The Yanks will look at a lot of free agents this offseason. Gillick might be the most important.

This could be a very smart move for Cashman, adding a senior, experienced voice that brings a sense of calm to the chaos that is the Yanks. He could spend some/all of his time in Tampa by Hank & Hal to keep them in the loop on all the nuts and bolts going on behind the scenes.

Phillies fans, what say you about Gillick?

The NY Times' Tyler Kepner had an interesting article on Gillick just the other day. Gordon Lakey, as noted above, added this:

“Very rarely in a meeting will he inject his opinion. He will one on one, but he doesn’t want his opinion to outweigh the suggestions of the people that work with him. You don’t work for Pat. You work with Pat.”

That's a great for him to have if he would assume this imaginary role.

“I try to be all-inclusive,” Gillick said. “There’s always, I guess, a philosophy that if you come in, you want to change all the parts, you want to change everything over. I’ve always tried to preach that consistency and continuity are very, very important. So if I know the baseball people, and I know they’re competent and could do the job, I don’t see any reason to replace them.”

I like it already.