How MLB front office execs continue their quest for an elusive work-life balance
Milwaukee Brewers President of Baseball Operations David Stearns talks about stepping down from that role at a news conference Thursday, Oct. 27, 2022, in Milwaukee. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
By Andy McCullough and Will Sammon
Nov 28, 2022
Earlier this year, Chris Antonetti tried something he had never before attempted in the 13 years since he had taken over the baseball operations department of the Cleveland Guardians. He took a summer vacation.
In June, Antonetti went to Italy. For nine days, he tried his best to stay off his phone. He traveled the country with his wife, his two teenage daughters and his parents. “It was like a multi-generational trip,” Antonetti said. It was also, he explained, something of a strategic decision he made with his chief lieutenant, general manager Mike Chernoff, who jetted to London with his family at a different point during the season.
“We actually made a point to do it, both for ourselves and for our families,” said Antonetti, Cleveland’s president of baseball operations, earlier this month. “But also to set a tone for the organization, too. It’s hard — we keep telling other people, ‘It’s important to have balance, we want you to be able to get time away.’ And they often times when we do, they’re like ‘Yeah, you say that. But we’re not seeing you guys do that.'”
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The pursuit of a work-life balance is nearly universal. For the well-compensated, privileged few who run baseball teams, it is a subject rarely raised in public. As a famed fictional ad man once said, that’s what the money is for. “We’re really, really fortunate to have these jobs,” Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi said.
But the topic came up often earlier this month at the GM Meetings, in part because of one executive who was not there. In October, David Stearns resigned his post as Milwaukee’s president of baseball operations and shifted into an advisory role. At 37, Stearns was considered by his peers to be, as Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto put it, “one of the best executives in baseball.” Stearns had been mentioned as a candidate to leave the small-market Brewers for a team with deeper pockets like the Mets or Astros. The status of his contract, which expires after 2023, was a topic of considerable interest in Queens, Houston and beyond.
Stearns cited a desire to spend more time with his family at a press conference last month. He indicated he had been grappling with the decision “for some time.” He considered himself unable to provide the “complete and total commitment” required in his position. He would not speculate on his future beyond this coming season, but stressed the need to reset. Stearns declined an interview request for this story, but several colleagues within Milwaukee’s front office described his burnout as genuine.
“David is a unique guy, and he’s not defined by baseball,” said Brewers general manager Matt Arnold, who took over for Stearns. “A lot of us in this game, we can gravitate to that life, where this defines us and we have to check ourselves. David has such incredible perspective that he was able to do that. He wanted to put his family first. He wanted to put his life first.
“That is a really, really, really tough thing to walk away from. And I respect that a ton.”
As Stearns’ former peers gathered in Las Vegas a few weeks later, several executives empathized with his situation.
“I have tremendous respect for people who have the courage to say, ‘You know what? I don’t want to do this anymore,'” Rays general manager Peter Bendix said. “That takes so much courage. And if they change their mind in a year? Good! Great for them.”
Added Athletics general manager David Forst, “I think all of us can relate to David on some level. And he’s certainly not the first to express that sentiment. It is a 24-hour-a-day job. You have to make time for your life outside of it. Otherwise you risk running into that same scenario.”
A life outside of baseball, of course, can be a fleeting concept. Hobbies can be hard to maintain. No longer does Antonetti play golf during the summer; he carves out time to snowboard with his daughters in the winter. Bendix’s wife has encouraged him to follow his passion for ping-pong and join a club.
“It’s not like this job prevents it,” Bendix said. “But it’s a lot harder to say I’m going to go do that once a week when we’ve got home games.”
“I try,” Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom said, “when I’m not focused on work, to be focused on my family.”
Brian Cashman has worked for the Yankees since 1986. He has run the baseball operations department since 1998. He cited his affection for his colleagues, “a good cup of coffee starting my day,” and an atmosphere heavy on practical jokes as helpful to maintaining enthusiasm over the decades.
Cashman is a renowned prankster. He has deployed fart machines in the office, crafted fake trades to goof reporters, and passed out counterfeit lottery tickets to players. He once duped organizational Mahatma Gene Michael into believing he was a candidate for a big-league managing job. Another time he convinced Hall of Fame closer Mariano Rivera he owed a significant debt to the Internal Revenue Service.
“You want to create a place that’s fun to come to and compete at,” Cashman said. “Even though there’s so many things constantly on the table that you have to be all-in on.”
Marlins general manager Kim Ng stressed the importance of building little breaks into the schedule. The time does not need to be lengthy. But it does need to exist.
“You set finish lines for yourself,” Ng said. “For me, it’s like, ‘OK, after we hire the manager, I can take a breather.’ And you give yourself half a day.”
Bendix got promoted to general manager in Tampa Bay less than a year ago, but he had been a Ray since 2009. “You learn the little things that you can do that really go a long way,” Bendix said. So he creates small rewards for himself during the season. If he visits the team’s Double-A affiliate in Montgomery, Ala., he’ll also partake in some barbecue. His wife has accompanied him on trips to Boston, New York and even Charleston, the home of another Rays minor-league team. On a visit to the minor-league team in South Carolina, Bendix watched games on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, then hung around with his spouse for a couple extra days.
“I was on my phone and doing all these things,” Bendix said. “But we were in Charleston, I wasn’t going to a game, we ate at restaurants.” He added, “It’s a day. It’s two days. It’s three days. But it really goes a long way.”
Part of the challenge is the vastness of each organization, which spans several minor-league affiliates plus operations in Latin America. There is scouting for the draft during the spring. There are trades in the summer. There is free agency — without featuring a frenzied spurt like other sports — in the winter. Player development has become a year-round endeavor. The calendar creates little room for a break — especially in the thick of the regular season. Which is why some executives greeted the concept of a summer vacation with incredulity.
“Back in the day, I got out of a lot of weddings thanks to the season,” Zaidi said. “I guess it would depend what a vacation was. If you’re talking like literally unplugging and not being off at all, it’s just impossible.”
“I don’t think you can, not in this market,” Cashman said.
The closest Forst has come, he said, is visiting the beach at the All-Star break. Otherwise? “During the season? No,” Forst said. “Has anyone ever answered yes to that question?” Informed that Antonetti and Chernoff had done so in 2022, Forst cracked a smile. “Good for Chris,” Forst said. “He’s way ahead of all of us on that stuff.”
Some teams, like the Giants and Mariners, recommend time away for staffers during the season. “From player development to scouting, we mandate that our people take a week or a series off,” Dipoto said. In San Francisco, Zaidi made a similar suggestion to the big-league coaches. They don’t always listen.
“There’s just a burden of expectation of, like, ‘It’s my job to be here,'” Zaidi said. “Baseball has that culture of, like, you’re there, you’re grinding every day. But we just try to encourage that because I think it’s good for them. It’s really good for the organization to have people be able to unplug and re-energize.”
That concept was part of the impetus for Antonetti and Chernoff visiting Europe last summer. The duo broadcast their time off to the rest of the organization, hopeful that others would notice. “Just that signal of ‘Hey, this is what Mike and Chris thought that they needed to do for themselves and their families. I should be thinking about what are the things that I need to do,'” Antonetti said.
So Antonetti took a vacation. For a little while, the season took place without him.
“And the world kept moving,” Antonetti said. “The world kept spinning.”
