Who will Jed Hoyer hire to succeed him as Cubs general manager?

Jed Hoyer has worked for the Cubs for nine years and I’ll bet the most you ever found out about him and what he did as Theo Epstein’s top assistant was during Theo’s parting news conference earlier this week.

The division of duties between a MLB President of Baseball Operations and a General Manager is a fairly recent construct, done only in the last decade. Theo was one of the pioneers in this role; now, many teams have two men running their baseball ops departments.

Baseball is more complicated than it was years ago, when one person as General Manager not only ran the baseball ops side, but also business operations. Now those functions, too, have been split among two or more people for many teams, including the Cubs with Crane Kenney as President of Business Operations.

The promotion of Hoyer to President of Baseball Operations leaves his former position as General Manager open. Having been that person for the last nine years, Hoyer certainly has a great understanding of what that person can and should do, so he should also have a good idea of the sort of person he’d hire to fill his former role.

From the outside, it’s difficult to know exactly what duties this person has, and what role he (or she!) fills for the President of Baseball Operations, so anything I write here is pure speculation. Nevertheless, let me name a few names I might put in that spot; perhaps you have others.

One of the rising young stars in the Cubs baseball executive suite is VP of Scouting Dan Kantrovitz. It’s clear to me that when Kantrovitz was hired away from the Oakland Athletics (where he was assistant GM), that not only was that a move to improve amateur scouting, but to put someone in place who’s fairly young (Kantrovitz is 41) who might be able to move up the executive ladder. Kantrovitz brings experience in two organizations (he was Director of Scouting for the Cardinals previously) that could be very useful to the Cubs.

Another possibility is assistant general manager Randy Bush, who brings to the table a 12-year MLB playing career (all with the Twins) as well as 14 years as AGM with the Cubs, dating back to the Jim Hendry era. Something that works against Bush being given this role is his age. He’s 62 and I suspect Hoyer will look for someone younger. Bush is likely to stay as AGM if he’s not promoted.

This article by Mark Gonzales in the Tribune puts a few more names out there, including current Cubs executives Jason McLeod (senior VP of player personnel) and Jeff Greenberg (director of pro scouting and baseball operations). McLeod just got a sideways move in the organization last year and I don’t think he’s a viable candidate. Greenberg would seem to be a guy who might move up to Kantrovitz’ position if Kantrovitz were named GM.

From outside the organization, Gonzales names Jared Porter and Amiel Sawdaye, both of whom are assistant GMs with the Diamondbacks. Gonzales notes that both men worked with Hoyer in Boston and Porter, who has worked four years in Arizona, was previously the Cubs’ director of pro scouting. Both men interviewed for the Angels GM job that went to Perry Minasian.

There you have six names who might be considered by Jed Hoyer to fill his previous role as General Manager. Hoyer is scheduled to meet the media Monday and perhaps we’ll know more then. In the meantime, have at it.