Shapiro, 48, was asked the question that has driven the narrative since the GM turned down a contract extension last week: would Anthopoulos have been given automony over baseball decisions?
“I don’t know that,” Shapiro said. He said what was more important than who had what authority was a process that allowed the organization to arrive at the best decision. “It’s not about autonomy, it’s about collective success.”
Later, he was asked how involved he planned to be in the baseball operations of the club. “That’s a tough question to answer,” Shapiro said. In a good organization, a good culture, he explained, the president is “going to have some involvement.”
He (Beeston) wasn’t about to opine on the merits of process and the importance of corporate symbiosis. And he let Anthopoulos do his job.
Shapiro, it seems fair to say now, would have done so, too, but only to a point. He would have retained final say on player-movement decisions because he’s a guy who, to use another bit if business jargon, doesn’t believe in silos.
And so Anthopoulos, having just completed his masterstroke 2015 season, must have realized that the result of that success would be a job in which his authority would be diminished. Not dramatically, perhaps, but diminished nonetheless. Shapiro might say, as he did Monday, that he didn’t understand all the fuss about autonomy, but the man who would have been his GM evidently did.