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Mark Shapiro: A Career In Perspective
Thursday, February 23, 2006

By Jeremy Smuckler

There have been only a handful of Major League Baseball’s General Managers who have adopted the relatively new statistical analysis of baseball known as sabermetrics. Executive Vice President and General Manager Mark Shapiro is one of them and he has done a great job with the Cleveland Indians and their modest payroll to construct a winning team without spending a lot of money.

One of only a few Jewish GM’s (a list that includes fellow sabermetrics enthusiast and Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein), Shapiro got his start in 1992 as an assistant in baseball operations for the Cleveland Indians after obtaining his degree from Princeton University. He chose to enter baseball, though he had experience in the business world as a consultant for large corporations looking to increase efficiency. He later replaced Jon Hart, whom he had worked under for 10 years, as GM of the Indians and has held he position for the past five years – according to Major League Baseball Properties, Inc.

Mark had his work cut out for him when he took over the GM spot in 2001. He had to withstand the impact of a fire sale, in which the team shipped out all-stars such as Jim Thome, Roberto Alomar, Omar Vizquel, Juan Gonzalez, and Ellis Burks. Albeit not in the same year, he had to find ways to unload these star athletes and start from the bottom up after a successful 91-71 season in 2001. His plan was to essentially start over and create a team using prospects and economically sensible decisions.

This concept of rebuilding has paid great dividends for the Indians. They endured two losing seasons, before finishing at nearly .500 in 2004 and almost coming back to take the division from the World Series Champion Chicago White Sox in 2005 before a collapse in the final series of the season.

They did, however, finish at 93-69 that year, their best record since 1999, and established an identity in the American League Central with a new core of homegrown talent and recently acquired prospects such as Travis Hafner, Victor Martinez, and Cliff Lee. Practically all of the players on the current roster have passed through the Minor League System which includes the local Triple A Buffalo Bisons.

Shapiro has been able to construct a winning team based on a few key statistics that are often overlooked by talent evaluators who often rely too much on the appearance of a player and his evident skills. He has traded marginal major league players, Einar Diaz and Coco Crisp, for potential talent, Travis Hafner and Andy Marte, respectively, based on statistical performance.

These excellent moves have earned him the 2005 Executive of the Year from both Sporting News and Baseball America in his 14th season with the Cleveland Indians organization. Mark Shapiro has a large family background that includes well-respected player representative Ron Shapiro and newfound Jets coach Eric Mangini; now he hopes to extend the success of his family and help architects such as Billy Beane and Theo Epstein bring sabermetrics into the next generation.

Labels: biography, sports

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