A look at the early Arizona Diamondbacks GM candidates

Mike Bell

Age: 41
Current position: Director of Player Development, Arizona Diamondbacks
GM experience? No

Probably the most familiar name, Bell having been in charge of the D-backs’ farm system for five season, and with the organization for nine all told. Bell oversees the eight minor league affiliates, so will be well familiar with the players who have been developed by Arizona. He previously reported to Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations De Jon Watson. and there were recent reports of a clash in philosophy between the two men: "After a conference call in July, Bell told superiors he could no longer work with Watson," and he appears to have won that battle, with Watson being let go by the Diamondbacks last month.

Ned Colletti

Age: 62
Current position: Senior Adviser to the President, Los Angeles Dodgers
GM experience? Dodgers GM, 2005-14; Giants Assistant GM, 1996-2005

The new name on the board came from J.P. Hoornstra, and is the sole candidate yet named to have GM experience at the highest level. He was replaced in Los Angeles by Andrew Friedman in October 2014, but stayed on at the club in an advisory role. The Dodgers did well in his time at the helm, reaching the playoffs in six of nine seasons, and his successes include the signing of Zack Greinke and the mega-trade with Boston for Adrian Gonzalez. But there were mis-steps as well, with some expensive overseas acquisitions that flopped, and expensive contracts given to Manny Ramirez, Andruw Jones and Andre Ethier. Would he be able to handle the greatly-reduced resources available to him in Arizona?

Bryan Minniti

Age: 36
Current position: Assistant General Manager, Arizona Diamondbacks
GM experience: Diamondbacks Assistant GM, 2014-current; Nationals Assistant GM, 2009-14

Minniti was hired by the Diamondbacks away from under former Arizona employee, Mike Rizzo, who was the Washington GM. He’s currently believed to be the interim GM, though there would be little to the position in terms of decisions, until the World Series is over. At the time of his move to Arizona, the Washington Post spoke highly of Minniti, calling him a "future GM candidate," and added, "Many rival executives and player agents sought him out when dealing with the Nationals because of his responsiveness and professionalism." Amusingly, one of the reader comments on that story says, "So they've already hired Stewart's eventual replacement"; we’ll see how accurate that turns out!

Ray Montgomery

Age: 47
Current position: Vice-president of scouting, Milwaukee Brewers
GM experience: No

Montgomery just got promoted in Milwaukee a couple of weeks ago, having been with the team since November 2014. It became his second stint with the club, having been there until 2010, when he moved to Arizona and became the Diamondbacks’ scouting director. During his time here, the picks selected by Montgomery included Jake Lamb, Archie Bradley, Braden Shipley, Aaron Blair and Trevor Bauer. Two months before his departure back to Milwaukee, he had been one of the candidates for the D-backs’ GM position last time, and also interviewed for the Padres’ GM spot in July 2014. A year after joining the Brewers again, he was reportedly on the short-list to become their GM, before they went with David Stearns.

Kim Ng

Age: 47
Current position: Senior Vice-President for Baseball Operations, MLB
GM experience: Yankees Assistant GM, 1998-2001; Dodgers Assistant GM, 2001-11

Ignoring glass ceilings since 1995, when she became the youngest to present a club’s salary arbitration case, for the White Sox. She was 26, and beat Scott Boras. At 29, she became assistant GM for the Yankees, and moved West to take up the same role in Los Angeles three years later. She was a finalist for the GM position there, as well as in San Diego and Seattle, before returning to New York, and a position in MLB’s head office. But even after taking up that role, she has never hidden a desire to run her own team. In 2012, former Dodgers’ CEO Bob Daly said, "One of the biggest mistakes I made from a personnel standpoint, was not making Kim general manager before I left... She is very, very qualified to be a GM. It’s a shame she hasn’t gotten the opportunity."

Peter Woodfork

Age: 39
Current position: Senior Vice President, Baseball Operations, MLB
GM experience: Diamondbacks Assistant GM, 2005-10

Woodfork was part of the Arizona front-office during the Josh Byrnes era, focusing on 40-man roster management as well as contract negotiations, scouting and Minor League player development. At that time, he had a reputation as someone whose "evaluation skills are based significantly on statistical analysis as opposed to the more traditional scouting disciplines." However, Peter himself said, "Everyone tries to lump people into different categories and I think now people are looking for balance. There’s an analytical portion to it, there’s a scouting portion to it and without that balance you’re not going to be successful." In his current job with MLB, Woodfork’s primary responsibilities include oversight of umpiring and instant replay.