Erik Neander, Dayton Moore and Baseball’s Executive Title Inflation

“There’s no way one person anymore can maintain a 30,000-foot view and handle the minutiae of information that now crosses your desk — not when you oversee multiple departments,” said O’Dowd, now an M.L.B. Network analyst and the chairman of baseball virtual reality program WIN Reality.

It’s not just the size of the departments that have grown but the “level of information and resources,” Atkins said, referring to the technology, data, coaching feedback, sports psychologists, nutritionists, massage therapists and everything else that helps develop better players. “I would expect that it just grows to be more and more robust,” he added.

Those inputs are growing while the schedule has been lengthened. January used to be the one quiet time, but many off-season transactions have been pushed into that month. “The calendar is year-round — it never stops,” O’Halloran said. “It’s a competitive field, obviously, and you’re always trying to get edges. So having multiple senior leaders, or two senior leaders, just makes that more manageable.”

How those duties are divvied up is based on the executives’ skill sets and preferences. The Royals’ Piccolo said he would be “laser-focused on what’s happening at the major league level” while Moore would spend more time on the holistic view of the organization.

At the end of the day, however, the hierarchies are still pyramids, with one decision maker.

“We’ll all work together on that, but ultimately, I’ve got to make the final decision, the final authority with what works well or what doesn’t,” Moore said. “And that being said, I think you know how I operate. I’m not a micromanager. We allow people to do their jobs.”

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/28/sports/baseball/erik-neander-dayton-moore.html