Originally Posted by
Pelicanidae
I think the larger issue with Ferry, beyond just his fit, is the red flags he raises about the future of the organisation.
Gayle and co. pretty much told us they were going to do a top to bottom re-fit of the team, looking to the future. They told us the structure of things would be changed, that the new GM would have final say over the HC position, et cetera.
If, after hiring a consultancy and waiting weeks for results, and then hefty interviews with so many candidates whose names are all out there publicly, they just say ''eh, we'll stick with what we've got'', then there are two possibilities.
1) After all interviews, examining the plans of the GM candidates, Ferry legitimately seems to be the best candidate with the clearest vision and best understanding of the team.
OR
2) The ownership just kind of decided not to rock the boat too much, and if Ferry looks decent then it can't hurt to keep him, why shake things up?
If Ferry gets hired and it's for reason 1, then I'm fine with it. Like I said before, he's a perfectly competent executive. But if he gets hired for reason 2, then that's terrible, and it casts doubt over all the of ''big shakeup'' stuff we've heard since the AD trade request. Makes the ownership look complacent, and we know that if Ferry becomes GM, Gentry has a higher chance of staying on as HC because of continuity concerns. The problem for us, as fans, is that it is IMPOSSIBLE for us to know which of the two reasons it is: the ownership is not going to come out and tell us they picked Ferry because he was the safe, easy option.
Which means picking Ferry carries with it inevitable, undesirable, connotations which it's difficult to ignore. I don't want a complacent, 'meh', approach to the future of this team, and hiring Ferry tells me that the ownership MIGHT be doing just that.