UTK Special 9/9/25
Make This The Class of '26
Chaim Bloom is back. That’s the big news and it’s good news.
After a weird, disjointed, and mostly unfair run in Boston, Bloom heads to St. Louis with the kind of second chance most smart executives never get. Hee deserves it. For all the talk of his quiet demeanor and analytical lean, Bloom was tasked with trading Mookie Betts and then punished for not making the team better while also doing exactly that. That’s baseball, sure, but it’s also dumb.
Now he inherits a legacy franchise with aging stars, rabid fans, and a desperate need for clarity. He’s the Cardinals’ new showrunner, tasked with rebuilding something sacred while keeping it from falling apart. That’s the job now.
Bloom’s hire got me thinking. Not about him, but about the next hire, now that he’s in place in St. Louis.
While the headlines keep going to names like Josh Byrnes, Ruben Amaro, and even Paul DePodesta, who’s been out of baseball a decade, and out past guys who are certainly qualified like Erik Neander if he leaves, Sam Fuld if he does the same, or Thad Levine if he decides to come back to baseball.
There’s another tier of executives— Prospectus-adjacent, forward-thinking, internally respected—who are absolutely ready to run a team. They just don’t make as much noise and maybe that’s the problem. If they won’t publicize themselves, I’m going to have to a little bit. (I couldn’t even find good YouTube videos on a couple of these guys!)
So let’s skip the list that everyone always publishes when a job opens and take a closer look at five guys you should know: James Click, Jason Paré, Mike Groopman, Matt Kleine, and Sky Andrecheck. I won’t pretend to be anything other than biased here. I’ve known each of them for over a decade and each would get my full Fred McGriff style endorsement.
Someone call New Balance: these guys got next.
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James Click: The Proven Champion Who Should Still Be Running a Team
Click already did the job. He ran the Astros post-scandal, kept the engine running, and won a World Series while navigating one of the weirdest front office cultures we’ve seen in decades. He’s a Yale guy, sure, but more importantly he’s a BP guy and a Gary Huckabay disciple, someone who understands how to build an organization from data and culture, not just payroll. His departure from Houston wasn’t about performance. It was about fit. Toronto scooped him up immediately because smart teams don’t let talent linger. He’s currently VP of Baseball Strategy, which is code for “please don’t hire him yet, we’re still using his brain.” If your team needs a POBO with ring cred, soft skills, and a proven ability to balance spreadsheets and scouting, Click’s the best available. Period.
Jason Paré: The Analytics Whisperer Who’s Ready for the Chair
If you’re building from the R&D lab outward, Jason Paré is the blueprint. He’s been in the mix with Miami, Cleveland, Toronto, and now Atlanta, helping shape the Braves into a model of efficient dominance, even in a down year, though that may hold him back from being the hot candidate he should be, this year. He’s not loud. He’s effective. Paré understands the layers between data and decisions, between models and humans. That’s where he lives. He’s a bridge guy, and in today’s game, that’s the hardest role to fill. He doesn’t need to overhaul a team—he needs the chance to optimize one. Quietly, precisely, and with total command. He’s ready and has been since he worked with Keith Woolner at BP.
Mike Groopman: The Deal-Maker with the Rolodex That Matters
Groopman doesn’t just get deals done. He gets them done because people trust him. That’s not something you can teach. He played a major role in Boston’s pursuit of Garrett Crochet this year because of the relationships he built in Milwaukee and Kansas City. That matters. You can’t fake your way through conversations that require nuance, timing, and a poker face. Groopman knows how to use analytics without selling them. He understands scouting because he’s done it. He makes things happen in a way that doesn’t show up on the transaction wire until it’s already too late. A GM job wouldn’t be a stretch - it’d be a natural next step for the Boston native who came in with Bloom but stayed because of his value.
Matt Kleine: The Culture Carrier Who’s Quietly Building Milwaukee’s Machine
Kleine is everything you want in a modern front office lead. He’s humble, organized, and deeply embedded in one of the smartest organizations in baseball. The Brewers have punched above their weight for a decade and Kleine’s been in the room for all of it. He’s not a fast-talking quote machine. He’s a systems thinker and he has been. He knows how to scale what works and when to kill what doesn’t. If your franchise wants to build sustainably, Kleine is the rare operator who can run both the engine and the transmission. You want to get better quietly? Hire him.
Quick story: Years back, I did a speaking engagement at DePauw University. After the talk, a student walked up to me and said “I’m going to be an MLB GM.” My instant response to meeting Matt Kleine? “I believe you.” I hired him as an intern on the spot.
Sky Andrecheck: The Hidden Genius of Cleveland’s Success
You don’t know his name, but your favorite GM does. Andrecheck has been one of the analytics pillars in Cleveland’s consistently overperforming front office, alongside another BP legend, Keith Woolner. This is the guy who helps build the tools that built the wins. He’s not out front. He’s not trying to be, but if you’re a team like the Rockies or even the Pirates, and you’re looking for someone to reset your decision-making tree from the roots up, Sky could be your guy. The metrics don’t care about face time with the press and neither does he. He just gets results. I can recall an afternoon sitting with Andrecheck, Woolner, and … I think it was Mike Chernoff in the seats at what was then Jacobs Field and learning more about park effects in thirty minutes than I had ever.
These five don’t need another year in the second chair. They’re not “maybe someday” guys. They’re ready. The next Chaim Bloom isn’t hiding. He’s in your building.
Maybe it’s time a smart owner gave one of them the job. Or all of them.
Want a bonus? Mike Girsch should land somewhere quickly after leaving St. Louis. He’s worked as a great second with Jon Mozeliak and could be great in that role somewhere like with the Mets if they finally backfill that position or in Colorado if they go full rebuild, which I don’t anticipate.
One more note: Ignore any list that includes Kim Ng this year. Her Commissioner gig with Athletes United Softball and the MLB investment puts her in line to take Manfred’s job, not Mike Rizzo’s. Manfred has to get by the CBA over the next year, but after his success with the TV renegotiations, he’s likely to step aside ahead of the big TV negotiations coming in 2027. There’s a very, very short list of possible replacements and Ng’s currently at the top.