Well we learned a few things if you listened to Ricketts speak today.
1. This team is very good at keeping things under wraps. The decision was made on July 22nd and we still had a national reporter within the last week say that Ricketts was leaning towards keeping him.
2. No one currently with the organization will be considered for the job. Decisions on the current people in place (Quade, Wilken, Fleita, etc.) will be made by the GM brought in.
3. The timing makes perfect sense. There was reason to keep Hendry in place this long because of signing the draft picks which Ricketts made clear Hendry was very involved in. Now that the signing deadline has passed, the players the Cubs would want to deal have gone through waivers, etc., there really isn't much left for the GM to do. Now is a good time to make official, and allow the process to begin.
4. However, I would be shocked if a new GM was in place before the end of the postseason. The guys that we really want are currently employed by teams, and it is unlikely that teams in the race would allow key members of their staff to interview for another job (you can read Rick Hahn here if you want). And until they can interview all the key people to have the best idea who is the best fit for the GM, I don't want them making a call on that.
5. That is going to make it real interest on the timing though because a number of guys are going to be free agents, and so that window of exclusive negotiations could be lost due to the transition.
I'm sure there is more but this is what I thought of prior to eating lunch.
