Jim Bowden's continued employment is one of the great mysteries of the early spring to me. He's never been a good GM, neither with the Reds nor the Nationals. On top of his spotty track record, he's now got the embarrassing "Not Esmailyn Gonzalez" fiasco to go with some serious concerns about skimming bonuses from Latin American prospects. I mean, if you aren't going to fire a guy for stuff like this, what do you fire him for?
Well, the rumor mill is churning today and it looks like the Nationals may be exploring their options after all. I saw this morning (via Baseball Musings) that the Nationals' blog Federal Baseball reported last night that the Nats were considering replacing Bowden with Tony LaCava, and today Baseball Prospectus' John Perrotto is seemingly confirming those rumors.
LaCava, if you're unfamiliar, is the Blue Jays' current assistant GM and as Perrotto mentioned, he was pretty seriously considered by both the Pirates and Mariners in their recent GM searches before they went in different directions. LaCava's known for more than just his work with the Blue Jays. He was in Cleveland and Atlanta before going to Toronto, and well known as a great talent evaluator. He would likely be a great hire for the Nats.
So will Ted Lerner pull the trigger on Bowden? The bonus skimming charges originally surfaced last year and Bowden's job security wasn't affected. This year is a bit different though, as the bonus skimming scandal is now following an ugly 102-loss season in 2008 and the news about not-Ramirez's age certainly isn't helping. Fire Jim Bowden says the move's been made already. I guess we'll find out Wednesday night.
Nationals Reportedly Considering Canning Jim Bowden originally appeared on MLB FanHouse on Wed, 25 Feb 2009 15:08:00 EST . Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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