Taking a break from our normal look at players and managers in the All-Time Indians segment, the 200th man profiled will be the architect of the greatest Indians team that most living Tribe fans have seen, John Hart.
Hart was a high school catcher and was signed by the Montreal Expos in 1969 for what ultimately was a three year, minor league career. After batting .223/.272/.260 through 235 games, Hart smartly (although not of his own accord) left the game as a player and went to UCF, looking for a different way to get into Major League Baseball. Joining Baltimore in 1983, Hart was a minor league manager each year including 1986 and 1987 with the AAA Rochester Red Wings who finished ten games, then nine games above .500 under his leadership.
Seeing the talent they had, Hart was promoted to Major League third base coach in 1988, then was signed by the Indians to be a scout in 1989. While this was a lowly position to start from, by the end of the season Hart was the Indians manager, going 8-11 over the final 19 games. John McNamara would be brought in as the permanent manager for the 1990 season and Hart was moved to Director of Baseball Operations. He wouldn’t be long for this position either as he was promoted to General Manager in September of 1991.
The 1980’s were possibly the worst decade in Indians history with the team losing 100 or more games twice (the only two other occurrences in the previous seven decades were in 1914 and 1971) and no finishes above fourth place (in fact, the last finish above fourth was in 1968). When Hart took over in 1991, the Indians had just added their fifth 100 loss season, a number they haven’t reached since. In fact, after finishing last in the division four times from 1983 through 1991, they haven’t finished last a single time since Hart took over at the end of 1991.
While some of the moves that would make the Indians great later in the 1990’s had already began under the reign of Hank Peters, Hart was the true architect of the team. While many of the drafted players who would make a difference in the later years like Albert Belle, Charles Nagy, Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez were taken by Peters, Hart added a few pieces of his own through the amateur draft as he had a definite strategy of powerful bats and powerful arms. Of those who made it to the show, some of his early successes included Paul Shuey (the first player taken under Hart), Richie Sexson, Russell Branyan, Steve Kline, Jaret Wright and Sean Casey. While there was limited success in these early years, it was apparent after 1995 that the focus was only at the Major League level and from 1996 through 2001, the only Major League quality player drafted by the Indians was C.C. Sabathia in 1998.
It was in other aspects of the game that Hart was particularly adept. Possibly his biggest move, Hart acquired Omar Vizquel from the Mariners for the aging combination of Felix Fermin and Reggie Jefferson prior to the 1994 season, bringing the Indians their greatest defensive player ever. Knowing the Indians were only a few pieces away, Hart made the Indians players in the free agent market for essentially the only time in club history. In that 1993/1994 off-season he brought in three time All-Star and perfect game author, Dennis Martinez, for three years and about $10M and future Hall of Famer, Eddie Murray, for three years, $8M. After a strike ended 1994 without a World Series, Hart brought in former Cy Young Award winner and play-off superstar Orel Hershiser for three years and about $2M per year. While these numbers seem paltry compared to the current market, it was big spending for the team that spent the previous three decades only watching players go the opposite direction.
Hart also ended the era where the Indians were known as the Yankees’ farm team. Rather than risk losing control over his young stars, each of the major players were given long term deals. These included guaranteeing Albert Belle through 1996, Manny Ramirez through 2000 and Jim Thome through 2002. More than anything else, it was the success of the drafts and trades of the late 1980’s along with these signings that kept the Indians in contention every year from 1994 through 2001.
While it did involve some risk to guarantee so much to so many athletes, in the end, every single player extended worked out well in the franchise’s favor. This, as with anything, had both benefits and negatives and one of those was that once they were able to, every single super star left for more money in free agency. Of these, at least Manny Ramirez was ultimately disappointed that he signed for so little, so early in his career and once he had the opportunity, was looking to make up for this with the biggest deal possible.
With the players drafted, traded for and signed, the Indians then won each of the first five Central Division titles under Hart and two American League pennants. Because of the extensions, there was very little turnover during the decade outside of the loss of Belle, who joined the team a few years before everyone else. To solve this issue, when Belle left in free agency after the 1996 season, the Indians traded Kenny Lofton, who had only one more year under contract himself, to the Braves for Marquis Grissom (also a free agent after 1997) and David Justice. Not quite Belle’s caliber, Justice would be a great power threat for the Tribe for most of four seasons before Hart traded him to New York for Jake Westbrook, a deal that would help the Indians long after Hart was gone.
On the other side, the Indians made it back to the World Series without Lofton in ’97, then brought him back through free agency in 1998. The year after this, Hart brought in the player who remains the most successful free agent signing in Indians history, Roberto Alomar. From 1999 through 2001, Alomar was arguably the Indians best player as they transitioned from a pure power team to a more defense friendly unit. Alomar won Gold Gloves each of his three years with the team and was joined at times by Vizquel, Lofton and Travis Fryman.
In 2000, the Indians finished second to the White Sox, five games out of the division and with many of those extensions expiring in short order the writing was on the wall for John Hart. The poor drafts in the 1990’s had come back to haunt him as did the short sighted trades of players like Brian Giles, who was sent to the Brewers for relief pitcher Ricardo Rincon. With the amount of power the Indians had already in line for 1999 (it would ultimately be the greatest offensive season in franchise history), Hart didn’t see room for Giles and moved him for a piece he needed more at the moment. This happened again a few years later as Sexson was sent to Milwaukee for a group of players that included another reliever, Bob Wickman and cost the Indians utility man Marco Scutaro.
With the end of the line obvious and the Indians ready to collapse into the empty shell that was their minor league system, Hart announced he would leave at the end of the 2001 season and was replaced by Mark Shapiro. After a full ten years in charge, Hart had both been the best thing ever, getting the Tribe to two World Series, and the worst as this run cost them most of the next decade.
From the 2002 season through 2005, Hart was the GM of the Texas Rangers, who saw nowhere near the success of the Indians in his previous position although Cleveland was lucky to be the recipient of one of those lopsided trades when Travis Hafner was traded to Cleveland for Ryan Drese and Einar Diaz. After the 2005 season, Hart became a senior adviser in Texas, a position he held through 2013. Almost immediately after his contract was up, he left Texas for a similar position with the Atlanta Braves, but it wouldn’t take long for him to move up there as, after a short term as interim GM, he was given the team presidency in 2014, a position he holds to this day. Still helping the Tribe, it was Hart’s Braves who took on the contracts of the two biggest name free agents signed by the Indians since Hart’s time, Michael Bourn and Nick Swisher during the 2015 season.
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