The son of big time sports agent Ron Shapiro, Mark has far surpassed his father’s legacy since joining the Indians in 1991. Initially the Director of Player Development under GM John Hart, Mark Shapiro saw the rise of more Indians greats than in any other decade with the likes of Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Charles Nagy and Omar Vizquel bringing the team to the World Series twice. After Hart left the team in 2001, Shapiro took over his role and began the difficult task of reassembling a contending team.
Shapiro was a very different GM than Hart because he had to be. Instead of the Jacobs, who spent among the most in baseball, he had the Dolans as owners, who were much more cautious about spending. They had good reason to be as well. From 1994 through the Home Opener in 2001, the Indians sold out every single game at Jacobs Field and from that point on attendance dwindled. Blame can be placed in many different places, but the fact is that Shapiro had to deal with a significantly lower pay-roll than Hart did.
In addition, Hart left Shapiro with an almost barren minor league system. Outside of C.C. Sabathia in 1998, there were no big name players drafted after Manny Ramirez in 1991. Even those with moderate MLB success were traded away, like Richie Sexson, Sean Casey, Danny Graves and Russell Branyan, for more veteran talent. On a team who had the goal of winning the World Series every year, there was no room to grow new talent, particularly with a roster as stacked as the Indians was. While players like Jaret Wright and Bartolo Colon could break through, if a player struggled at all in his first season, such as future NL MVP Jeff Kent, he wouldn’t be there for the next. For better or worse, the Matt LaPorta experiment would have been over in a few months if he had been around a decade earlier.
This left Shapiro in one of the worst situations ever in the history of baseball. A franchise who’s fans were used to winning was suddenly left devoid of talent (who left via free agency) and anyone to replace them. It was likely living through the years between 2000 and 2002 and seeing Ramirez and Thome leave for big money that would cause Shapiro to be the kind of GM he was.
His first big move and possibly not only his best, but the best in Indians history, was trading the ace Bartolo Colon, to the Expos for Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee and Brandon Phillips. After Albert Belle and Ramirez left through free agency, he couldn’t allow it to happen again. The Indians were not going to contend in 2002 and it looked like for quite a while longer, so Colon had little value to Cleveland. If Thome had not lied about being willing to resign without haggling the price, he may have been traded too. Of course, if Shapiro had done this at the time, he may have been run out of town, but it would only have taken a few years for him to be vindicated as he was with Colon.
As good as Shapiro’s trades were (and they were generally extremely successful including obtaining Carlos Carrasco for Lee and Michael Brantley for Sabathia among other steals) his drafts were terrible, far worse than Hart’s. Especially considering the focus on the minor league system at the time, his record of exactly zero Major League regulars out of the 2002 through 2007 drafts. The best player chosen during that range was Jeremy Guthrie, the first pick in 2002 and he was let go after a very short MLB audition. Of the others, almost every player of note was a relief pitcher or below average starter from Vinnie Pestano and Tony Sipp to Aaron Laffey and David Huff.
In 2007, the Indians claimed to change things up in the draft, but still there was little success until 2008 and 2009 when the Indians obtained current Major Leaguers Lonnie Chisenhall and Jason Kipnis as well as T.J. House. While this isn’t entirely on the GM, he is the most visible face to blame failure or give credit and there has seemed to be a turnaround since Chris Antonetti took over in 2010. After a poor 2010, Antonetti picked up Francisco Lindor, Cody Anderson and Cody Allen (who Shapiro had drafted a few years prior, but didn’t sign) in 2011 and his drafts since have looked solid as well.
Shapiro’s primary down fall, however, came in free agency. Unlike the draft, where most of the blame should fall on the scouts and number crunchers who were feeding the information to Shapiro, the GM has the final say in pretty much any free agent deal. During his entire tenure as GM, he brought in exactly zero impact players and very few, Paul Byrd being one of the best, that surpassed expectations. Most, like Johnny Damon, Trot Nixon and a bevy of other aging outfielders, were extreme disappointments. This is one aspect of the front office that hasn’t changed since Antonetti took over the reigns.
As team president, Shapiro appeared to come into his own. He brought events back to Progressive Field (although he didn’t sell the field naming rights, that was Paul Dolan, who was team president from 2004 through 2010 and has returned to that office) including Snow Days, Big 10 hockey and concerts like Jason Aldean in 2014. This is one area that, as team president, Shapiro could have focused on more, but it is admittedly hard to schedule outdoor events in Cleveland from November through March.
The biggest move Shapiro made as president, and the likely reason why Toronto was so interested in him, was to restructure much of the ballpark last off-season. Major changes were made and the vast majority have been a huge success. Particularly the addition of local restaurants in the District area and the two story bar known as the Corner have been popular. The movement of the bullpens has received less excitement, although fans do enjoy getting the field-eye view in from the old ones.
While the least successful part of the renovation has been the right field, standing room only deck, even that was a partial success. The least sold seats were removed and fans who don’t mind not having an official seat can now watch a game at a much more affordable price. Many scoff, but it was a huge risk to make such massive changes to the ballpark and Shapiro pulled it off and did so in time for Opening Day. He was also part of the planning to continue the renovations through next season.
Whenever you are with an organization for nearly a quarter century you will see a lot of ups and downs, but in order to stick around that long, you have to be pretty good. Shapiro came in when things were down, enjoyed the highs of the 1990’s, survived the lows of the early 2000’s and was instrumental in bringing back the play-offs in 2007 and 2013 (particularly through his unpopular trades that netted Justin Masterson, Chris Perez, Brantley and others). He will join the Blue Jays at a peak of sorts as they look poised for a deep post-season run. Whether or not they win, Shapiro will almost certainly be successful in his new home and it wouldn’t be surprising to see him advance further in Major League Baseball in the coming years.
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