Beane has been able to capture four division titles and win almost 60% of his games with the small-market A's by developing prospects. The highest rated baseball GM is Oakland's Billy Beane (No. There were also some predictable names atop our list. 12 ranking is attributed to prolonged success in Edmonton, where Sather paired Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier in building an Oilers dynasty that won five Stanley Cups. Despite a bloated payroll, which topped out at a then NHL record $76.5 million in 2003, Sather has not been able to win a single post-season game in his six years in New York. Winning improvement under McHale has been so great that it offset a 19% rise in salary against the NBA's median payroll during his 11 years as GM.Īnother GM who has been under the gun the past few years is Glen Sather of the New York Rangers. 539 regular season winning percentage-more than double his predecessor’s. But McHale has guided the Timberwolves to eight playoff berths and a. The Timberwolves' McHale has been harshly criticized in the press for not giving superstar Kevin Garnett the supporting cast to win a championship.
Our rankings will surely raise some eyebrows. So we double-weight winning percentage in our scoring to discount GMs (like Mark Shapiro of the Cleveland Indians) who successfully cut costs but in so doing damaged their franchise. In terms of enhancing the value of a sports franchise, winning is more important than payroll. Only the 98 current GMs with at least three years of service were reviewed.
In Pictures: Sports' Hottest General ManagersĬlick here to view our general managers rankings. And the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves GM Kevin McHale tops our list.