Nationals attempting to poach key Guardians executive in GM search

Even if the Cleveland Guardians have the longest World Series drought in all of baseball, their front office has long been considered one of the best in baseball thanks to their ability to build a consistent winner despite always having to operate under some tight pursestrings. 

We got another example of that on Monday when the Washington Post’s Andrew Golden reported the Nationals had interviewed Guardians executive vice president and assistant general manager Matt Forman for their open general manager spot. 

It’s unclear how the interview went, or if Forman has advanced to the next stage of the interview process. The Nationals would like to be finished with the search by the end of the year, according to Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post.

Guardians executive vice president Matt Forman interviews to be Washington Nationals general manager 

That’s not the only Cleveland connection to the job either, as it was reported earlier this month that Chicago Cubs general manager Carter Hawkins interviewed for the job. Hawkins began his career as an international scout with the Guardians before leaving for the Cubs job after the 2021 season. 

While losing a talent like Forman would hurt Cleveland’s front office, it also speaks to how much other teams in baseball admire how the Guardians operate. Perhaps the biggest example of that came in 2015 when Ross Atkins and Mark Shapiro left Cleveland to become the president and general manager, respectively, of the Toronto Blue Jays. 

 In 2020, general manager Mike Chernoff was the favorite to become the Mets’ general manager but he decided to stay with the Guardians. Both he and president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti have worked together to build a consistent winner despite a good bit of turnover both on the roster and in the dugout. 

The Guardians’ transition from Terry Francona to Stephen Vogt has gone about as smoothly as it could thanks to the organization’s strong leadership in the front office, and Forman was a large part of that. 

He joined the Guardians as an amateur scouting intern before becoming the assistant general manager. He became the executive vice president in 2022, making him third in the team’s hierarchy behind Antonetti and Chernoff. 

He’d have his work cut out for him with the Nationals. They fired general manager Mike Rizzo and manager Dave Martinez in July after they failed to pull the team out of its post-World Series rebuild, and they’re currently 62-88 and in the cellar in the National League East.

They have some interesting pieces in outfielder James Wood, shortstop C.J. Abrams and starting pitcher MacKenzie Gore, but they don’t have enough quality major league pitching and have a lineup filled with Quad-A players or veterans on their last legs. 

Owner Mark Lerner has proven that he’s willing to spend if the team is good, but it’s unclear how much his failed attempt to sell the team has impacted that.