When principal owner John Sherman cut ties with baseball operations head Dayton Moore at the end of the 2022 season, he had a choice: bring in some outside voices or promote internally. Sherman chose the latter, elevating JJ Picollo to the general manager position.
At the time, there was a lot of disappointment in that move—disappointment which swelled alongside every one of the many losses the 2023 squad suffered. Picollo chose to replace a few key positions in the coaching staff, grow the analytics department, and supplement the staff with outside voices rather than totally clean house.
The key question was not if Picollo was different from Moore but if he was different enough.