Mariners should hire Kim Ng

The Mariners should hire Kim Ng as its next general manager. They should do this for no other reason than it is the opposite of what they think they should do.

Ng, 39, is in her seventh season as assistant general manager for the Los Angeles Dodgers and is finalist for the M’s GM job. She should get it.

The M's brass has employed a long line of so-called baseball men. Old school boys with the pedigree or family name that has elicited baseball respect over the years. However, in the Mariners 30-year history that lineage of baseball men has produced squat. No American League pennant, thus zero trips to the World Series.

It's undeniable that Ng's hiring would be a trend bucker because she is a woman. She would be the first female general manager in major league baseball history. And who knows how the very traditional, very old school Japanese ownership of the Mariners would feel about hiring Ng. But her skill set is ideal for what they need.

Ng’s baseball career began with the Chicago White Sox after she graduated from the University of Chicago. She cut her teeth handling arbitration cases for the White Sox. After a stint with the American League office, she joined the New York Yankees at age 29 and spent for four years as an assistant GM. Now with the Dodgers, she’s the highest-ranking Asian-American in the league one of only two women to hold such a position.

According to an interview she did with Baseball Prospectus in 2003, she honed her skills identifying player intangibles and not just looking at stats. This approach would be a departure from the Bill Bavasi years as his clubs were built like a fantasy team. Ng would also emphasize having great scouting and player development, something that the Mariners don’t seem to have.

Another plus, she’s a skilled negotiator and the Mariners are in desperate need of someone who can pin a CORRECT number to a player’s value. She knows how to look at player and determine what they’re worth. There’s no reason a team with payroll in excess of $100 million should lose in excess of 100 games in a season.

If she is hired as the Mariners GM, much of the focus will be on her glass-ceiling breakthrough. That’s not a bad thing. But if she is indeed hired, it will be and should be because of a sharp baseball mind and a skill set that just might be able to resurrect this failed and flawed franchise.