Jim Hendry

Jim Hendry (born July 27, 1955, Dunedin, Florida) is the Vice President/General Manager of the Chicago Cubs. Hendry was promoted to GM on July 5, 2002 by Cubs President/CEO Andy MacPhail. He has worked for the Cubs since 1995. Prior to his promotion to GM, he was named Assistant GM/Player Personnel Director on October 12, 2001, and previously the Director of Player Development, in charge of both Scouting and Minor League Operations.

Hedry graduated from Spring Hill College, where he had majored in communications and journalism. He could not find a job in broadcasting, and took a job as a high school teacher and baseball coach in Miami. This led to a job at Creighton University in 1983, and he was promoted to head coach in the middle of the 1984 season. Creighton advanced to the College World Series in 1991, and Hendry was named Coach of the Year. He left Creighton later that year to become special assistant to then Florida Marlins GM Dave Dombrowski, and also coached minor league teams in 1993 and '94.

Tenure with Cubs

Hendy's tenure as general manager has generally been a failure, as in Hendry's almost five years as GM, the Cubs have not made the World Series, despite having one of the highest payrolls in baseball. During his tenure, the Cubs have been on the precipice of the World Series, but just three years later, Hendry's Cubs have one of baseball's worst won-loss records. One of his first moves has provided fodder for critics and boosters of Hendry. Late in spring training 2002, he dealt Julian Tavarez and a minor-league pitcher to the Florida Marlins for pitchers Matt Clement and Antonio Alfonseca. At first, the trade appeared to be a steal. Clement was the Cubs' most consistent pitcher in 2002 while Tavarez's volatile behavior was a distraction to the Cubs in 2001. Still, Alfonseca struggled while a Cub. Even worse, the minor league pitcher that went to the Marlins was Dontrelle Willis, the 2003 Rookie of the Year.

The Cubs did not contend in 2002, and Hendry fired manager Don Baylor in July, replacing him with Iowa Cubs manager Bruce Kimm on an interim basis. The Cubs staggered to the end of the season in 2002, and Hendry purged several veterans from the roster. One veteran with whom the Cubs appeared to be stuck was Todd Hundley, a free agent acquisition before the 2001 season who struggled on the field, feuded with fans and had even begun to tarnish the image of his father Randy Hundley, a member of the storied Cubs teams of the 1960s and 1970s. Hundley's large contract would make trading him difficult, so the only way that he could leave the team would be if Hendry released him. Somehow, Hendry found a taker, former Los Angeles Dodger general manager Dan Evans, who offered second baseman Mark Grudzielanek and first baseman Eric Karros. Grudzielanek and Karros were also high-priced veterans on the downsides of their careers. But the two players managed productive seasons in 2003, also providing veteran leadership.

Hendry made his biggest splash in the 2002-2003 offseason when he hired former San Francisco Giants manager Dusty Baker to manage the club just days after Baker's Giants lost in seven games to the Anaheim Angels in the World Series.

2003 Cubs

The Cubs started 2003 well, but stumbled after centerfielder Corey Patterson injured his knee in June. A little more than two weeks after his injury, Hendry sent prospect Bobby Hill and veteran Jose Hernandez to the Pittsburgh Pirates for a centerfielder who could replace Patterson for the remainder of the season, Kenny Lofton. The Cubs also received third baseman Aramis Ramirez in the trade. Ramirez blossomed into a star with the Cubs, and Lofton provided the spark at the top of the lineup that the Cubs needed.

The Cubs won the National League Central Division title in 2003, and beat Atlanta in the National League Division Series, their first postseason series victory since 1908. They then came within five outs from their first World Series appearance since 1945.

The Disappointment of 2004

After failing to close out the 2003 NLCS against the Florida Marlins, Hendry made several acquisitions, picking up first baseman Derrek Lee in a trade with the Marlins, acquiring catcher Michael Barrett in a three-way trade with the Oakland Athletics and Montreal Expos, signing free agents LaTroy Hawkins, Todd Walker and Greg Maddux.

The trades for Lee and Barrett might be Hendry's two best trades. Lee cost the Cubs highly-regarded prospect Hee Seop Choi, but Choi has yet to fulfill his promise. Lee blossomed into one of baseball's best players in 2005, challenging for the rare Triple Crown. Barrett cost the Cubs journeyman catcher Damien Miller, and Barrett has become one of the game's better-hitting catchers. Critics of this deal will note that Miller is known as a far better defensive catcher and that having a subpar defensive catcher might prove costly to the Cubs' pitching staff.

The signing of Maddux capped what appeared to be a successful offseason. Maddux, a four-time Cy Young Award winner, had spent his first few seasons with the Cubs from 1986-1992. After winning his first Cy Young Award in 1992, Maddux departed the team as a free agent. The Cubs' inability to re-sign Maddux is considered one of the organization's most egregious errors. After 11 seasons with the Atlanta Braves, the Cubs signed Maddux to a three-year contract in February 2004.

Thanks in part to Hendry's moves, the Cubs were Sports Illustrated's preseason choice to win the World Series in 2004. Injuries to key players like Mark Prior, Sammy Sosa, Kerry Wood, Joe Borowski, and Alex Gonzalez hindered the Cubs during the early part of the season. On July 31, Hendry made a four-team deal with the Montreal Expos, Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox, sending Gonzalez and prospects Brendan Harris and Francis Beltran to the Expos and prospect Justin Jones to the Minnesota Twins. In return, the Cubs received All-Star shortstop Nomar Garciaparra from Boston, along with prospect Matt Murton. The trade shocked Boston fans because Garciaparra had become synonomous with the Red Sox. Cubs fans were thrilled to fill the one perceived weakness on the team with a shortstop who had been mentioned in the same breath as Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter.

Garciaparra's acquisition boosted the offense some, but he came to the Cubs still not fully recovered from an Achilles' Heel sprain. Garciaparra missed several games down the stretch because of this injury, forcing Hendry to sign Neifi Perez off of waivers, (and a year later rewarding his consistently below-average offensive output with a 2-year, $5 million contract.) . Meanwhile, the Cubs' bullpen became a bigger and bigger source of concern. With Borowski out for the season, the Cubs made Hawkins the closer, and Hawkins struggled down the stretch, blowing two key games the last week of the season. The Cubs led the Wild Card race by 1 1/2 games with nine to go before fading to three games behind the eventual Wild Card winner, the Houston Astros.

As the Cubs saw their lead in the Wild Card race distintegrate, the Cubs became mired in controversy regarding the treatment of the team by television announcers Chip Caray and Steve Stone. Hendry and his boss, Andy MacPhail, held a closed-door meeting with Caray and Stone in late September 2004, urging them to be more fair in their criticisms of the players and Baker. Caray responded by signing a deal to broadcast Atlanta Braves games (with his father, Skip Caray) while Stone eventually decided not to return as Cubs' color commentator in October 2004. Meanwhile, slugger Sammy Sosa capped a trying season by walking out on his team twice. The first time came during an extra-inning loss to the Montreal Expos at Wrigley Field when Sosa, who did not start because of back spasms, decided to leave the ballpark in the seventh inning to beat traffic on Lake Shore Drive back to his condominium at Lake Point Towers. With Sosa not on the bench available to pinch-hit, Baker called on Ramon Martinez to pinch-hit with the tying run on base in the 12th inning of a 7-6 loss. The second time came the last game of the season, when Sosa left the park moments after learning he wasn't in the starting lineup. When Sosa claimed he stayed until the seventh inning of the game, Hendry released a surveillance tape showing Sosa leaving the park shortly after the 1:20 first pitch.

Goodbye, Sammy

As a result, the first priority of the offseason was unloading Sosa. After in-depth talks with the New York Mets and Washington Nationals, the Cubs sent Sosa to the Baltimore Orioles, getting infielder Jerry Hairston Jr. and two minor-leaguers in return. Hendry then signed veteran Jeromy Burnitz to replace Sosa in right field.

2006 Cubs in disarray

After a sub-.500 season marred by injuries, the Cubs made few major moves before 2006. The biggest move was trading three young pitchers, Rickey Nolasco, Sergio Mitre and Reynel Pinto to the Marlins for centerfielder Juan Pierre. The Cubs also signed free agent Jacque Jones to play right field.

Again, injuries have marred the 2006 season with Lee going down with a broken wrist just 14 games into the season. But critics point out that many of the injuries such as those to Mark Prior and Kerry Wood were no surprise. Critics also point out that Hendry has ignored factors such as on-base percentage when evaluating talent.

Most of all, Hendry's star has been dimmed by the luck of Ken Williams, who experienced far better results of late. Williams, Hendry's counterpart with the crosstown Chicago White Sox, saw the team he built win the 2005 World Series, the first world title by either Chicago team since 1917.

Despite the struggles of the team in 2005 into 2006, Hendry was rewarded by Tribune Company with a two-year contract extension . That gives Hendry financial security the next two seasons, but it doesn't guarantee he will remain with the club. With turmoil on the board of the Tribune Company and mounting debt, some Wall Street pundits speculate the team could be sold, putting Hendry's future with the club in doubt.

As the Cubs struggled into July, Hendry announced that he was going to evaluate the coaching staff's performance at the All-Star Break, causing many pundits to conclude that Baker, as well as coaches Gene Clines, Gary Matthews, Larry Rothschild and Dick Pole, were in jeopardy of losing their jobs. Hendry responded that he was not necessarily firing anyone, and that he would not necessarily finish his evaluation over the four-day break. The Cubs came out of the break with their coaching staff intact and with Hendry declaring that he was not going to deal any big-name players like Maddux, Walker, Pierre or Ryan Dempster in the days leading up to the trading deadline. On July 26, Hendry announced manager Dusty Baker would stay on for the rest of the season.

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Preceded by Andy MacPhail	Chicago Cubs General Manager 2001-present	Succeeded by incumbent