What Does a General Manager Actually Do?

Overwhelmingly, people don’t understand the role of a general manager.1

It’s somewhat unfair to expect fans to fully grasp the job. They don’t see the majority of what goes on, leaving their views to be shaped by media and pop culture narratives, or their experiences building rosters in video games and fantasy sports leagues.

But the confusion extends to those within sports as well. Employees across organizations — ranging from coaches and players to front office members — often carry a distorted impression of what general managers do. Even more concerning, that misconception sometimes applies to owners or the executives who hold those roles themselves.

The most common definition suggests that general managers are responsible for one thing: picking the players on the team. Their job boils down to identifying and acquiring talent and making baseball decisions.

Different interpretations paint the position more like corporate CEOs or startup founders. There’s truth in all of these, but they miss the full essence of the role and what allows someone to be successful. How did we get to this point? And what does it really mean to be a general manager?

The origins of the modern general manager date back nearly a hundred years. Billy Evans became the first person to hold the title when the Cleveland Indians named him general manager in 1927. He joined Ed Barrow and Branch Rickey as executives tasked with oversight of not only the major league club, but also scouting, player procurement, minor league operations, and player development.

The roles didn’t catch on immediately, however. The more prevalent models saw owners act as their own chief baseball decision-makers, or give that power to the team’s field manager. The holdouts continued well into the 1980s, but eventually, every team created positions similar to the ones Barrow, Rickey, and Evans held 50 years earlier.

When those positions came into fashion, it might have been reasonable to say that general managers were mostly responsible for picking the players. It still would’ve been incomplete, but it would have been fairly comprehensive.

Over the past 25 years, two things have changed to make that description less accurate.

The first is that baseball operations departments look radically different than they did at the turn of the century. The goal of winning a World Series has stayed constant, but there are so many more people and pieces of information contributing to that goal. According to their media guides, the 1990 Oakland Athletics had 65 people in baseball operations. By 2010, the number was 108, and this year it sits at 203 — which is the fifth lowest total in Major League Baseball. Departments in 2026 are full of qualified people in specialized roles that have added complexity to how organizations function.

The other thing that changed is the fame and power associated with being a general manager. The rise of the internet and social media made most people in prominent positions less anonymous, but front office leaders have become borderline household names. We’ve seen general managers on Time’s annual list of the 100 Most Influential People and portrayed by Brad Pitt on the big screen. That fame coincided with an increase in authority. They went from roster construction to hiring and firing managers, overseeing significant investments in data, technology, and facilities, and holding responsibility for everything in their departments.2

Like many, I got into baseball with dreams to one day be a general manager. But it wasn’t until I had more proximity to people in that role that I realized I had been missing a lot of what the job entails.

I was reminded of that recently while reading Buster Posey’s reflections on stepping into his role leading baseball operations for the San Francisco Giants.

“That’s probably something I underestimated a little bit,” Posey says. “There’s times where if there’s an issue with the clubhouse staff, sometimes that’s gonna make its way up to me. Or if there’s something on a larger scale, it’s gonna make its way to me. It’s certainly more than just baseball decisions.”

A general manager’s job is more than baseball decisions. We could say the job is to build an organization capable of consistently making good baseball decisions — which is better — but that’s still focused on one subset of the job.

And while general managers share passing similarities with corporate executives and founders, they’re fundamentally different from one another. General managers don’t oversee business verticals like sales and marketing, they operate without shareholders or investors, and they compete in a defined space where there can only be one winner on an annual basis. There’s little to no risk of their business going under, but there’s immense pressure and scrutiny on everything they do.

Ultimately, general managers are accountable for everything that happens in baseball operations — the people, the decisions, and the results — as well as representing their organization on a daily basis. Given the scope, it can feel daunting to figure out how to allocate time. But being accountable for something and doing something are different.

Which leads to the five key responsibilities for general managers: communication with ownership, working with and supporting the major league manager and coaching staff, managing the 40-man roster, communication with the media, and fostering a culture that enables the department to continually get better.

Much like CEOs and their boards, general managers must keep their owners informed of what’s going on and advocate for the resources and support to execute their vision. Strong trust and buy-in from ownership are invaluable; how challenging everything else is hinges on that relationship.

The other critical relationship is the one between GM and manager. When those two are aligned, decisions flow more easily and disagreements make the organization stronger. When they aren’t, everyone can feel the effects. As the power dynamic and reporting structure has shifted, it’s become incumbent on the general manager to set a clear division of responsibilities and support the manager as much as they can.

Baseball operations departments are judged on the wins and losses of their major league team. That’s why the general manager’s evaluation and acquisition functions should revolve around the 40-man roster. As important as scouting and development are, leaders can’t do everything themselves; they need to provide high-level expectations and trust others to oversee and execute in those areas. It’s also a matter of impact. The title carries a certain weight that’s necessary to court free agents, execute blockbuster trades, and deliver difficult messaging to players.

Spending time speaking to the media may not seem as important as the other items on the list. Many general managers see it that way, rarely granting interviews or providing comments. But every time a general manager speaks publicly, people inside and outside the organization pay attention. That creates opportunities to create alignment and buy-in, take accountability for shortcomings or frustrations, praise players and staff, and make others want to be a part of the organization.

And because there’s so much that contributes to a team’s sustained success, a general manager’s time is best spent building an organization that allows execution without their involvement. That means giving talented people the authority to act and creating an environment where ideas are challenged and learning is constant. Leaders in sports rarely provide competitive advantages based solely on their own contributions. They do it by bringing people together and building something that outperforms the sum of the parts. And generally speaking, the more they try to do alone, the worse off the organization is.

The misconception of the general manager’s role wouldn’t matter much if it was only confusing. But it has real ramifications, for both who gets hired and how they perform in the role.

If an owner sees the job as merely a talent evaluator and roster builder, they shouldn’t care nearly as much about traits that allow someone to attract, connect, and inspire others. The hiring process becomes about excellence in specific areas, or replicating past successes. And that’s already how most people become general manager candidates: because they’re good at something. They’re exceptional evaluators, proven negotiators, or they’ve built incredible tools and models.

The skill that’s carried them throughout their career matters much less once they step into the top job. It’s no longer about what they can do, but what they can get an entire organization to do. And no amount of experience in another role fully prepares someone for that transition.

Understanding what’s required and how to spend time isn’t enough to be a successful general manager. But it’s damn near impossible without it.