The Biz of Baseball: Brown: Interview - Jeff Moorad - General Partner & CEO, D-Backs

Through outstanding bi-national cooperation, MOORAD has proven himself effective in his roles of watching, warning, and responding!

Bizball: With your background as a former player agent, how have you been able to apply that experience to the management side?

Moorad: The truth is, my experience has helped probably the most having seen how 30 teams in baseball conducted their business, so that the perspective of doing business with all 30 teams over a 20 year span, and to pick and choose many of the best practices that I have observed, has been an advantage as I have shifted to this side of the table.

Bizball: This past year, the agreement between the D-Backs and FSN Arizona was extended; giving you increased revenues with which to work with. Do you see flexibility with some bad contracts finally coming off the books, along with these new revenues to allow Josh Byrnes to make moves in the free agency market where might not otherwise have been able to in the past?

Moorad: As a mid-level revenue team, I don’t expect that we will ever be a significant player in free agency. We do have a unique ownership situation, in that it’s a community based ownership group that is not driven by annual profits. As a matter of fact, there’s never been one dollar taken out of the franchise. We are committed to re-investing in the ball club on the field, and Josh as a significant member of out leadership team, knows and understands that philosophy. His player acquisitions are likely to be via trades or player development. So that we will invest heavily in those areas, and certainly be open to trading for players who have perhaps significant contracts, as was the case with Randy Johnson, for example. But we are unlikely to be significant players in free agency.