The Los Angeles Angels plan to interview Kim Ng for their vacant general manager position, putting them in position to make history as the first major league team to have a female general manager. No timetable has been given for the interview, according to Buster Olney of ESPN.
Gender aside, Ng is one of the most qualified and well connected general manager candidates in all of baseball.
Ng this season has served as a senior vice president of baseball operations for Major League Baseball after 13 seasons as an assistant general manager with both the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees. When Ng was hired by the Yankees at age 29 in 1998, she was the youngest assistant GM in baseball.
After four seasons with the Yankees, Ng was hired by the Dodgers in 2002. Among her many duties with the Dodgers were to coordinate all player transactions, oversee the arbitration process, and to manage the day-to-day operations of the entire baseball department. In 2004, Ng expanded her duties for a brief period, serving as interim Director of Player Development, overseeing all aspects of the Dodgers minor league system. She was also integral in making trades, signing free agents, and negotiating player contracts.
Ng was in charge of the Dodgers arbitration case in 2004 when the club famously defeated closer Eric Gagne after his National League Cy Young-winning season. Gagne submitted a salary figure of $8 million after posting a 1.20 ERA in 2003 with 55 saves in 55 opportunities. Ng was able to convince the three-person arbitration panel that the Dodgers' offer of $5 million was more in line with his peers, and the arbitration panel agreed. On her watch, only two Dodgers players went to arbitration - Gagne and Joe Beimel, the latter in 2007 - and the Dodgers won both cases.
In 2005, Ng became the first woman to interview for a general manager position when she interviewed with the Dodgers after Paul DePodesta was fired. Ng also interviewed with the Seattle Mariners in 2008 and with the San Diego Padres in 2009.
The Angels have also received permission to interview Billy Eppler and Damon Oppenheimer of the New York Yankees and Jerry DiPoto of the Arizona Diamondbacks.
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