User:Warrensmithbrickner/sandbox

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Smith Brickner
Charlotte Knights
General Manager, Senior Vice President
Born: (1997-05-14) May 14, 1997 Manhattan, New York
Teams
New York Mets Washington Nationals Charlotte Knights
Career highlights and awards
Youngest general manager in history

Warren Smith Brickner (born May 14, 1997) is an American baseball executive for the Charlotte Knights of Major League Baseball. He has served as the General Manager and Senior Vice President of the Knights since August of 2025, while previously serving in the same post with the Washington Nationals from 2024-25. In Brickner's brief tenure as general manager, the Knights have turned what was the league's worst farm system into one of the best.

Brickner began working in baseball in 2015 with the Elias Sports Bureau as an intern, just before his freshman year in college. He was named assistant general manager of the Nationals in 2023, helping to run the team while then-general manager Chad Beasley was suspended from baseball. He then succeeded Beasley as the team's general manager before the 2023-24 offseason.

Early life

Brickner was born in Manhattan, New York, and raised in Locust Valley, New York. He was raised in an Evangelical family, as the first of three children born to Wanda and Ward Brickner. He became a baseball fan at a young age, citing his, "addiction" for filling out scoring cards at 5-years old. He grew up as a fan of the New York Yankees. Brickner, who went to Long Island Lutheran Middle and High School, played on the JV and varsity baseball teams until graduation.

After Brickner and his younger sister were in college, their parents and younger brother moved moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where his father had more tax flexibility to operate his financial advising business.

Brickner attended Mercy College to receive his bachelor's degree in finance. Several years after graduating and working, he went to Columbia University, where he earned his masters in sports management.

Professional Career

Elias Sports Bureau (2015–2016)

Brickner got his first internship with the Elias Sports Bureau, where he served as a statistical analyst. There, he used several software platforms, platforms which were applicable to other companies and were, "great tools to learn at a young age." Steve Hirdt, who was the CEO of the bureau, said Brickner was, "one of the best interns we ever had; he was great." Hirdt and Brickner would go on to be good friends until Hirdt's sudden death in 2021.

New York Mets (2016)

After his internship with the bureau ended, Brickner took a job with the New York Mets in their guest experience department, where he worked during the 2016 season. Brickner credits his experience with the Mets for creating connections with people who would eventually hire him in several years: he met the likes of John Rizzo, T.J. Barra, and Jeffrey Lebow.

O'Connell Sports Management (2016-2017)

Several days after the Mets were eliminated in the Wild Card game by the San Francisco Giants, Brickner was hired as intern by O'Connell Sports Management, a player agency who then represented the likes of Tyler Flowers, Max Moroff, Ryan Hanigan, Jon Niese, Mike Dunn, and Wade Miley, among others. In that particular off-season, Brickner and his boss, Tom O'Connell, negotiated deals for Dunn, Hanigan, and Niese, with Dunn netting a surprising 3-year, $19 million deal with the Colorado Rockies.

Throughout the internship, Brickner gained hands-on experience which he says carried him, "through the rest of my career." While negotiating with teams, Brickner was introduced to Theo Epstein, Brian Cashman, and A.J. Preller, all who Brickner considered role models.

IBM (2017)

In May of 2017, Brickner took his first and only job outside of baseball with IBM, one of the world's largest technology companies. There, he served in the financial analyst co-op program, a program which was used to scout prospective employees. At one point, Brickner seriously considered a full-time offer from "Big Blue", but declined because of his passion for baseball. Brickner left IBM after the program concluded, but he befriended Andrew Witek, another co-op in the program, who would eventually join him in 2025 as assistant general manager of the Knights.

Washington Nationals (2018-2025)

Intern & Data Analyst (2018-2020)

Brickner began to realize his dream in May of 2018, when the Nationals hired him as a baseball operations intern. As an intern, Brickner managed minor league video, and distributed scouting information to the various Nationals' affiliates. After his internship concluded, he was offered a full-time position in the department, which he accepted. He first started as a data analyst, in which he's credited for advising then-GM Mike Rizzo to trade for Josh Bell.

Farm System Director (2020-2022)

Shortly after his recommendation to trade for Bell, he was quickly promoted to farm system diretor, where he oversaw player development in coordination with scouting coordinator, John Mozeliak. In his time as farm director, eventual stars like Ralphy Armaza, Zach Armstrong, Jesus Martinez, Jon Kemp, and Luis Ramos (Almara was traded to Cincinnati before being promoted to the major leagues). In his 2 seasons as farm director, the Nationals system rose from 24th best to 11th, per MLB.com. Rizzo went as far to say the organization, "wouldn't be as healthy as it is now without him."

Assistant General Manager (2022-23)

After the 2021 season, Brickner was approached by the Mets to become their assistant GM to John Rizzo, who'd been promoted since Sandy Alderson had retired. When Mike Rizzo heard this, he quickly offered Brickner the chance to become the youngest and highest paid assistant GM ever. At just 24 years of age, Brickner became the youngest recorded executive to reach the assistant GM position in sports history, netting a salary of over $1 million.

As assistant GM, Brickner is credited with completely changing Rizzo's philosophy on analytics, encouraging him to dive all-in to the new data world. Such a recommendation would lead the Nationals into becoming one of the most data-driven teams in the league. Brickner says such a philosophical change led to the acquisitions of Stephen Landazuri and Leo Butler, as well as the large extension given to Bell (7-years, $196 million).

General Manager (2024–2025)

Year One (2024)

After the 2023 season, there were rumblings that the new Nationals ownership group, led by Kevin O'Leary, weren't impressed with Rizzo's 15+ years of non-World Series success. Subsequently, O'Leary fired Rizzo 1 month after being eliminated in the 2023 playoffs by the Cincinnati Reds. Brickner, who was widely predicted to become the next general manager, was officially hired as GM on November 7th, 2023, just in time for the beginning of the offseason.

When he took the realm, Brickner wasted no time in acquiring Minnesota's Jorge Gonzales and Ken Hudson for Jon Kemp and Bobby Swanson. Gonzales, a center fielder, would go on to win a gold glove for his outstanding defensive play. Hudson is still in the minors for the Nationals and is regarded as a mid-tier prospect. Kemp has gone on to have a relatively successful stint with the Twins, while Swanson has slowly creeped up on top-100 prospect lists.

Arguably his biggest and most consequential move, however, was his deal with the Detroit Tigers, where traded all-star third baseman Zach Armstrong for several prospects and current major leaguers including Dylan Busby and Tim Bowers. The trade was met with strong criticism, as analysts didn't think Brickner and the Nationals received enough for Armstrong's elite bat. Armstrong would go on to have an all-star campaign, while Busby would eventually be traded in the deal that brought Luis Trejo to Washington. Bowers was traded mid-season to land Kris Bryant, who essentially replaced Armstrong at third.

Brickner made other, smaller deals which would eventually help Washington long after his departure, such as acquiring Curt Grant for Jose Alberty, Ernis Lee and Arturo Tapia for Jesus Martinez, and Bubba Brown for Luis Ortiz,

Another championship (2006–2009)

With the increased authority, Cashman created a department of professional scouting, and tabbed Billy Eppler as its director. Later, Eppler would move on to become the General Manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. On September 30, 2008, Cashman signed a three-year contract to stay with the Yankees through the 2011 season. Following the 2008 season, when the Yankees failed to make the playoffs, Cashman signed CC Sabathia, A. J. Burnett, and Mark Teixeira to long-term free agent contracts and traded for Nick Swisher. These four players played a significant role in the 2009 Yankees season, culminating with a victory in the 2009 World Series.

2010–present

The Yankees went on to make the playoffs again following the 2010 season, but lost to the Texas Rangers in the 2010 American League Championship Series. Following the 2010 season, Cashman held a hard line with Derek Jeter during contract negotiations, reportedly telling Jeter that he would prefer to have Troy Tulowitzki as the Yankees' starting shortstop, though a deal was eventually made for three years and $45 million.

Yankees ownership agreed to sign Rafael Soriano in January 2011 without Cashman's approval. Cashman stated at Soriano's introductory press conference that he disagreed with the deal. The Yankees re-signed Cashman to a three-year contract in November 2011.

During 2013, Alex Rodriguez composed a tweet saying that he had been cleared to play by his doctors after his hip surgery. Cashman claimed that the doctors did not give such authority to clear Rodriguez to play after seeking a second opinion with them, and that Rodriguez should "shut the fuck up". Cashman wanted to trade Robinson Canó during the 2013 season, reasoning that they would be unable to resign him in the next offseason. Ownership prevented Cashman from exploring a trade.

After the 2013 season, the Yankees signed Masahiro Tanaka, Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann, and Carlos Beltrán to contracts that totaled $438 million. However, the Yankees missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year. On October 10, 2014, the Yankees signed Cashman to another three-year deal through the 2017 season. That offseason, Cashman prioritized restructuring the Yankees roster with younger players. He replaced the retired Jeter with Didi Gregorius and acquired Nathan Eovaldi, both of whom improved during the season. In the 2016 season, he traded Carlos Beltrán to the Texas Rangers, Andrew Miller to the Cleveland Indians, and Aroldis Chapman to the eventual World Series Champion Chicago Cubs to bolster the Yankees farm system.

Honors

Cashman was named to Crain's New York Business 40 under 40 list for 1999. The Boston chapter of the Baseball Writers' Association of America selected Cashman as their MLB Executive of the Year for 2009. In 2010, Cashman was inducted into the Irish American Baseball Hall of Fame.

Cashman was also involved in the developing of the video game MLB Front Office Manager.

Personal life

Cashman lives in Darien, Connecticut. He and his wife, Mary, had two children, Grace and Theodore. Mary filed for divorce in February 2012; they had been reportedly separated for a year. The day prior, prosecutors charged a woman with stalking Cashman in an attempt to extort money regarding an extramarital affair. Cashman is a Kentucky Wildcats and New Jersey Devils fan.

Cashman has referred to himself as an "adrenaline junkie". In December 2010, Cashman rappelled from a 350-foot (110 m) building in Stamford, Connecticut, as part of an annual Stamford Christmas celebration. He jumped from an airplane with members of the United States Army Parachute Team to raise awareness for the Wounded Warrior Project, and broke his right fibula and dislocated his right ankle in the process. In November 2014, Cashman slept on a New York City sidewalk to raise awareness on behalf of homeless youth.