Twins Front Office Search: Cubs’ McLeod and Royals’ Picollo emerge as candidates

Since it came out last week that former Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos is not interested in heading the Twins’ front office, two more names have emerged as potential candidates for America’s Next Top Twins Front Office Person: Cubs executive Jason McLeod and Royals executive J.J. Picollo.

Cubs GM Jed Hoyer confirmed yesterday that the Twins have requested an interview with McLeod, who currently serves as the Cubs’ Senior Vice President of Player Development and Amateur Scouting. This news should tickle the fancy of those Twins fans hoping for a more statistically-savvy front office. McLeod, who’s only 44 years old, has long served under Cubs President of Baseball Operations Theo Epstein, famous for turning around the Red Sox in the early ‘00s and now building the Cubs’ system into a prospect powerhouse. McLeod has worked under Epstein for both teams, and was responsible for drafting players like Kris Bryant, Kyle Schwarber, and Anthony Rizzo for the Cubs and Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Clay Buchholz for the Red Sox. In fact, he was even the one who found current Twins reliever Ryan Pressly.

The Twins’ other confirmed interview candidate is Royals Assistant GM J.J. Picollo, according to Jon Heyman. It’s not yet known whether the Royals have granted the Twins permission to interview Picollo, but considering he has previously interviewed with the Phillies and Astros, it’s a safe bet that they will. There might be a little bias in play here, but Royals GM Dayton Moore described Picollo as “a tremendous leader and been a big part of our success.”

No word yet on which GM/front office candidate is more “lovable”, however.