As the 2025 baseball season opens, it will again reveal what is likely one of the strongest pipelines of any sport management program in the country. That pipeline, into what is one of the hardest segment of the sport industry to break into, leads to Major League Baseball’s 30 teams, and specifically into their “front office.” The McCormack Department of Sport Management will count 48 alums currently employed in the front office of MLB teams. You read that right: 48 alums.

This includes two alums who sit in the most powerful seat as head of baseball operations/general manager (Guardians’ Chris Antonetti and the Pirates Ben Cherington); it does not include the two other McCormack alums who have sat in this seat in the past (Neal Huntington and Dave Littlefield, both with the Pirates). The Cleveland Guardians’ front office boasts the highest concentration of McCormack alums, with five alums working under the direction of Antonetti.

To even get a foot in the front office door takes an incredible amount of personal persistence, drive and smarts (the multi-pronged application is not for the faint of heart). But it’s the preparation provided by the McCormack department and its faculty, supported by a loyal alumni network, that keeps feeding the pipeline.

Miles Borenstein joined the one-year MS program in Fall 2023, having previously worked five years at a golf course and a brief AAU-team coaching job. Not exactly the resume of a front office shoo-in! How does he think the McCormack program prepared him for the full-time job in the Baltimore Orioles front office that he started last week?

“I think the critical thinking required of this program and its curriculum were huge in preparing me for my role. While I wasn’t learning specifically how to work in a baseball front office in my classes, I was learning how to solve problems and challenge myself. Additionally, being around such a high-achieving group of grad students was extremely motivating. Some classes, though, are directly applicable, the main one being “Organizational Behavior and Development.” Our job as a front office is to create a positive organizational culture that spreads from the top down, something I learned directly from that course. Overall, I would say the culture of excellence in the McCormack program shows in its annual #1 postgraduate ranking and is something I have aimed to carry over into my job.”

Kyle Bamberger enrolled in the two-year dual degree (MBA and MS) program in Fall 2017 hoping to become a full-time scout where he’d be signing the next generation of MLB stars. He reflected on that preparation: “In my opinion the alumni network speaks for itself, but the educational opportunities on campus were just as valuable. The curriculum covers a wide range of topics relevant to working in any sector within the sports industry, while also giving you an opportunity to tailor your course load to the skills necessary to succeed in your specific field. For me, Sport Economics and Sport Law were some of the most applicable classes for my field, but with the help of the staff I was also able to find classes that facilitated growth in areas of interest such as database development and SQL. My course work culminated with an independent study that directly applied to studying the amateur scouting market, which again the faculty helped facilitate. The faculty always took the opportunity to individualize my education for the sake of better preparing me for a career in the game.”

Since the majority of baseball front office jobs start in February, Kyle “off-ramped” in January 2020 for a full-time job in scouting for the Guardians. Since then, his “coverage areas” have included the Midwest, Southern California, and most recently the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic. In his relatively young career, he’s already signed four players who have made it to the majors: Will Brennan, Tanner Bibee, Cade Smith and Matt Waldron. For a lot of scouts, four scouted players making the majors would be a nice career!

Because Bamberger left before the spring semester, he didn’t have the opportunity to take Professor Lisa Masteralexis’s “Labor Relations in Professional Sports” class — a “must take” elective course offering that is typically the “last stop” in preparing students for their MLB front office entry-level jobs. Masteralexis, who at one time was one of only three woman player agents certified by the MLB Players Association, is rightly proud of having taught labor law to three (of the four) McCormack alums who would go on to become general managers (Neal Huntington, Chris Antonelli and Ben Cherington).

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Preparation also includes a Grad Mentor Program, whereby all incoming grad students pursuing baseball front office jobs are matched with an alum already in one of MLB’s 30 front offices. Think of it as alumni networking on steroids. Bamberger reflected on the value of the grad mentor program: “I was fortunate to be paired with two incredible mentors in Ben Cherington (current Pirates GM) and Rob Metzler (current Tigers VP/Assistant GM). I spent the first year being mentored by Ben. We talked about everything from baseball-specific topics to organizational development to life skills. Admittedly, the discussions differed from my initial expectations but ultimately were more profound because we didn’t talk exclusively about on-field subject matter. He provided feedback, offered new perspectives and asked great questions to help me challenge the way I thought. Entering the second year in the program I was paired with Rob. Cleveland offered me a position at the end of that fall semester, so we were limited to only a few short months together, but the conversations we were able to have were significant and timely. With Rob specializing in the amateur scouting space at the time — the same area of the game I was pursuing — he offered a ton of perspective on my work samples and the job market I was in the process of navigating.”

Preparation also typically includes the department subsidizing student trips to the Baseball Winter Meetings each December. While there, they attend our annual alumni breakfast to get to meet in person with the 30-plus alums who attend.

David Haynes entered our undergraduate program in Fall 2008. His path is typical of those seeking baseball front office jobs. Two summer internships (with the Braves and MLB), followed by a nine-month role as Baseball Operations Trainee (Nationals), followed by another season as a Baseball Operations Trainee (this time with the Blue Jays). He would end up working eight years in Toronto (rising to Manager of Baseball Operations and Pro Scouting), before joining the L.A. Angels where he was recently promoted to Assistant GM.

Haynes speaks about the value of our alumni network: “Once I realized baseball was where I wanted to work, I spent my time on campus reaching out to anyone and everyone in the alumni database that was working in the front office of an MLB team. Without the alumni network it would have been much harder for me to get my foot in the door through internships. I was fortunate to intern with alums at the Nationals who were very generous with their time as it related to the work I was doing and to learn more about what my career goals were and ways that they could help.”

“Throughout my career,” Haynes continued, “it’s been great to be able to pick up the phone and reach out to an alum with another team (or at commissioner’s office or agents, etc) to make a connection and help each other with our jobs. There is so much interaction and having something in common has helped make working together (even when we don’t necessarily agree) very easy and enjoyable.”

But an alumni network is only as strong as the folks who make up that network. In my 22 years of cultivating this unparalleled network from the faculty side, Haynes speaks for virtually all of our alums in baseball’s front offices when he says. “I’ve always worked to stay active with the program, ‘paying it forward’ with current students and recent grads who aspire to work in baseball. It is a tough industry to break in to, and there were a lot of alums who helped me out when I was in that position. So, I’ll always make time to hop on a call, or answer an email — it’s all part of paying it forward.”

It’s also a testament to the make-up of these students, the preparation and guidance provided by our faculty, and the loyalty of our “baseball alums” that’s resulted in an unparalleled pipeline that only continues to expand.

Steve McKelvey, J.D. is a Full Professor in the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management at the University of Massachusetts. He is a former Department Chair and Graduate Program Director, and can be reached at mckelvey@isenberg.umass.edu.