MIAMI — New Marlins general manager Kim Ng spent only four of her 30-plus years as a Major League Baseball executive with the New York Yankees, serving as the club's assistant general manager from 1998-2001.
But Ng credits that stint as one of the more insightful stops of her career, one that started with seven years at the White Sox, included a decade with the Los Angeles Dodgers and culminated with nine years at MLB's central office before becoming the first woman in MLB history to hold the general manager title.
For a recap of those four years:
— Ng started with the Yankees at age 29, becoming the youngest person ever — male or female — to hold the assistant general manager title for an MLB team.
— She spearheaded arbitration cases, including a win over eventual all-time saves leader Mariano Rivera.
— She took the lead in negotiating Derek Jeter's 10-year, $189 million contract following the 2000 season.
All this while assisting general manager Brian Cashman in assembling teams year over year that were among MLB's best. The Yankees won three consecutive World Series titles from 1998-2000 and went 394-251-1 in the four seasons she was with the club. That included a franchise-record 114 wins in 1998.
"I got to see what winning — winning at a high, high level for an extended period of time — looked like and what that took," Ng said. "And between Mr. (George) Steinbrenner, the staff there, obviously Brian, I got to see the many different facets of the operation and what it took from their perspective — in the drafts we had, the development, all the coaches in the player-development system and the excellence that they demanded. That all came from the top, but it permeated down throughout the organization."
Cashman, in a statement, said Ng was "indispensable to me when I first began my tenure as the GM. Kim was a tireless and dedicated executive back then, and in the ensuing years, she has ceaselessly added to her skill set to maximize her talent."
