The owner decides how much to spend. The GM is the surplus he builds with it.
It rates the roster-builder on five pillars, separating his surplus from the owner's sandbox through the owner-adjustment.
Draft, free agency, trades, and the cap. Five pillars.
A composite pro general manager. The engine points inward and rates the builder on five quantified pillars, re-scoped for the surplus game he plays under a hard cap, where surplus is on-field value minus cost and he acquires through three channels.
The identity triggers classify the kind of operation, a description of method and not a grade, because two general managers can reach the same rating through opposite identities (an aggressive cap-pusher and a patient value-builder can both be excellent). This is the evaluating-the-evaluators principle, and under a hard cap the person is judged on the surplus he accumulates. Rate the builder on the surplus he brings in, holds, funds, structures, and navigates.
Illustrative on the real Front Office pillar framework (the five pillars re-scoped for the pro game under a hard cap, the three acquisition channels, the roll-up to a Front Office Rating on the KR scale, the identity triggers). Composite general manager, demonstration figures.
The owner sets the sandbox. Rate the surplus he built in it.
The franchise owner above the general manager sets the budget, the stability, and the infrastructure he builds within, and is rated separately as its own object. So a rating of the builder is meaningless until the sandbox is subtracted.
Amplified: A spend-to-win, stable owner amplifies a strong one.
This is the same separation the head-coach and college front-office reads make. A manager who builds a contender under a frugal owner rates above one who buys a contender under a bottomless one. Subtract the sandbox, and rate the surplus that is left.
Illustrative on the real front-office-versus-owner separation (the franchise owner as the spending-and-stability sandbox rated separately, the owner-adjustment capping or amplifying, the GM's rating as the residual). Composite general manager and owner, demonstration figures.
A track record is a tighter bet than one good draft.
A general manager's rating is a bet on his roster-building, reported with a career-versus-current split and a confidence band gated on the sample of his decisions.
A rating travels with the person across franchises, the career arc carries and the current regime re-prices, and the confidence gate keeps a hot start from being priced as a career, so a decade of drafts and deals is a tight bet and one draft in the chair is a wide one. A hot draft is never sold as a career.
Illustrative on the real rating layer (the career-versus-current split across regimes and franchises, the confidence gated on the sample, the rating as a bet with the confidence as its size). Composite general managers, demonstration figures.
A manager who builds a contender under a frugal owner is worth more than one who buys one under a bottomless one.
Rate the surplus, subtract the sandbox.
General Manager Intelligence rates the decision-maker on five pillars across the draft, free agency, and trades under a hard cap, separates him from the owner who sets his sandbox through the owner-adjustment, and reports the residual as a bet with a career-versus-current split and a sample-gated band.