The title on the wall outside of his Slammers office reads “Manager,” but the job for Jeff Isom goes far beyond making out the lineup.
Isom is responsible for finding, recruiting and signing players for his Frontier League team — in other words, putting together the 24-man roster. That workload isn’t unusual for many managers in the oft-changing world of independent baseball.
“You’re always going to have turnover from rosters,” Isom said. “Guys retiring, guys moving on, guys that didn’t get the job done the year before. So you’re always looking for guys.”
Isom is starting his 10th season overall in the Frontier League and fourth with the Slammers. The defending East Division champions open Friday at Lake Erie and start a six-game homestand Tuesday against Traverse City.
Having managed in the Milwaukee Brewers minor league system also is a benefit to Isom in the annual search for players.
More Top Picks Best Amazon Prime Day Stand Mixer Deals 2026
“I’ve got enough contacts with major league baseball teams, scouts, agents,” he said. “Guys get released, they start looking for jobs. It’s about networking. Once a guy gets released from Major League Baseball’s affiliated teams, they’re looking to get hooked up with other affiliated teams.
“Once they realize, ‘Oh wait, I’m not going to get signed with an affiliated team,’ that’s when they start looking at independents. Sometimes it takes a while to procure these players. But that’s when the agents come aboard and you start talking, trying to set up a deal.”
Two teams in the league — the Traverse City Beach Bums and the Washington Wild Things — have a player personnel employee whose job is to fill out the roster.
That’s not for Isom.
“I want to find my own guys so at the end of the day, if we suck, I can’t blame it on anybody but myself,” he said. “And if we win, it’s because the players win. It’s not anything I did, except we got the right guys and they’re performing.”
The 2016 Slammers batted .274 (third in the league), won 51 games and the organization’s first division title since 2011. The success of the team and how it was assembled wasn’t lost on general manager Heather Mills.
“We’re excited coming off of a division championship,” Mills said. “Jeff did a real good job of putting a team together last year. We’re hoping for more of the same this year with maybe even better results.
“We definitely have more experienced guys this year, names that have played in affiliated ball at a pretty high level.”
Left-hander Joe Ortiz, 26, hopes to restart his career after he was released by the Class AAA Iowa Cubs in 2015 and pitched last year in the Venezuelan Winter League.
Outfielder Juan Silva, 26, played two years in Class AAA with the Reds and then spent last season with the Yankees’ Class AA team in Trenton, N.J.
“For our league, getting a Double-A or Triple-A guy who’s had some success, they’re usually going to the Atlantic League, American Association,” Isom said.
“I started just doing a sales thing, cold calls. I figured if I called 25 guys I really want, that I probably have no business getting — that fit parameters of our league— maybe I’d get a couple. And we got a couple.”
Other newcomers with affiliated experience include catchers Spencer Navin (Rockies) and Sam Tidaback (Cubs), a Providence graduate who also is a designated hitter candidate.
“From an experience standpoint, we’ve got guys who are just as capable, if not better, offensively,” Isom said. “It gives us a lot of optimism.”
Tim Tierney is a freelance writer for the Daily Southtown.