Succession planning is a vital part of an organization’s approach to the future. Most significantly large corporations will have a list of potential CEOs when the existing chief executive leaves the position, and universities are continually tapping the best professors or administrators for Dean and Provost openings.
The same exercise is true in baseball, where teams should be penciling in potential replacements in the event of a free agent departure or injury. The latter element makes succession planning, and appropriate depth, even more important in baseball, since you can lose the equivalent of a Dean or CEO on a botched stolen base or the like.