When he took over the general manager role for the San Jose Earthquakes in January of 2017, Jesse Fioranelli asked for patience as he digested input from stakeholders within and outside the club. He would be a sponge to start the year, but he didn’t wait long to begin implementing his own ideas.
Fioranelli brought in new blood to the technical team, especially with the hire of Bruno Costa as head of scouting and Alex Covelo as director of methodology. Both men had experience with player evaluation outside North America, like Fioranelli himself, and the hires marked a seismic shift from the previous GM John Doyle’s approach to building a team.