LAREDO — The dust is still settling on the big news story coming out of  south Texas today, with PEBA’s San Antonio Calzones de Laredo moving quickly to address a major shakeup in their front office. With General Manager Matt Higgins announcing a surprise departure from his post at the helm of the organization, the Calzones’ ownership held a press conference today in which they made public their new choice of GM, Adam Dee.

With Higgins poised to take over the rebuilding Transmitters of the LRS as they prepare to relocate to their new home in the Rio Grande Valley in 2021 following the merger, there was obviously a great deal of pressure on the Calzones organization to bring in a general manager of similar caliber in order to maintain the club’s status as a contender. The rumor mill buzzed with talk of this or that veteran exec coming in to mind the ship, but in the end the franchise reached out to a young man with zero PEBA experience.

Adam Dee, a young baseball executive with experience in a number of less prestigious baseball leagues, was tapped earlier this morning to take a seat in the big chair. Pundits and fans have been quick to question the hire — an unnamed scout within the organization has been quoted accusing ownership of bringing in “a boy to do a man’s job” — but as with all risks, the hire as the promise of future rewards. What Dee lacks in experience, he makes up for (or so Calzones fans have to hope) in potential. Ownership touted his background in lesser leagues as bringing vital knowledge towards the much-needed restocking of the club’s minor league system, a task made harder by the aggressive nature in which the club has pursued present-day success. With all of their first six picks sent away for established PEBA players, Dee will have to do some hard work over the next few years to refill the pipeline of talent.

“I’m not here to be Matt Higgins 2.0,” Dee told reporters earlier today. “I’ve got my own way of doing things, and we’ll all be learning as we go. You guys know as much as anyone, Higgins left a really strong core here, so don’t expect me to be making a bunch of moves just for the sake of making moves. I wasn’t brought in to reinvent the Calzones.”

Whether the rookie GM can handle the stresses of PEBA baseball remains to be seen, but his confidence in the Calzones’ core does not seem misplaced. While they’ve definitely been hurt be injuries over the past couple of seasons, Dee enters the league gifted with a young lineup that seems poised to contend for the playoffs in the Imperial League immediately, and for a long time to come in the Dixie Division of the soon-to-be amalgamated PEBA.

When asked whether managing in the same division as Higgins’ Rio Grande Valley Ocelots post-merger, Dee was quick to downplay any antagonism. “He’s a pro, and really we’re all just here to win ball games. Whether that’s against the Transmitters, err Ocelots, or the Trendsetters, or whoever, that’s not really on my mind.”

Dee closed out his first press conference as Calzones boss with an impassioned monologue directed at the fans of his new club. “I figured out pretty early I didn’t have the tools to play pro ball myself, so for me it’s always been about managing. This job, this chair, that’s the big leagues for me, that’s my life’s dream. That I’ve been lucky enough to get here when I did is not lost on me. We’re all here to win pennants, and I know how badly the people of south Texas want to see a winner here.”