Is 2016 the Final Year for San Francisco 49ers General Manager Trent Baalke?

San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke may already be on the hot seat entering the 2016 NFL season, but the recent promotion of Tom Gable to assistant GM could easily mean this year will be Baalke’s last with the organization.

Nothing in the NFL lasts forever, and San Francisco 49ers general manager Trent Baalke’s tenure may wind up coming to a close sooner than later.

On Monday, the Niners announced the team’s former vice president of player personnel, Tom Gamble, would be promoted to the role of assistant general manager. Gamble will be tasked with assisting Baalke in the structuring of the team, and the former brings 28 years of NFL experience to the table.

But it’s not hard to connect the dots. The 49ers, coming off a 5-11 finish in 2015 and boasting a roster largely lacking in talent, don’t exactly sing to Baalke’s efforts.

So it’s not too hard to consider 2016 could be the final make-or-break year for San Francisco’s current general manager.

In a nutshell, the 49ers front office may be lining up their options if the players Baalke has accumulated in recent years don’t pan out anywhere near where expected.

And, adding to the line of wonderment, the fact Gamble and new head coach Chip Kelly have ties from their time with the Philadelphia Eagles — as pointed out by The MMQB’s Albert Breer — suggests Baalke’s tenure is much more tenuous than initially thought.

How exactly did Baalke get to this point? Tracing the past few years is just as critical in deciding the GM’s future as wondering what the Gamble promotion means.

Baalke started out with the 49ers as the vice player of personnel back in 2010 under then-general manager Scot McCloughan, only to take over for McCloughan the subsequent year. There are those who would argue the widely successful Niners teams of the early 2010s were thanks to McCloughan’s engineering and not so much from those efforts from Baalke.

Perhaps, although 2011 was a pretty good draft class. 2012 was another story.

OK, so every general manager has his share of gaffes. But there are more pressing concerns behind Baalke’s draft strategy.

Defensive backs have been one of Baalke’s main focal points in the draft. He drafted three of them in 2016, one in 2015 and four in 2014.

Maybe this approach was a good one. Defensive back Jimmie Ward has worked out nicely after a rough rookie year. And second-year safety Jaquiski Tartt is a promising young player. But this “shotgun” take on defensive backs leaves more than a few question marks on the table as well.

And yet it may not be the biggest concern behind Baalke’s draft strategy.

Baalke has a knack for taking injured players in the draft. This year, it was cornerback Will Redmond. A year ago, wide receiver DeAndre Smelter was the target. Tack on running back Marcus Lattimore, guard Brandon Thomas, defensive end Tank Carradine and a few others, and this method raises a few eyebrows.

And the results haven’t been to anyone’s liking, according to SFGate.com’s Eric Branch:

"Those players would spend a “redshirt” rookie season on injury lists, where they didn’t count against the 53-man roster, and would be fully recovered and ready to contribute a year later.It was a strategy few teams could afford to adopt because they needed their draft picks to contribute immediately. The 49ers, however, could grab injured prospects at least a round later than they would have been selected if healthy and start reaping the rewards a year later.It made sense.And it hasn’t worked."

Those injured players were supposed to be the guys who rose to meet the challenges when San Francisco went through an en masse player departure in 2015 — one which wasn’t exactly Baalke’s fault, nor something he could have totally envisioned — but the Niners didn’t get anywhere near the type of production they needed.

So it shouldn’t be much of a surprise the team went 5-11 last year, and 49ers CEO Jed York issued statements about not being satisfied with the current state of the roster.

That falls on Baalke.

It gets more convoluted too. Take into account Baalke’s rift with former head coach Jim Harbaugh in 2014 and how the former won out a power struggle, which forced Harbaugh out of town.

Fans weren’t happy with it. And, chances are, they weren’t exactly happy with the team’s choice to replace him — Jim Tomsula.

Part of it, maybe a good part, could fall on York. But York isn’t going anywhere. So if things continue not to work in Santa Clara, who would be the next person to get the axe?

Baalke.

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It’s entirely possible the 49ers promoted Gamble simply to give Baalke some extra assistance in rebuilding a roster in need of help — sort of like “one man can’t do the entire job” or something like that.

Perhaps. But the promotion could also be a two-fold move as well. It puts pressure on Baalke to work quicker and more effectively. But it also gives the Niners an option in case the players Baalke has selected largely don’t pan out to expected levels.

Whatever the case may be, it’s easy to see San Francisco’s general manager is on the hot seat entering 2016. And the 49ers have a likable option waiting in line if this year proves to be Baalke’s last.

Next: Did Trent Baalke Redeem Himself During NFL Draft?

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