We investigate whether corporate inventors, incentivized by annual performance appraisals, engage in opportunistic innovation management by filing excessive low-quality patents during fiscal year-end (FYE) months. For US public firms, we find a 43% surge in patent filings during FYE months compared to other months, and these additional patents exhibit significantly lower quality. Innovation management is more pronounced among inventors facing greater performance pressure. While such behavior initially reduces inventor turnover, it increases inventor turnover in later years, reflecting a tradeoff between short-term performance gains and long-term reputational costs. Finally, innovation management leads to lower future firm performance and stock returns.