Phillies Move On From Ruben Amaro

by
September 10, 2015

In a move that has been widely expected for months, the Phillies announced today that they’re not going to extend Ruben Amaro’s contract, ending his tenure as general manager of the club.

Amaro has been the Phillies GM since November of 2008. The Phillies won the division each of his first three years in charge, including making it to the World Series in 2009, but have struggled as their core aged and the team was unable to restock the talent pool around their former stars. Amaro was also one of the last holdouts against the move towards analytics, and the Phillies fell behind the rest of the league by resisting the trends toward data-inclusive decision making.

New team president Andy MacPhail will likely look outside the organization for the team’s next GM, and I wouldn’t be too surprised if the team went with a younger assistant GM from a team with an analytical bent. Given the Phillies payroll and market size, this is the kind of position that will appeal to a wide variety of candidates, and the Phillies should be able to interview just about anyone they want for the position.





 

Dave is the Managing Editor of FanGraphs.

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Phillies113
8 years ago

This was a completely necessary move on the Phillies’ part. While RAJ did a lot of great work to kickstart the rebuild, let’s not forget that RAJ was the one who created a situation in which a rebuild was necessary AND delayed that rebuild by approximately 2 years. Even if he did well mopping up, his name has been so sullied that it would have been a PR nightmare to keep him past this year.

1
Bat
8 years ago
Reply to  Phillies113

What on earth are the readers of Fangraphs going to do for jokes in the comment section of every article now that RAJ is gone???

And yes, I mean every article and not just every Phillies article.

If all comments were reviewed and tabulated over the past five years or so, RAJ comments would at or near the top with:

#6 Org!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What other comments am I overlooking that could possibly be in 1st place for most frequent during the same time period.

8
Dave Cameron
8 years ago
Reply to  Bat

*blinks*

17
John Elway
8 years ago
Reply to  Dave Cameron

“Why so much love for the Red Sox/A’s/(fill in the team in the article you’re bitching about reading)?”

Just neighing.

23
Dave Stewart
8 years ago
Reply to  Bat

Hi

2
ever.diso
8 years ago
Reply to  Dave Stewart

comments about me and the fake ever.diso who posts pretending to be me

1
#KeepNotGraphs
8 years ago
Reply to  Bat

#KeepNotGraphs

27
Pirates Hurdles
8 years ago
Reply to  Bat

I dunno I kinda like this new gem – “the best infield in modern baseball history” courtesy of big daddy cool.

-1
Rachel McAdams
8 years ago
Reply to  Pirates Hurdles

Stop trying to make fetch happen.

0
esdrtfyu
8 years ago
Reply to  Phillies113

There is absolutely no change whatsoever in how the Phillies are run.

Bill Giles put the ownership group together with people who think like him 35 years ago. Guess what? Bill Giles is still there. He took part in the hiring of MacPhail and Klentak both. He was at the press conference announcing the hiring of Klentak.

35 Years.

Jim Thome and Cliff Lee

That’s it.

35 Years.

Carlos Ruiz and Maikel Franco, the only two starting quality players signed out of Latin America. Ruiz was signed out of Panama for eight thousand dollars. Need that in numerical form? $8,000- Eight Stacks.

Maikel Franco was signed for $100,000- That’s one hundred thousand American dollars. One hundred Stacks.

The Red Sox paid $63 million to sign Yoan Moncada. The Phillies paid $108,000- to sign both Carlos Ruiz and Maikel Franco.

Two real free agents and two starting position players from Latin America signed for nothing.

The Phillies Way is unchanged. They will sit in the cellar until they collect enough free talent in the MLB Plantation Slave Auction held every June. These young slave/intern players will be exploited to the max by the Phillies bloodsucking ownership cabal. For seven years they will make these bloodsucking criminals massive profits. If a few become fan favorites and the crowds are still huge as they near free agency then they will be signed to short, team friendly deals. If any have slipped through their screening process and turn out to be normal players seeking long contracts they will be demonized and booted out the door.

The Phillies after telling lies to their fan base from 2012 onward finally admitted they were “rebuilding”. The truth of the matter is they are already planning their next rebuild as they conduct this one.

THAT is The Phillies Way.

Google: Kevin Maitan FREE_AEC

0