Phillies Move On From Ruben Amaro
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.
Full release from #Phillies on Amaro: pic.twitter.com/8PZPRC664T
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) September 10, 2015
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.
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.
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.
*blinks*
“Why so much love for the Red Sox/A’s/(fill in the team in the article you’re bitching about reading)?”
Just neighing.
Hi
comments about me and the fake ever.diso who posts pretending to be me
#KeepNotGraphs
I dunno I kinda like this new gem – “the best infield in modern baseball history” courtesy of big daddy cool.
Stop trying to make fetch happen.
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
Let’s go to this live shot of Philadelphia fans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQLQ1Rc_Js
The final straw was when they found out how much time he was wasting posting comments on Fangraphs.
I’m gonna miss you guys.
It wasn’t me though. It was the imposter above.
You’re right, it wasn’t you. I got bored watching us lose games, so I, the real Ruben Amaro Jr., who posted here all the time.
I just managed to fool you all into thinking I was an impostor.
In actuality, the Phils let Amaro go so he could receive treatment for his schizophrenia, as evidenced by this long, rambling conversation he’s having with himself in this comment section.
For some reason I imagine that you thought of that like a year ago and were just waiting until he got fired to post it.
Fangraphs COTY
So, does Boston still need a GM? Amaro obviously has plenty of experience operating in the shadow of albatross contracts, so he would feel right at home with Hanley and Panda in town.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m a big Phillies and analytics fan and not at all sorry to see him go, but I would do it all over again, i.e., go all-in and mortgage the future in an attempt to win another title. I was optimistic even as late as last year, which I know is insane. The Howard contract was terrible but I support almost everything he did.
“anaylytics fan” + “support almost everything he did”=WTF
I’m glad I’m not the only one to put a “nay” in analytics!
Just neighing.
Thanks BDF!!
I’m the same as BDF, and I agree, 100%.
Yes, the last couple of years have been bad. But it was well worth it. I’m glad they took the shot… no matter how bad it looks in retrospect.
And, kudos to RAJ for getting the ship pointed in the right direction before he left.
I also appreciated that maybe he stuck his foot in his mouth occasionally… but at least he tried to be honest, and you always knew he had his whole heart in the job.
Another Phils fan here – the problem was that it looked bad in the moment, not just in retrospect. There is a difference between taking a shot with obviously stupid/short-sighted moves and taking a shot with the right moves. That difference is why he was fired (finally).
This makes me a sad panda, as a chunk of my entertainment value from Major League Baseball is now gone.
That makes me feel sad about you, and your life’s direction.
He inherited a championship team, strong farm, large payroll, and excited fans, basically the best situation a GM could have.
He somehow managed to turn that into a bad, expensive ML team, no farm, and pissed off fans.
He’s basically the George Bush of baseball.
In fairness, Phillies fans are always pissed off. It’s just a matter of where (or towards whom) we channel our rage.
I guess sometimes bad things happen to good robots!
Logically, is there a worse time to take over a team? When you’re on top, there is literally nowhere to go, but down. And even if you continue winning, they’ll always say you simply inherited it all.
I have to say, the decision was mutual. They learned that I had interest in the open Seattle position, and they respectfully let me out of my contract.
I will always cherish my time as a member of the Phillies team.
RAJ
… I just don’t understand why Seattle want me to wear this gold medallion around my neck… or why the medallion is a giant “#6”
So who would have bet that a half a dozen GMs would get the ax before Ruben this year?
Given that he’d been surviving all his bad decisions so far, there was no reason tot think he’d be the first (or even fourth) to go this year…
As the GM goes, so does the team.
I guess it’s all up to me to show the new bunch of Phillies the way to another championship.
Oops sorry. Wrong article
“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.”
This quote felt out of place given the news-oriented feel to this article. Yes he was the last to switch but no, it is not a given that a lack of analytics was THE primary reason for his team’s descent. But it is a delightful piece of rhetoric. I tip my hat.