If Padres GM A.J. Preller is the “rock star GM,” then Phillies GM Ruben Amaro may be the “pincushion GM,” writes Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. Amaro has received plenty of criticism and scorn for signing veterans to prohibitive contracts that exacerbated the club’s current woes. It’s now widely believed that the Phillies will not renew his contract at the end of the season. However, Amaro does deserve some credit for leveraging his few assets as fully as possible. In addition to the return for Hamels, players acquired by trading Jonathan Papelbon, Chase Utley, Ben Revere, Marlon Byrd, and Jimmy Rollins are now among the club’s top 20 prospects. The Phillies are also “battling” for the first overall pick in the 2016 amateur draft.
- For over a year, Cole Hamels has been a popular subject of our posts. Starting pitcher Jerad Eickhoff was the first of the five prospects to make his debut with the Phillies, writes Ryan Lawrence of the Philadelphia Daily News. As you’re aware, the Phillies finally traded Hamels along with Jake Diekman at the July deadline for five Rangers prospects and injured veteran Matt Harrison. Among prospect afficionados, the names of Jorge Alfaro, Nick Williams, and Jake Thompson were recognizable. Eickhoff may have flown under the radar, but his debut was encouraging. Over six innings, he shut out the Marlins with five hits, five strikeouts, and one walk. Eickhoff’s command and stuff suggest he may successfully support the rotation for years to come. Now Phillies fans will hope the name brand prospects also live up to the hype.
- The Marlins are open to bringing Ichiro Suzuki back next season as he chases the 3,000 hit milestone, reports Craig Davis of the South Florida Sun Sentinel (subscription required). Ichiro, 41, was originally signed as a backup outfielder. With 111 games played, he’s appeared more often than any of the incumbent starters. He’s now 77 hits from the milestone. He won’t get there this season, but it could be within reach early next year. Given the publicity that comes with the achievement, other clubs may have interest in him.
Eickhoff didn’t let up a run in his debut, Jeanmar Gomez did.
I don’t really like Amaro, but he may have saved him job for the time being. I don’t think they could justify a long term extension, but bringing him back next year isn’t the worse possible thing they could do. Hes seemingly hit with the 1st and 2nd rounds of the 2013 and 2014 drafts. Crawford, Nola and Knapp are all very promising and Imhof isn’t half bad either. In all of trades hes made in the last year, every single piece of every return seemingly could have a MLB future. Jimmy Cordero and Joely Rodriguez are probably the 2 that we should be skeptical about.
Doesn’t matter who the GM is, but the plan for this off season should be to dump Ruiz and Howard, add a veteran SP and continue adding to the farm system anyway possible.
edit; wrong nick williams linked
There is no way they bring back Amaro next year. Even if he has earned an extra year the phans would revolt if he is brought back.
It’s hard to say that Amaro “leveraged his assets” as much as possible when he failed to move Aaron Harang (after his great start this season) or Cliff Lee (either this season or last season). The Papelbon and Hamels deals could also have been better, given that Amaro could have traded them in the off-season when they had an additional half-season of control left. He basically waited too long with most of his assets to say he got the most out of them.
I think I’d give Amaro a C+, which is a lot better than I thought he would earn. He held on the everything for a long time–in Lee’s case, it was too long, and one could argue he should have swapped Harang at the first decent opportunity. Howard it’s hard to know whether any opportunity actually arose. He’s brought in prospects–perhaps a few will turn out to be solid major league players, but what’s more important is that he’s created depth in the minor leagues. Still, this remains a team with a very uninspiring short-term future.
Baltimore could work Ichiro into their lineup with enough frequency to get to 3,000, his lack of power could be hidden in the O’s lineup (depending on Chris Davis’ future) and he’d be a positive influence.
Why the heck didn’t Amaro trade Harang?