The Phillies announced today that they will not extend the contract of general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. According to a team press release, assistant GM Scott Proefrock will take over as interim GM, effective immediately. The team’s search for a new, permanent GM begins today, per the release.
“It’s never an easy decision to make a change,” said president-to-be Andy MacPhail in the press release. “Ruben has had a direct impact on some of the best years in the team’s history. He helped to create some great memories for Phillies fans with his accomplishments, but in order to return to a top-contending club, we believe this is the right thing to do as we continue the rebuilding process.”
The writing has been on the wall for quite some time that Amaro’s days as GM were numbered. It’s been widely expected that in the wake of the team’s collapse over the past four seasons, MacPhail would seek to hire a new GM to guide the Phillies — possibly one that will bring a stronger commitment to analytics to the organization.
Amaro, 50, has been the Phillies’ general manager since the 2008 offseason, when he succeeded Pat Gillick. The Phillies made a World Series run in Amaro’s first full year as GM, ultimately coming up short to the Yankees, and went on to reach the postseason in the 2010 and 2011 campaigns as well. However, a number of the trades made by Amaro that were aimed at keeping the team in contention served, instead, to only deplete the farm system while failing to pay significant on-field dividends. Some of the more notable names moved in his time as GM include Carlos Carrasco, Travis d’Arnaud, Jarred Cosart, J.A. Happ, Vance Worley, Trevor May, Domingo Santana and Jon Singleton.
While Amaro does deserve some credit for acquiring Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee without surrendering any players that have, to this point, gone on to stardom (some would suggest that Carrasco is well on his way — an argument I’d support), it can also be said that he committed too strongly to an aging core when seeking younger alternatives would have been more prudent. Specifically, the Ryan Howard contract and Carlos Ruiz signings stand out as missteps that are still haunting the team (with Howard’s $125MM extension serving as perhaps the most egregious error of his tenure). Ruiz, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley all could have been allowed to hit free agency (or been traded in the final season of their previous contracts) but were instead re-signed to deals that ultimately carried negative value. The Phillies have also traditionally not been significant spenders on the international front, although that’s begun to change in recent signing periods (including this summer’s $4MM investment in 16-year-old Dominican slugger Jhailyn Ortiz).
In fact, there’s little denying that the Phillies’ farm system as a whole has improved substantially over the past few seasons with Amaro at the helm. J.P. Crawford and Aaron Nola both look to be outstanding top picks, and farmhand Ken Giles has emerged as one of the best young relievers in all of baseball. Maikel Franco looks like a star in the making at third base and should be considered a feather in the cap for Phillies’ international scouts. Trades of several veterans have netted arms such as Ben Lively, Tom Windle, Zach Eflin, Jake Thompson, Jerad Eickhoff, Alec Asher and Nick Pivetta, while position prospects such as Jorge Alfaro, Nick Williams and Darnell Sweeney have entered the picture as well. Odubel Herrera may be the best pick from this past Rule 5 Draft as well.
Although that restocking of the farm system falls under the “too little, too late” category for Amaro, it does help to create an appealing job opening for prospective general managers. The Phillies boast a rising farm system, a well-respected president in MacPhail, an excellent 2016 draft position and significant payroll capacity. Beyond that, there are no commitments on the books beyond the 2017 season, save for a $2MM buyout on Matt Harrison‘s club option. As such, the Phillies GM vacancy figures to be a highly appealing position despite the club’s lack of recent success.
With the Phillies now in the hunt for a GM, that creates five such openings around the league. The Angels, Mariners, Red Sox and Brewers are all on the hunt for new general managers as well, meaning there will be a significant amount of baseball operations changes in the coming months. Not only will each team employ a new GM, but those five newly minted executives will undoubtedly have some changes in store for the baseball operations departments and the field staffs which they’ll inherit upon taking their new roles.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Wow. Finally. I’m speechless.
Hallelujah.
About time. He should have been gone long already,
HE GONE
Shocking!
I hope he gets another job.
Yes, he was GOD awful for a long time but he has turned the program around pretty quickly once he finally decided to rebuild, assuming he had a part in it. He spoke like a reformed guy who realized why he made errors early on at that Hamels press conference, I was impressed.
Of course some Phillies fans will always whine about Amaro but when are Phillies fans ever satisfied about anything? The people on these boards are generally solid knowledge people so I’m not talking about you. However, the majority of the base is a bunch of complainers
Agreed, especially on the local newspaper website…. I’m indifferent that he’s gone. I just want to see the Philies rebuild back to their 2007-2011 era. It was fun watching the team build after years of sucking. After time passes, and info is leaked, I think more fans will realize that Amaro wasn’t the route cause of all evil. Will see, but my guess is montgomery was very heavy handed on the final say of the core players…. I also want clarification on the Hamels trade… because if it is Amaros doing, we could have another Ed Wade on our hands. Time will tell. Excited to see who he is replaced with, and the moves going forward.
The answer Trebek is what is the phrase Phillies fans have been waiting to hear for years.
Darn .. i was hoping he sticks around to ruin the phillies some more.
How do you flag sophomoric posts on here?
I would have to think the position is one of the more enviable spots among FO jobs. Cash and prospects abundant, without a meddlesome ownership.
I would put my money on Cherrington or Dipetro.
Not sure that you would call John Middleton not meddlesome or patient.
Hands down, comment of the year.
Who do the Phillies get, a Young New Blood , or Old Wise Man ( Woman ) ?
Veteran candidates; Cherrington, DiPoto; Duquette if he is dismissed
Since Duquette replaced MacPhail in Baltimore I can’t possibly see Duquette becoming MacPhail’s underling in Philadelphia. That makes zero sense.
Why does that matter? McPhail stepped down from his job with the Orioles, why would he care who replaced him?
And in all of Philadelphia, the sun shone brightly once more…
Jack Z and RAJ fired in the same season? It’s like Christmas.
My humble apologies
Andy is gonna bring back his old pal Jim Hendry!
Actually, I do believe that RAJ did a great job over the past year…that is if he had a hand in those deals. My biggest problem with his job as GM over the past year was that he ran his mouth in a very bad way. The unprofessional comments about Ryan not having a place on the team and the other comments that Phillies fans know little about baseball were just in poor judgement. A good leader watches their words carefully. Losing Sandberg caused the team to play with more intensity…I wonder if losing Amaro could motivate them even more knowing that there will be a GM that supports them through thick or thin.
Most of the good prospects he got were for Hamels. It would be hard to screw that up. An ace pitcher in his prime signed to a nice long term contract that probably won’t burden a team.
The original poster brings up a very important point. Did Amaro engineer the Hamels deal or not? It’s very hard to believe considering the number of prospects he gave away over the years that he’d be able to gather that much talent coming back in the other direction. We found out later that Montgomery all but forced the Howard, Rollins and Ruiz extensions. Will we soon find out that MacPhail pulled the Hamels deal together?
Rat, Amaro’s comments were not that offensive but Philadelphia fans in general think they are the smartest people in the room but are just whiners about everything. Howard should have been out of Philadelphia by now and in the AL but the old ownership would not allow it. Amaro was sacrificed because the attendance fell which usually happens in a rebuild
The Phillies don’t strike me as a type to go after a newer GM. They want experience mixed with someone who’ll use metrics. Dipoto fits that, as does Cherington.
If they do go newer candidates, someone who was an old school scout though has adjusted with the game – Smith with Pittsburgh could be a candidate
We are free, we are finally free. Philadelphia can now crawl out from the abyss that was the tenure of Ruben Amaro sprinkled with mediocrity from Michael Martinez to Ty Wigginton to Domonic Brown to Laynce Nix. Thanks be to God
Some hits, and some misses. But, if you have a new regime coming in, he almost had to be let go. The Phillies need a fresh start.
They’ve freed him to be available for the Tiger’s GM position. He’d fit in perfectly. Despite all signs that a rebuild was needed, he kept hanging on trying to contend each and every year. This is exactly the philosophy Mike Illich wants from his GM!
The Tigers don’t have an open GM position..
I just stopped in for the comments.
God! Why now? He finally began the rebuild, and THEN he gets canned? If they let him go instead of axing good ol’ Charlie, they might be looking for the one piece to get them in the playoffs by now
He worked under Pat Gillick’s guidance.
I think the Phillies should take a look at Mike Arbuckle who used to work in their front office, but now works for the Kansas City Royals. He helped draft many of their star players in the late ’90s/early 2000s and has had success with the Royals. In hindsight, he probably should have gotten the GM job over Amaro a few years ago. Maybe they’ll give him a shot this time.
I’m probably one of the few who thinks the Phillies are making a mistake letting him go. While he’s made some pretty obvious errors as far contract signings, as the article mentions he has done a great job of restocking the team for the future. I don’t think he will make the same errors contract wise and his history with trades is not bad at all. Big opportunity for the other teams looking for a GM.
Can anyone explain why exactly they took so long to can him?