Ruben Amaro’s Strategy Will Set Phillies Back for Years

As NFL free agency gets underway, there has already been a slew of trades that have changed the landscape of the league.

The Philadelphia Eagles have been arguably the most aggressive team, getting rid of several integral parts from last year’s squad and loading the roster with new faces.

Love or hate Chip Kelly, it kind of makes sense. The Eagles were not successful enough in 2014—they missed the playoffs—so Kelly decided to make drastic changes.

Across the City of Brotherly Love, the Phillies are not abiding by the same logic. After winning the National League East every year from 2007-2011—including a World Series title in 2008—the Fighting Phils have been more hapless than anything else.

Common sense would suggest that some changes might need to be made, but the Phillies‘ front office hasn’t really made any.

Instead of trading a few veterans in an attempt to bolster the farm system and build for the future, general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. has decided to dole out huge contracts to over-the-hill players and refuses to trade them even when their value is high.

Back in 2010, the Phils signed Ryan Howard to a 5-year, $125 million extension. To be fair, that was when he was a premier slugger and MVP-caliber player. But he was 30 years old at the time, and the extension would last into his late 30s. For an overweight, one-dimensional first baseman, maybe it wasn’t such a smart decision.

However, hindsight is 20:20, and nobody could predict Howard totally falling off a cliff.

But when Amaro comes out  in the offseason and says it would be better if Howard was not a part of the team, it ‘s obviously not a good situation.

Also, they signed Chase Utley to an extension back in 2013 when his productivity was already declining. Again, it’s a case where Amaro chose to sign a player into their late 30s.

It’s easy to second guess these deals now, but past history shows that players usually do not sustain their greatness in their mid-to-late 30s.

As a result, the current Phillies roster is filled with former All-Stars who are well past their prime. The team has plenty of holes, and the thought of them contending in the NL East is a complete joke.

This is a team that needs to go into full-scale rebuilding mode—as the Chicago Cubs, Houston Astros and New York Mets have in recent years—in hopes of being legitimate contenders three, four or five years down the road.

It’s pretty clear Amaro hasn’t executed a successful agenda to this point, and a problem seems to arise when he refuses to consider other approaches.

As I read the article, some quotes really stuck out to me.

Basically, Stark was wondering if Cliff Lee‘s recent injury would change the way Amaro approached future trade opportunities involving Cole Hamels.

He continued to rephrase the question in an attempt to get his point across, but Amaro refused to budge from his position.

This is what Amaro said after Stark asked him if the Lee injury at all changed the organization’s stance on Hamels:

I don’t know what our ‘stance’ on Cole is. Others have ‘stances’, I guess, for us. I guess other people must think we have a ‘stance.’ Our ‘stance’ is that we are open minded. And that hasn’t changed one bit.

He says they are open minded, but he demonstrates the opposite. He has shown a tendency to cling to his old ways, overvaluing his players and refusing to negotiate.

The most recent and compelling example of this tendency is the Hamels sweepstakes.

According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, the Phillies asked the Dodgers last season for their top three prospects; outfielder Joc Pederson, shortstop Corey Seager and left-handed pitcherJulio Urias.

All three of those Dodger prospects are among the most highly touted youngsters in all of baseball—they were all ranked in the top 15 of MLB.com’s 2014 Prospect Watch—and nobody on the planet would give away that kind of special talent for a non-elite pitcher like Hamels. 

Then, Rob Bradford of WEII.com reported in January that the Phillies were “unrealistic in their expectations” of the market for Hamels, possibly asking for Boston top prospects Mookie Betts and Blake Swihart in a potential deal.

If the Phillies truly believe that Hamels is worth that much, then I applaud them for sticking to their guns, but I would also say that maybe it would be prudent to at least go back and forth with other teams. It never hurts to negotiate.

Amaro also repeatedly told Stark that the Lee injury would in no way affect how they look at Hamels:

Is there a lesson learned from Yu Darvish? All pitchers can get hurt. All
players can get hurt. It can happen anytime. That has nothing to do with the way we go about our business, [by] planning for a guy to get hurt.

That line doesn’t make much sense; he is basically fueling the competing argument. Stark was trying to make a case for trading Hamels now while he is healthy because pitchers are getting hurt at such a high rate recently.

Amaro responded by agreeing that pitchers get hurt all the time. Yes, that’s kind of the point. The fact that pitchers are getting hurt at such an alarming rate means that it makes sense to at least consider trading Hamels while he is in good health.

Again, at least consider it. Don’t completely disregard that line of thought, especially when the Phillies have not only one of the least-talented big league rosters but also a poor farm system.

It would be one thing if Amaro has had success as a general manager. If he were very good at his job, then maybe he would have an excuse for sticking to what he’s always done.

But he simply has no track record of being a competent executive. One must not forget that Amaro was not the GM when the Phillies won the World Series—he took over that position in 2009.

All Amaro has done is oversee one of the most dramatic MLB plunges in recent memory. The Phillies were one of the worst teams in the league in 2014, and they did nothing to change that this offseason.

In his first three years on the job, when he enjoyed the success of the former general manager’s efforts, the Phillies went a combined 292-194, which is extremely good.

He inherited stars such as Roy Halladay, Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Howard and Utley and watched them do big things while they were in their prime.

However, as the roster aged and Amaro didn’t make any major changes, the team has plunged to the National League cellar. They have gone 227-259 the past three seasons and have not finished above .500 in any of those years.

So, all in all, when you are a baseball executive who doesn’t appear to have done anything on your own, I think it would be prudent to at least consider other opinions.

Standing pat has not worked out too well for Amaro so far. It seems borderline insane to believe that continuing to follow the same failing strategy will somehow yield positive results in the future.

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