Philadelphia Phillies rumors: Ruben Amaro Jr. not on the hot seat
By Hayden Kane
The Philadelphia Phillies have predictably been a mess this season. It inevitably caught up with them that they had an aging roster with bloated contracts and a lack of organizational depth.
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Part of the identity problem for the Phillies has been the fact that they clearly needed to start a rebuilding process, yet the start of said process continued to be put off. The reason that things kept stalling was the job security of general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. To rebuild might be for him to admit his mistakes, which would supposedly weaken his case to hang onto his position (or so the thinking went).
Interestingly enough, Amaro finally admitted that the Phillies need to undergo a rebuilding process this summer. Even with that admission, it sounds like his status is safe and he will be able to go about his business this off-season with job security. Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly writes the following:
"A rather large one was dropped Tuesday when club president David Montgomery told a group of fans at a team event that Amaro was not on the hot seat, an indication that Amaro will survive a third straight season of not making the playoffs and remain in charge for this hugely important winter. Amaro is headed into the final year of his contract, and if the Phillies don’t make serious progress someone else will likely be overseeing the next hugely important Phillies winter."
Not that it should be necessary to do so, but by declaring Amaro’s job as safe, Montgomery removes the GM’s incentive to posture or stand by stale old philosophies that got the Phillies into this rut in the first place.
As for job security, it sounds like good work if you can get it, no?
The Phillies will presumably look to deal Jonathan Papelbon, Ryan Howard, and others as they retool their system this winter. When they do, it will still be Amaro Jr. working the phones.