Nick Piccone
The first shoe dropped… finally… when the Phillies made it clear that Ruben Amaro, Jr. would not be the general manager of the team going into next season. In fact, they couldn’t even wait until this past season was over, and fired Amaro on September 10th.
Since then, Andy MacPhail has been officially recognized as the team’s president, supplanting Pat Gillick. And he’s reportedly had some very good candidates to interview to take over the vacant general manager position. The latest comes from a team that finds itself as a contender virtually every October in the St. Louis Cardinals, where Matt Slater, the team’s director of player personnel, has been since 2012. Sure, no World Series titles have been won by the Cardinals since 2011, but they’ve remained competitive and, from all accounts, are a great organization when they’re not hacking into other teams’ computer systems.
Other candidates for the position reportedly include Kim Ng, the current senior vice president of baseball operations for MLB, who also has been assistant general manager and vice president for the Yankees and Dodgers. She’s been interviewed multiple times for a general manager position, so the Phillies hiring her to be their next GM wouldn’t be a huge shock to the baseball world, but would make a huge statement in today’s society.
Ross Atkins, the Indians’ vice president of player personnel and ex-Marlins president and GM, Larry Beinfest have also reportedly been interviewed.
While it looks like a slim list, it’s an impressive list. MacPhail would be smart to hire any of those reported candidates. Maybe the Phillies will be more competitive sooner than we thought.