Why Ruben Amaro Jr. Should Be Fired Right Now!

Ruben Amaro JR and the brass of the Phils should have faced the facts – and started dismantling their team before they lost any relevant value over the last few years.  Now players like Rollins, Burnett and Utley have had their Vesting Options all exercised – and with the exception of the 2nd baseman, none of them have any trade value. Add brutal dollars owed to Howard and Papelbon, and this team is headed for financial peril.

Why Ruben Amaro Jr should be fired

Jordan Gluck (Prospects/Organization Expert): Follow @jgluck777

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I believe that if any GM were asked what is the organization that they would least like to take over the answer would be the Phillies. This team is a train wreck and it starts with up top where a new general manager is needed.

The Phillies even with the money that they generate are a long-term project that won’t be easy to fix. Rubens tenure started November 3rd 2008.  The team had just won the World Series under the tutelage of Pat Gillick.

Amaro had a team that could have brought a dynasty type of run to the franchise.  After a slow-moving regression that went from World Series Appearance in 2009, to NLCS in 2010, and then NLDS in 2011, the team finally missed the playoffs.

The core began to grow older and become expensive.  It has been apparent the squad needed a rebuild on the fly, but the powers that be have sat on their diminishing assets too long, and now the apples have become rotten, and not useful to other 29 teams.  

It is a flawed way of thinking – and will set the organization back 3 – 5 years.  

Out of our entire staff here at MLB Reports, we all hold the same opinion about Amaro JR.  – and in this article, we have all added our 2 cents in some form. Be sure to listen to Sully’s great podcasts about the Phillies at the end of the blog.

The teams president and CEO, David Montgomery (Seen here at the World Series Rally in 2008), while on extended medical leave, is also to fault for this current mess. He has stated ‘that the Phillies need to put out name stars’ to draw fans. Hey here is a concept for you David courtesy from Sully Baseball. “Trade Veterans – when your team is not competitive in certain years – to replenish assets in your franchise, and then re-stock your name players in Free Agency after the season is over. Circa the 2012 Red Sox when they unloaded several high priced ALL – Stars, acquired a bevy of young players + then reinvested every cent saved on payroll into players that helped them win the 2013 World Series! Your $170 MIL payroll in 2014 may amount to just 75 wins.  That is pathetic.  Your fan base want your franchise to make smart baseball decisions, none of really happened since Ryan Howard broke his ankle in the 2011 Playoffs.”

Notable trades during Rubens tenure (I will grade every trade from 1-10):

July 29, 2009: The Cleveland Indians traded Ben Francisco and Cliff Lee to the Philadelphia Phillies for Jason Knapp (minors), Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald and Lou Marson. (10/10)

December 16, 2009: The Toronto Blue Jays traded Roy Halladay and cash to the Philadelphia Phillies for Travis d’Arnaud, Kyle Drabek and Michael Taylor. (9/10)

December 16, 2009: The Philadelphia Phillies traded Cliff Lee to the Seattle Mariners for Tyson Gillies (minors), Phillippe Aumont and J.C. Ramirez. (1/10)

July 29, 2010: The Houston Astros traded Roy Oswalt to the Philadelphia Phillies for Anthony Gose, J.A. Happ and Jonathan Villar. (7/10)

July 29, 2011: The Houston Astros traded Hunter Pence and cash to the Philadelphia Phillies for a player to be named later, Jarred Cosart, Jon Singleton and Josh Zeid. The Philadelphia Phillies sent Domingo Santana (August 15, 2011) to the Houston Astros to complete the trade. (4/10)

July 31, 2012: The Philadelphia Phillies traded Shane Victorino to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a player to be named later, Josh Lindblom and Ethan Martin. The Los Angeles Dodgers sent Stefan Jarrin (minors) (September 28, 2012) to the Philadelphia Phillies to complete the trade. (2.5/10)

July 31, 2012: The San Francisco Giants traded Tommy Joseph (minors), Seth Rosin and Nate Schierholtz to the Philadelphia Phillies for Hunter Pence. (2/10)

December 6, 2012: The Minnesota Twins traded Ben Revere to the Philadelphia Phillies for Trevor May and Vance Worley. (7/10)

December 9, 2012: The Texas Rangers traded Michael Young and cash to the Philadelphia Phillies for Lisalverto Bonilla (minors) and Josh Lindblom. (6/10)

Overall the results are mixed but Ruben was very successful in a few trades including getting Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay.

He also lost a couple when he traded Lee (to Seattle) and acquiring Hunter Pence.  

A big problem i see is that he hasn’t made a big trade in almost two years despite having pieces (Lee, Hamels, Byrd, Utley) that he could move.

You have to wonder if RAJ is afraid by the disappointing returns he got in the Victorino and Pence trades.

Next lets look at his major signings/extensions:

Ryan Howard 3 yr/$54M (09-11) (8/10)

Brad Lidge 3 yr/$37.5M (09-11) (6/10)

Raul Ibanez 3 yr/$31.5M (09-11) (5/10)

Joe Blanton 3 yr/$24M (10-12) (3/10)

Cliff Lee 5 yr/$120M (11-15)+16 opt (6.5/10)

Roy Halladay 3 yr/$60M (11-13) (8/10)

Ryan Howard 5 yr/$125M (12-16)+17 cl opt (1.5/10)

Jimmy Rollins 3 yr/$33M (12-14)+15 opt (7/10)

Jonathan Papelbon 4 yr/$50M (12-15) (5/10)

Cole Hamels 6 yr/$144M (13-18)+19 opt (7.5/10)

Carlos Ruiz 3 yr/$26M (14-16)+17 cl opt (4/10)

Marlon Byrd 2 yr/$16M (14-15)+16 opt (8/10)

Trading Cliff Lee originally to the Mariners was not a good move at all. Signing him to a Free Agent deal has been decent. Overall this pitcher has been good for the organization, as was Halladay when he was acquired. It was too bad for Amaro JR. that Doc had such a precipitous fall to retirement – after posting such a great first few seasons.  The prospects in that deal have definitely not come back to hurt the Phillies in that regard.  The one that may hurt the most long-term is the Astros deal, in which they gave up Jon Singleton and Jarred Cosart for just a year’s worth of Hunter Pence.

If you take out Ryan Howard’s embarrassing contract there were not really any crazy mistakes. With Rubens moderate success with signing free agents I cannot understand why he refuses to trade veterans when he can just sign them in free agency

There is still risk though in Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels contracts which could come back to bite them in the wallet.

An opportunity presented itself to get impact talent at the deadline this year for Hamels –  but no trade even though money would have been freed up for them to take a run at someone like James Shields or Max Scherzer.

Lets not look at what his front office has done in the draft and the Phils current top prospects:

2009: Gave up pick to sign Raul Ibanez. With that pick Seattle took Michael Franklin who busted.

2010: Jesse Biddle 27th overall. Currently in AAA & decent prospect.

2011: Gave up pick to sign Cliff Lee. Texas took Kevin Matthews who busted.

Pick #39 they took Larry Green who looks like a bust.

2012: Gave up pick to sign Jonathan Papelbon. Boston took Brian Johnson who is a good prospect.

Pick #40 they took Shane Watson who is a fringe prospect.

Pick #54 they took Mitch Gueller who has had a good season.

2013: J.P. Crawford 16th overall. One of my favorite prospects.

2014: Aaron Nola 7th overall. Good prospect moving fast.

They have recently hit on their picks but have given up 3 first round picks since Ruben took over which is way to many. They have 3 prospects in the top 100 with only Maikel Franco not being a first round pick. They need to focus more on the farm system.

They had one of the highest payrolls in the league and are one of the worst teams.

I am going to try to predict the 2016 opening day roster as it stands right now and it doesn’t look all to pretty. The age and dollars will be in 2016 as already stated.  

Next year won’t look very peachy as well, with A.J. Burnett now exercising his own player option for the 2015 season at 10 or 12 MIL.

2016 Payroll

C: Carlos Ruiz $8.5M (37yrs old)
1B: Ryan Howard $25M (36yrs old)
2B: Chase Utley $15M (37yrs old)
SS: JP Crawford 500K (21yrs old)
3B: Maikel Franco 500K (23 yrs old)
LF: Dominic Brown (29yrs old) or Free Agent
CF: Ben Revere ARB3 around $8M (28yrs old)
RF: Free Agent or Marlon Byrd (39yrs old)

1st SP: Cole Hamels $23.5M (32yrs old)
2nd SP: Cliff Lee assuming option is exercised $27.5M (38yrs old)
3rd SP: Aaron Nola 500K (23yrs old)
4th SP: Free Agent
5th SP: Jesse Biddle 500K (24yrs old)

Closer: Jonathan Papelbon $13M (35yrs old)
Set Up: Ken Giles ARB1 (25yrs old)
7th Inning: Miguel Gonzalez $4.67M (29yrs old)

Current Payroll total for 2016 so far: $127M

Salary needed for: LF, RF, 4thSP, Bench and Bullpen

Overall that comes out to a very poor team that will likely lose around the ballpark of 90 games. They will have a large payroll with a lot of it being spent on unproductive players. I feel bad for Phillies fans.

Now tell me, do you think Ruben Amaro Jr should be the Phillies GM for even one more day?

Paul Francis Sullivan (Sully’s) take on the Phillies Part 1 (10:45 Minute Mark) (Before The Trade Deadline)

Paul Francis Sullivan (Sully’s) take on the Phillies Part 2 Post Trade Deadline (12:45 MIN Mark) (Aug 2, 2014)

How All Of The Phillies Hitters Were Acquired: 2014 Roster Tree

Chuck Booth, Paul Sullivan and Hunter Stokes all help contribute to this article by Jordan Gluck.

Ryne Sandberg was selected for the coaching position by Amaro JR. So far it has been a disastrous season for the 1st full season skipper. In house bickering between he and several Veterans has caused massive rifts in the clubhouse. The Hall of Famer’s day’s may also be numbered in the organization.  It should take a miracle for this guy to be brought back to the fold next year at the helm of this team.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com and their partners***

A Big thanks goes out to our ‘Prospects/Organization Expert’ Jordan Gluck for preparing today’s feature post.

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