A Phillies' Fan Defense of Ruben Amaro, Jr.

Last week, Phillies fans acting in disbelief upon hearing a report that the team was considering Ruben Amaro, Jr. for the open Manager's position.  Amaro, currently serving at the First Base Coach of the Boston Red Sox, was drummed out of Philadelphia which much fanfare towards the end of the 2015.  During Amaro's reign with the Phillies as General Manager, the team saw itself go from a feared powerhouse in the National League East, to a perennial last place team.  Amaro largely shouldered the blame.

Certainly, during his tenure Amaro was responsible for a number of transactions which were either unpopular at the time, or in retrospect were not beneficial to the team.  For example, Amaro was responsible for tying the Phillies' hands financially with a number of high-priced, long-term contracts, such as those for Ryan Howard and Jonathan Papelbon.  Amaro traded away popular players at questionable times, raising the ire of many fans.  Amaro trade Cliff Lee in the off-season after he helped the Phils win the 2008 World Series.  He traded away fan favorites Hunter Pence and Shane Victorino in the middle of the 2012 season.  While Victorino was at the end of his carer, Pence has gone on to contribute the World Championships of the San Francisco Giants.  And Amaro is largely seen as being responsible for gutting the Phillies farm system, leaving the Phillies unable to recover as the core of the 2008 aged and suffered from diminished skills.

Understandable, Amaro was fired when the Phillies began their dreadful trek through the basement of the NL East standings.

But was Amaro really that bad of a General Manager?  Perhaps this is a topic that can be addressed and analyzed now that a few years have passed, and Phillies fans can gain better perspective.  While Amaro was certainly responsible for the demise of the championship team, he was also responsible for the personnel who were part of the upswing at the end of the 2017 season.

For the Phillies, 2017 was mostly a season to forget.  After touting the hope that the Phillies were going to improve after a dismal 2016 season with addition of hitters to the line-up, such as Howie Kendrick and Michael Saunders, the Phillies instead muddled through yet another inconsistent season ending in last place.

But at the end of the season, the Phillies began promoting the prospects form the minor leagues that fans has heard so much about.  And to the delight of many, those prospects showed that they could play ball.  Indeed, when September reached its end, there were many fans expressing disappointment that the season was over when the Phillies were just beginning to play good baseball.

The credit for that late season resurgence does not belong to the current Phillies baseball operations team.  It belongs to Rubin Amaro.  Starting with the home grown prospects, Amaro drafted Aaron Altherr in 2009, and Rhys Hoskins and Aaron Nola in 2014.  In 2013, Amaro drafted J.P. Crawford.  All of them were keys figures in the late season succes of the Phillies.  Looking towards the future, Amaro drafted 2017 Paul Owens Award winner Scott Kingery.

From outside the organization, Amaro drafted Odubel Herrera in the Rule 5 Draft before the 2015 season began.  Herrera has only proven to have talent both on the field and with the bat.  In one of the last trades made during Amaro's tenure, the Phillies obtained Jorge Alfaro, Nick Williams, Jake Thompson and Jared Eickhoff from the Texas Rangers.  Amaro, therefore, is responsible for obtaining many of the players in whom Phillies fans have put their hopes for the 2018 season.

In the end, Amaro's tenure with the Phillies is mixed.  Given the bad feelings that were generated after the collapse of the Phillies championship team, perhaps it was best that the fans and Amaro be given distance.  At the moment, Amaro simply appears to have been a name floated by sportswriters speculating as the season came to close.  It does not appear that Amaro is a serious candidate for the Phillies Manager job.


William J. Kovatch, Jr.

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