Phillies end Amaro’s reign as general manager

On the June afternoon when the Phillies introduced him as their next president, Andy MacPhail looked at the standings and saw a 27-50 record, the worst in baseball. In his first week at Citizens Bank Park, he watched his new team lose four straight games to the lowly Milwaukee Brewers.

At that point, he said Thursday, he did not think the decision he made this week would be as difficult as it turned out to be. But ultimately, after two-plus months of observations and analysis, MacPhail felt the Phillies needed a “fresh perspective” in the baseball operations department, and his vision for the team’s rebuilding process did not include Ruben Amaro Jr.

Amaro, the Phillies’ much-maligned general manager, was ousted from his position after nearly seven years on Thursday with the team’s announcement that his contract, set to expire at season’s end, would not be renewed. Assistant general manager Scott Proefrock will serve as the team’s interim GM until MacPhail finds Amaro’s permanent replacement. That search began Thursday.

“I have a responsibility to the franchise, the fans, ownership, to do what I think is best and get this thing back to where it was as quickly as I can and as efficiently as I can,” MacPhail said. “So that was the basis for my decision.”

Amaro, 50, was the longest-tenured general manager among the city’s four major professional sports teams. An assistant GM from 1999-2008, he took the helm three days after the Phillies paraded down Broad Street to celebrate their 2008 World Series title.

Amaro oversaw a return trip to the World Series in 2009 and National League East titles from 2009 to 2011 but was also at the helm as the perennial contenders became baseball’s worst team. Late to move on from their aging core, the Phillies were also plagued by a slew of terrible drafts under Amaro’s watch.

MacPhail, who will succeed Pat Gillick at a yet-to-be determined date after the season, said he intends to explore “a wide spectrum of candidates” in his GM search. It would be “ambitious but ideal,” he said, to make a hire before the Phillies’ annual organizational meetings in late October. The GM meetings take place the second week of November and the annual winter meetings follow in December.

“The person who’s going to fill this job absolutely has to have a passion for winning to be really competitive (and )has to able to think outside the box,” said Phillies part-owner John Middleton, who represented the team’s ownership group at a news conference Thursday. “And to be willing to do that, (he) has to be able to push himself and his organization to continually get better and has to be able to embrace change.”

MacPhail notified Amaro of his decision in a 15-to-20-minute conversation on Thursday morning. MacPhail had spent the time since his June 29 hiring examining all facets of the organization, and watched how Amaro maneuvered what MacPhail called a “successful” July 31 trade deadline. He praised Amaro’s recent work and said he thinks the organization will reap the benefits of those deals.

But at the same time, MacPhail felt a change was needed.

MacPhail, 62, said the timing of the announcement was right for Amaro so he could pursue an opportunity with another organization if he desires. The Phillies are one of four organizations with a general manager opening the Los Angeles Angels, Seattle Mariners and Milwaukee Brewers are the others and those impending hires could create openings in other front offices. Amaro was not offered a different position with the Phillies.

Amaro was not the only one involved in key decisions such as the Ryan Howard contract extension, the December 2009 trade of Cliff Lee or the July 2012 Hunter Pence trade, but he was the man accountable for them.

“If you look at any business, the decisions made are made not in isolation, not exclusively by one person in isolation but (with input) from everybody else in the organization,” Middleton said.

“So there are lots of people who are involved in those decisions, but that doesn’t mean ... In well-run companies, successful companies, there’s accountability. So even though people are making decisions in groups, there’s still a person who’s primarily responsible for that decision and has to be held accountable.

“We recognize that we had a problem, and we’re trying as fast as we can to get out of that problem and get back to winning. Because that’s what this is about. This decision was only about: How do we get back to winning sooner rather than later?”

The Phillies’ rebuilding project is only in its first year. MacPhail, as he did in his June 29 news conference, said such a process in the current landscape of baseball “defies timetables.” He expressed reason for optimism about the futures of the position players in the organization but concern over the pitching.

It does not sound as if Amaro’s removal will have a domino effect on the rest of the front office. MacPhail also said those in the Phillies’ baseball operations department “earned the right to stay here” and should feel their immediate futures are secure. The fate of interim manager Pete Mackanin is still under review and not necessarily dependent on the new general manager, according to MacPhail.

MacPhail’s next order of business is finding his No. 2. Although he will lead baseball operations, MacPhail painted a picture of a front office structure in which the GM has “a fair amount of autonomy.”

“Ownership has made it clear at this podium two months ago and at other times that they certainly want me involved in the baseball operations. And let’s face it, I’m not here because of any marketing acumen I have,” he said.

“But at the same time, I’ve been in this role before. I’ve had GMs under me before, and if you would talk to them, I think they feel that they had a fair amount of autonomy, which I think’s important to them for them to be able to do their job. ... I have to create a culture where they have fairly good autonomy. Now they should keep me apprised. But that is a balance that I’m going to have to strike.”

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