It’s no secret that the Philadelphia Phillies have
catastrophically declined over the last four years since winning the last of
five consecutive NL East division titles in 2011. Since then it’s been the same narrative
regardless of what year it was. The
Phillies are a team loaded with bad contracts and with a middle of the road
farm system at best. The present has
been bleak and the future didn’t look all that bright. Such was the crux of criticism from the fan
base towards general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. with many believing the GM was entering
2015, with no plan of furthering the team’s rebuild.
 |
| Yong Kim/Philly.com |
But throughout the last couple weeks, there have been some
glimmers of hope. The Phillies went on a
six-game winning streak for the first time since September 2012. Older players like Ryan Howard, Jonathan
Papelbon, Aaron Harang and Cole Hamels have been producing enough where their
trade value may be higher than expected coming into the season. Younger players like Maikel Franco, Freddy
Galvis, and Odubel Herrera showed flashes that they could be a part of the
team’s core moving forward. In AA for
Reading, 2014 first-round pick, pitcher Aaron Nola, was on fire with an ERA
below 2.00 and six wins to his credit overshadowing a good start to the year in
Reading for Zach Eflin, another pitching prospect who the Phillies acquired for
Jimmy Rollins in the offseason.
Not that anyone was falling for the big club’s six-game
winning streak but perhaps 2015 wouldn’t be the wasted season everyone thought
it would be. Perhaps the younger players
at all levels throughout the organization would continue to show promise. Perhaps the Phillies could add some much
needed depth to their minor league system by trading some of the older players
who had been performing better in May. The first-year player draft is fast
approaching which offers every team an opportunity to infuse their organization
with young talent. The Phillies hold the
10th pick in the first round.
So at least for the first time in a while, the Phillies offered fans a
little bit of excitement for the future and if that’s all that came out of the
2015 season then it would be better than expected.
But on Tuesday, we were all reminded of just how deep of a
hole Amaro has dug for himself. Amaro
commented on fans desire to see prospects like Eflin and Nola move up through
the organization and potentially reach the majors before the end of the 2015
season saying that fans “don’t understand the game” according to CSN’s Jim
Salisbury. Amaro went on to indicate
that the fans’ complaints about the team not having a plan are out of line and
that the organization does have a plan and is not going to rush its prospects
up.
While it makes sense from an organizational standpoint to be
patient with the prospects, Amaro didn’t do himself any favors with these
comments directed towards the fans. With
all the losing the team has done in the last three years, fans needed something
to get excited about and it looked like the young talent the Phillies did have
was providing that so it’s only logical for fans to want to see players move up
through the system and the rebuild to accelerate. While one could understand Amaro wanting to
wait until the time is right to promote prospects, good luck trying to get
anyone to think Amaro has a plan in place.
The last three years the Phillies have lost, and lost, and lost with an
older deteriorating nucleus and finally decided to move a few older players last
offseason with the trades of Jimmy Rollins and Antonio Bastardo. If it took
that long for Amaro to finally develop a rebuilding plan for the organization
then it was too little too late. It’s hard to see him being allowed to see
things through with his contract set to expire after 2015.
Maybe Amaro’s comments on Tuesday were sour grapes towards a
fan base that has seen its other professional teams change their ways. Chip Kelly’s Eagles, Ron Hextall’s Flyers,
and Sam Hinkie’s Sixers all have displayed a willingness to think outside the
box and realize that if the status quo of their respective organizations wasn’t
good enough then it’s time to travel down a different path and see where it
leads to. The path Amaro has traveled down
has seen the Phillies steadily decline and makes him arguably the most hated individual
in Philadelphia sports and just when you thought there might be some hope for
the future for the Phillies, Amaro reminded us all of why he is so ostracized
by the fan base. While seeing young
players succeed and having more young players brought in via trades and the
draft would be nice, what would really be refreshing would be for the Phillies
to hire a forward thinker of their own and move on from Ruben Amaro Jr.
