Believe it or not, the Phillies are in something of a tough spot this offseason. The jubilation of the World Series victory was short-lived for the organization because of Pat Gillick's well deserved retirement. This situation has rarely occurred over the history of Major League Baseball, and leaves Ruben Amaro Jr. (Gillick's replacement) in a very challenging pickle. First of all, he has lost Mike Arbuckle from the scouting staff. Arbuckle deserves significant credit for the drafts that brought the Phils Pat Burrel, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Cole Hamels and many more. He was in competition with Amaro for the GM job and lost out. Naturally, he chose to move on and is now working in the Royals organization. Will Amaro be able to set things in motion for this team to repeat? Many pundits are concerned that Amaro will behave similarly to former Phillies GM Ed Wade (Now with the Astros). The concern here is that Amaro will work too hard at pleasing the ownership, and not hard enough at winning a championship. Only time will tell what we can actually expect from Amaro, but my guess will be more of Gillick than Wade. As a player Amaro was tenacious and aggressive. Over the course of his career he had stints in the Bigs in eight seasons. His time was spent playing for the then California Angels, Phillies, Indians, Blue Jays, and then back with the Phillies again. The MLB journeyman knows the league well and undoubtedly has been around Philadelphia baseball for long enough to have a good sense of the organization's pulse (He has been a member of the front office since his playing career ended in 1998). For all intensive purposes, he was groomed for the job. He knows the city and the fans well, and should represent our passion. The question now is how he will go about making this team better for next season.
All reports indicate that he and Charlie Manuel have put pitching first on the priority list. This has been a common trend over the past few off-seasons, and definitely paid dividends in this years campaign. Signing Jamie Moyer is at the top of the list (It seems likely that he will sign here at this point), and would leave the Fightins with a projected rotation of Hamels, Myers, Blanton and Moyer, with Happ, Kendrick and Carrasco competing for the fifth spot. All in all this is a solid set of starters. They also have targeted bullpen depth. Manuel has expressed interest in a long reliever (A guy who can go more than one inning). While there may be some options on the free agent market, there is also a chance that one of the three who are fighting for the fifth spot in the rotation could fill that role. The next big hole is the chasm in left field. Resolving what the team will do with Pat Burell needs to happen sooner than later, and how the Phillies move on if they cannot keep him could dictate how next season goes. Right now, Amaro has a World Championship team, but history is against him. Recent winners have often struggled the season after, and that is with stability in the front office. He will need to step into the role quickly, and make the right moves.
We should have a pretty good idea of where this team is going by the middle or end of December. Until then there is a lot of speculation. Many potential free agents are still undecided, players are still waiting to find out if they will be tendered or not by their current teams, and owners are concerned about how the economy will affect their bottom lines. This may be an offseason that is slow in developing (Other than bidding for CC, Manny and Teixeira). Stay tuned over the next few days as I will be updating possible players to fit the Phillies' most pressing needs. Tomorrow I will delve into the starting rotation.
Keywords: Offseason, Philadelphia Phillies
