Klentak, team prez MacPhail prepping for a busy offseason
PHILADELPHIA » Never one to make a fuss around the club he oversees as president, and not really one to mix it up in public more than once a season or so, Andy MacPhail will go against the grain Tuesday and hold a press conference at Citizens Bank Park.
Probably nothing more than the Phillies’ prez taking the opportunity to publicly speak nice about his ousted field boss Pete Mackanin, who was fired as manager Thursday but finished out the last weekend of the season because he’s been given a longer-term assignment as “special advisor to the general manager.”
Not that Matt Klentak needs much more advice, since the GM has MacPhail as his boss, three “senior advisors” in former club president and GM Pat Gillick, former manager Charlie Manuel and longtime front office employee Benny Looper. In addition to Mackanin, he also has four other “special assistant” kinds of guys. That’s one crowded front office, though most of them are rarely around the ballpark.
Despite Klentak speaking glowingly about how he has valued Mackanin’s advice over the past two years, the ex-manager won’t be advising on-site, either. Mackanin said Saturday he’ll move home to Arizona and report to Klentak from there, taking in a lot of Diamondback games to see players.
In other words, here’s a couple more contract years and thank you for your service, Pete.
Nice thing to do, and if Klentak is smart he’ll actually find himself calling Mackanin quite a bit whenever personnel issues or potential trading questions arise. In the meantime, it’s interesting to see how much input anyone else will have into Klentak’s hire of the next manager, and what he deems should happen to all Phillies coaches.
No doubt, MacPhail will get a taste of such questions Tuesday.
But there is one he should be mandated to answer: Why does he think Klentak pulled the trigger on Mackanin all of 20 weeks after giving the ex-manager a year’s contract extension ... to keep managing?
More than likely, MacPhail’s response will essentially follow a similar discourse to Klentak’s repeated explanations at a Friday press conference announcing the “transition” move for Mackanin.
“We’ve talked about this ad nauseam the last few years and it’s the truth; we don’t know when an organization enters into a rebuild, we don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like a year down the line, two years down the line, three years down the line,” Klentak said. “Certain organizations have reached their goals in three years. For some, that has taken eight years. One of the things a baseball operations group has to do is make sure that they are willing to evolve based on circumstances and based on how timelines change.
“Pete Mackanin was an excellent manager for the time he was here. I was a rookie general manager. I learned a ton from Pete Mackanin and will continue to do so. I think now with the way the rebuild is unfolding and the way that some of our young players are graduating to the big leagues and the way that the outlook is shaping up, that is why I think a new voice in the dugout and a new style is necessary. It has nothing to do with me not liking Pete or being disappointed in him.” New voice. New style. So what kind of style? Old school sincerity like Baltimore’s Buck Showalter?
New school numerology from the likes of Todd Greene, Alex Cora or Gabe Kapler?
A mix of both and direct experience with the Phillies rising stars with Dusty Wathan?
“That’s one of the things we need to talk about in the interview process as we outline what the priorities are going to be, what the characteristics are that we’re looking for in a manager,” Klentak said. “I have an idea but I really want to be thorough in that. We want to make sure the candidate we bring in is the best person to connect with our players and our fans to connect with our front office, ultimately to help this team win. That’s ultimately what it’s going to be about.”
MacPhail will probably be asked Tuesday to weigh in on this question, too. He could start polishing up his best evasive answers now if he so chooses.