Upon further review, Amaro’s rebuild fell flat
PHILADELPHIA >> Ruben Amaro’s belated plan seemed clear. The Phillies’ way under Bill Giles and then Dave Montgomery had essentially followed a pattern: Try to extend rare stretches of success by extending player contracts and spending money on aging players to build around.
And so the memories of immediate post-success demise of teams such as the Wheeze Kids of 1983 or Mench-o Row a decade later was there to learn from as Jimmy Rollins’ batting average continued to sink and Ryan Howard’s Achilles injury took its toll and Chase Utley’s schooled skills began to break down.
Amaro watched his championship team sink to 81-81 in 2012, then a ghastly pair of 79-83 campaigns that first spelled the end of Charlie Manuel’s managing regime, then Ryne Sandberg’s unsuccessful short succession.
Worse times on the field would follow, but only after Amaro enacted what he perhaps hoped would be his own job-saving plan, laying it out for outgoing team president Pat Gillick, incoming Andy MacPhail and eventually newly empowered managing partner John Middleton.
A real, live rebuild commenced in Dec. 2014 with the trade of Rollins to Los Angeles. It would be the first of several moves of franchise players nearing the end, and as the refinanced Phillies of 2019 continue to struggle into the season’s second half, it’s becoming quite clear that Amaro’s rebuilding work ... didn’t work out so well.
They are a wildcard contender in the National League, yet not much better than a .500 club despite adding nearly $500,000,000 in contracts during the offseason to bring in several veterans. either great or formerly so, to expedite the end of the last moribund rebuilding effort.
That hasn’t worked out so well, either.
Middleton went into last winter sick and tired of failed plans. At least the former general manager, whose team went off the rails when injuries prematurely knocked starting pitchers Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee for a loop during 2012-13, and 2014, respectively, had tried.
Amaro had assessed the left side of his infield to be set for the near future, with shortstop prospect J.P. Crawford, a 2013 first-round pick, and third basemen Maikel Franco,
a 2010 teenage international signing who cruised through the lower ranks of the minors, looking like rock-solid prospects. What the Phillies would really need, Amaro knew, was a quick rebuild of the farm system.
He had taken another international signing with a funky swing named Odubel Herrera from the Rangers in the 2014 Rule 5 Draft. And he could see Ryan Howard still having a couple of years to hit more than the occasional home run and man first, even as a deeper look would reveal 2014 fifth-round draft pick Rhys Hoskins as a future building block there.
Either way, it was obvious that the Phillies were about to take at least a couple more years of lumps while the rebuild dragged on, but it was up to Amaro to expedite the process with what was hoped would be a string of trades bent on upgrading the pitching staff and farm system in general.
So the Rollins deal in Dec. 2014 yielded pitchers Zach Eflin and Tom Windle. Flash forward to 2019, and Eflin is trying to figure out how his fast start to the season as the Phils’ fourth starter has devolved into him having an uncertain bullpen role. Windle seems certain to stay as a Triple-A reliever with the IronPigs.
As the 2015 season turned ugly fast, Amaro seemed reluctant to part with Utley, and might have been looking forward to holding a bidding war for Cole Hamels as the trade deadline neared.
First, though, came the business of getting rid of caustic closer Jonathan Papelbon, who was finally shipped to Washington for prospect pitcher Nick Pivetta. It wouldn’t take long for Papelbon to first become the closer, then a clown in Washington. By the next year he would be done.
As for Pivetta ... what is he? A starter with terrific stuff. A young guy with a potentially volatile persona. But Pivetta’s vast potential
Outfielder Nick Williams is one of Ruben Amaro Jr.’s prospects that hasn’t quite panned out for the Phillies.
hasn’t panned out. He was demoted early this season, fought his way back, and now is in the bullpen. At least he’s faring better there than Eflin.
The 2015 trade deadline didn’t expire without the big one: Hamels was dealt with reliever Jake Diekman and brought a haul of prospects: catcher Jorge Alfaro, outfielder Nick Williams, pitchers Jake Thompson, Jerad Eickhoff and Alec Asher, and injured veteran pitcher Matt Harrison, whose attempt to come off spinal fusion surgery was fruitless.
While the Phillies sunk to the depths of the National League East the next two years, most of those prospects rose to major league playing time. And then most of them failed. Asher was tossed on a longterm PED suspension and shipped out. Thompson was a bitter disappointment. Eickhoff had success, then an odd hand condition and surgery stopped him. A comeback attempt this year has been touch and go. He’s still trying.
Williams was on his way to becoming a fixture, but lost his starting role to some signee named Bryce Harper, then lost his way. He’s back in Triple-A. And Alfaro, while earning a starting role in 2018, was sent to Miami in the package for better catcher J.T. Realmuto.
As it turns out, that Hamels deal wasn’t so good after all.
Amaro would eventually complete the 2015 dismantling with the August trade of Utley to L.A. for outfielder Darnell Sweeney and pitching prospect John Richey, both of whom failed in their efforts to stick or get to the majors. Then in Aug. 2016, longtime catcher Carlos Ruiz was finally dealt, again to the Dodgers, the return being elder backup A.J. Ellis and minor leaguers Tommy Bergjans and Joey Curletta.
Suffice to say the Ruiz parting came with no future benefits. At least that one wasn’t on Amaro’s resume.
The Northeast Philly native who went from bat boy to player to front office soldier over the course of 35 years wasn’t around long enough to see his rebuild fail. He was fired by Middleton/MacPhail on Sept. 10, 2015 and would move to coaching and front office jobs in Boston and New York.
The Hamels deal was meant to be his Phillies legacy, but the failures of the players he got back in the belated breakup of a once-great team, and the ultimate failure to get anything in return for Ryan Howard, is how Amaro’s tenure will likely be remembered.
What’s more, Crawford (traded in the offseason), Herrera (domestic violence suspension leave) and now Franco (demoted to Triple-A Sunday can arguably rank as three more failures from the Amaro regime.
So it goes in a game where nothing is ever guaranteed.