Philadelphia Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro's job is safe, interim team president Pat Gillick told CSN Philly's Jim Salisbury prior to the team's game against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday.
Pat Gillick gives Ruben Amaro vote of confidence with Phillies
The Phillies’ interim president vows he and the general manager are on the same page.
Len Redkoles
Amaro, who is under contract through the end of next season, has fielded a team that appears headed for a second consecutive losing season, but Gillick is preaching patience.
“He didn’t get dumb overnight,” Gillick said of Amaro. “It’s just right now, we’re in a situation where we know where we’re headed and it’s going to take some time to get us where we want to go.”
The Phillies won 102 games in 2011, the last of a five-year stretch during which the team reached the playoffs every season. But Philadelphia's core group of position players -- Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley -- are aging and, in the cases of Howard and Utley at least, injury prone. In addition, ace pitchers Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee have dealt with various ailments this season after injuries prematurely ended the career of Roy Halladay in 2013.
The team has compounded those problems by failing to develop the next wave of talent, as Gillick explained to Salisbury.
“At this point, we’re kind of thin up top [in the minors],” Gillick said. “Some of the changes we have to make, we’re going to have to make them in more of a creative manner than maybe drawing on the farm system.”
Whatever those changes might be, it doesn’t appear they’ll be in the form of replacements for Amaro and manager Ryne Sandberg, according to Gillick.
“Ruben is under contract through ‘15 and Ryne’s under contract [through 2016].” Gillick explained. “So right now there’s no thought whatsoever of replacing either one.”
Gillick has temporarily assumed the role of David Montgomery, who is away from the team while recovering from jaw cancer surgery, which he underwent on May 19. Gillick served as the Phillies’ GM from 2005-08 before passing the baton to Amaro, with whom the 77-year-old Hall of Fame executive feels he is on the same page.
“Ruben and I mutually agree on most decisions that we make,” Gillick told Salisbury. “But right now if there’s something I might have a different opinion [about], I’ll certainly voice that opinion and we’ll talk it through and try to make what we think is the correct decision.”
See More:
