Carlos Santana reportedly being shopped aggressively by Phillies

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Less than a year after signing him the Phillies are looking to move on from Santana

There are more moving parts involved in the Philadelphia Phillies off-season roster machinations than any other team in Major League Baseball.

The 2018 Phillies vaulted to the top of the National League East Division only to collapse to finish with a sixth straight losing record. General manager Matt Klentak is now ready to shake things up in order to make the club a genuine long-term contender.

Last December, Klentak made his first real big free agent signing when he added first baseman Carlos Santana, formerly of the Cleveland Indians. Santana was given a guaranteed three-year, $60 million contract that would cover his ages 32-34 seasons.

In return for the first $20 million this past season, Santana slashed .229/.352/.414 for the Phillies. He ripped 24 homers, drove in 86 runs and scored 82 times.

Those stats were pretty close to his career averages. Over his first eight seasons in Cleveland, Santana slashed .249/.365/.445 and averaged 22 home runs, 73 RBI, and 72 runs.

Earlier this month our Tim Kelly here at Phillies Nation published a piece that included a quote from Klentak on Santana’s performance: “Honestly, yeah. His season was very Carlos Santana-ish. He has been as consistent a performer as just about anybody in the league for the last seven or eight years.”

The problem isn’t that Santana didn’t live up to his career numbers. The problem is committing this young Phillies team to an aging Santana for three years. A limited player who, despite the Phillies attempts to move him across the infield to third base, is only a first baseman.

Another problem with Santana was that the Phillies already had their first baseman in Rhys Hoskins, another player who has no other defensive position at which he is even marginal. That despite the Phillies attempts to push him out to left field.

In a report from our Drew Rhoades here at Phillies Nation just last week, Fancred’s Jon Heyman was quoted that the Phillies plan for 2019 is “…to have Carlos Santana play some third base and Rhys Hoskins to play some first base.”

Would the Phillies really move on from the younger and still-controllable Franco, a natural third baseman, to put the aging, expensive Santana at the Hot Corner?

The Phillies seem to be compounding their defensive problems and pushing young players out in order to fit Santana in to their lineup. First moving Hoskins to left field, now possibly benching or trading Maikel Franco?

This was the classic “square peg in a round hole” scenario. There is simply no place here for Santana. There never was. It was, in my oft-stated opinion, an illogical, unnecessary, and wasteful signing in the first place.

Now comes word from one of the most informative and reliable of all MLB insiders, Ken Rosenthal, that the Phillies are actively looking to trade Santana.

Ruben Amaro Jr considering a run at big league GM and managerial jobs

Ruben Amaro Jr (R) was fired by the Phillies
back in September 2015
(Photo: D. Benjamin Miller)

It has been almost exactly three years since the Philadelphia Phillies parted ways with former general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. For many fans of the team it was a move that took far too long for the organization to make.

Amaro inherited a team that had won the 2008 World Series championship. The club continued to contend over the first three seasons of his tenure largely thanks to a core group of players put together by the previous regimes under Ed Wade and Pat Gillick.

The club would lose the World Series in Amaro’s first season as general manager, then went out in the NLCS in 2010 and the NLDS in 2011. As that group aged, Amaro proved incapable of transitioning the franchise successfully.

The Phillies slipped to the .500 mark in 2012, to a losing record in 2013, and to last place in the NL East in 2014. Finally, the club plummeted to the worst record in baseball during the 2015 season, and Amaro was out.

He was not out of baseball for long. That winter the former player turned in his GM suits for a return to his uniformed roots, taking a job as the Boston Red Sox first base coach and outfield instructor. After two years in Beantown, Amaro moved on to New York where he served this season as the Mets first base coach.

And now the 53-year-old is contemplating a step back up the baseball ladder. According to an interview with Ken Rosenthal at The Athletic, Amaro is considering taking a run at the Mets general manager position. He may also be looking towards an opportunity to actually manage a Major League Baseball team.

“…keeping an open mind that if there are opportunities to be back in the front office, I still feel like I have a lot to offer in that regard as well. I felt like being back on the field would give me a different and interesting perspective as a far as doing a better job as a GM, and trying to improve my information resources. I’m open-minded. If you were to ask me if I would like my next step to be a GM or a manager, I guess it would be a toss-up.”

According to Amaro, he has let the Mets know of his interest in their open GM position. He told Rosenthal that the team was “appreciative of my interest“, which sounds little more than a tacit openness to offer him the chance to interview for the position.

Phillies fans would be skeptical of any such opportunity afforded a man who they largely abhorred by the end. They might, however, be happy to see him making key decisions for those division rivals up north at Citi Field.

“I know toward the end of my tenure as a GM in Philadelphia, I was not received well,” Amaro told Rosenthal. “But I do feel grateful that I got to be a part of the rebuild when (former GM) Ed Wade started it. I feel great about being able to work for a Hall of Famer in Pat Gillick, getting advice from guys like Dallas Green and utilizing it for success. Being part of that Phillies success in 2007 through 2011 was something really, really special for me, and something I’ll never forget.”

Originally published at Phillies Nation as "Former Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr considers taking an MLB managerial shot"

Phillies back in the lead in Manny Machado sweepstakes

Ken Rosenthal reports Phillies have upped Machado offer

The roller-coaster saga that is the Manny Machado sweepstakes appears to have taken another wild turn, this time back in the Philadelphia Phillies favor.

On Friday afternoon, MLB insider Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic tweeted out that the Phillies “have increased their offer” for Machado. The information came to him from “sources”, and few in the business have more, or more reliable, than Rosenthal.

#Phillies have increased their offer for #Orioles’ Machado, sources tell The Athletic. #Dodgers and #Yankees remain strongest. #Brewers fading, #DBacks on periphery.
Standard caveat applies: Trade talks are fluid, and one text or call can change dynamic of discussions.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 13, 2018

Immediately following Rosenthal’s message, Steve Adams at MLB Trade Rumors speculated as to the pieces that could be in play from a Phillies perspective.

“Suffice it to say, there are plenty of moving parts on the Machado front. Baltimore has been said to be keen on acquiring controllable starting pitching, and the Phillies have plenty of options in that regard, as do the Brewers, Yankees and Dodgers.

It’s not yet clear what, precisely, the Phillies (or any team) is willing to offer up, though the Phils have intriguing young rotation pieces in the form of Zach Eflin and Enyel De Los Santos, each of whom has already pitched in the Majors this season (extensively so, in Eflin’s case). Right-handers Sixto Sanchez and Adonis Medina are each considered to be among the game’s top 75 or so prospects, and the Phils have a number of MLB-ready back-of-the-rotation options on the 40-man roster who could be secondary pieces (e.g. Ben Lively, Jake Thompson, Drew Anderson, Mark Leiter Jr.)”

In a piece just yesterday, another major baseball insider, Jon Heyman of Fancfred Sports, said that the Phillies were suffering from “too much timidity” in handling Machado negotiations with the Baltimore Orioles.

After lauding the club for bursting into contender status this year, he also expounded on their need to bring in a player with Machado’s impact. In doing so, he compared the Phillies situation to that of the recent Sixers pursuit of LeBron James:

“They may just be playing the game, but based on the snippets heard so far, they sound a little too much like another Philly team, a particular NBA franchise that resides across the street. Perhaps they are too married to a process, a little too mechanical.”

UPDATE: Rosenthal and Heyman each followed up with tweets in the late afternoon on Friday:

#Orioles have ramped up background work on #Phillies prospects, responding to Phils’ increased interest in Machado, sources tell The Athletic. Phils won’t move RHP Sixto Sanchez but are willing to trade from SP depth from Low A to AAA. RHP Adonis Medina of interest to O’s.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) July 13, 2018

Phillies are said to be making some progress in Manny talks with O’s. Machado is a great fit, and Phils people know MM best (after the Orioles). Plus, word is Phils owner Middleton is thought to want to “make a splash.”
— Jon Heyman (@JonHeyman) July 13, 2018

If the latest report from Rosenthal is on target, then it appears Matt Klentak and his management team with the Phillies may be loosening up. The fact remains that based on their own needs and desires, and both their financial and prospect situations, the Phillies will remain major contenders for Machado unless or until he is dealt elsewhere.

Phillies Right to Be Firm in Hamels Trade Talks

In a typically fine article today, Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal speculated that things could get pretty awkward down in Clearwater when Phillies spring training opens next week.

His theory: that the failure of Ruben Amaro to deal players such as Cole Hamels, Ryan Howard, Jonathan Papelbon, and others during the off-season will create a distraction for those players, as well as for the entire organization.

"The Phillies refuse to accept that they might not get exactly what they want." ~ Ken Rosenthal

I completely understand his point of view. Rosenthal reminded us of manager Ryne Sandberg commenting negatively on last year's clubhouse environment, and wrote that the "environment will not improve this season, given the uncertainty surrounding so many prominent veterans."

I don't have any problem with most of the basics in the piece. Yes, the Phillies need to deal as many of the aging, high-salaried veterans as possible. Yes, players like Howard and Papelbon are not likely to yield much, and will require eating big chunks of salary. 

Yes, those deals should happen anyway, for the sake of changing that environment. But I do have a problem with a couple of directions that the Rosenthal article seems to take. 

On the one hand, he writes: "The Phillies refuse to accept that they might not get exactly what they want." 

On the other hand, two paragraphs later he begins: "No one is suggesting that the Phillies make a poor trade."

Though he mentions names of prospects in other organizations, nowhere in the article do I see specific trade suggestions. 

What package does Rosenthal himself think would be acceptable for Cole Hamels, either from the Padres or the Red Sox, the two teams he highlights in discussing the ace lefty?

He quotes the old "sources" as saying that the Phillies "are adamant about getting one blue-chip prospect in any trade for Hamels" - and hangs that idea out as if it's outrageous. 

For a pitcher of Hamels age, experience, proven health and results, and cost certainty, they had best get at least one such prospect in a deal.

I'm not going to go off half-cocked in defense of the current Phillies front office regime. As I have previously written, the biggest part of the problem right now is management, specifically Amaro and Pat Gillick.

But it's too easy to simply say that the Phillies should have done this, or the Phillies should have done that, without any specifics as to what they actually did or should try to accomplish.

Maybe the Phillies did try to do all they could, and maybe the teams on the other end of the phone were trying to rob them blind.

Rosenthal implied that the Phillies should not make a bad trade. I completely agree. Right now, any trade of Howard, Papelbon, Lee, or even Carlos Ruiz or Domonic Brown would not be a bad trade.

But the same cannot be said about Cole Hamels. Just any trade of Hamels will not suffice. That trade has to be the right trade, and that trade should not happen unless it is such.

Writers Write

Press box at Comerica Park in Detroit, home of the Tigers

The great Flannery O'Connor was quoted regarding writing: "I'm a full-time believer in writing habits...You may be able to do without them if you have genius, but most of us only have talent and this is simply something that has to be assisted all the time by physical and mental habits or it dries up and blows away."

What she was saying in her oh so elegant way was that we writers need to do: it's not good enough to call yourself a writer, or to say you want to be a writer. Writers write. It's in the doing. O'Connor was emphasizing that you need to do, and do regularly, or your talent will waste away.

I've been thinking about this a lot over the last few years, but in particular over the last few months, as I prepare to transition from one career to the next. Whether I ever draw a paycheck, a royalty check, a residual check, whatever - my next career will be as a writer.

The importance in writing is not whether you make money from your creative output, though I will never undervalue the importance of earning a living. The earning is an entirely separate issue. What is at it's most basic for a writer is that very output.

Writers write.