The Philadelphia Phillies announced a handful of front office moves on Monday.
Among the moves was the anticipated return of Baseball Hall of Famer and former club GM Pat Gillick to a position as a senior advisor to the club’s new president Andy MacPhail and new GM Matt Klentak.
The now 78-year old Gillick served as the general manager of the Phillies from November of 2005 through the 2008 World Series victory. He stayed on as an advisor to the club, and then served a period of a year from August of 2014 through the end of the 2015 season as the club president.
Also on board in 2016 as a senior advisor will be the club’s 65-year old former assistant GM in charge of scouting and player development, Benny Looper.
The club made a couple of promotions involving their expanding analytics department. Former baseball analytics manager Scott Freedman, brought on back in 2013 when the Phillies first decided to expand their analytics usage, has been promoted to director of baseball operations.
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23-year old Ivy League intern Lewis Pollis has been promoted to a full-time baseball research and development analyst with the team. While at Brown University, Pollis did his senior honors thesis on the topic “If You Build It: Rethinking the Market for Major League Baseball Front Office Personnel“, which was subsequently published by the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).
It’s not all internal moves for the club. The Phillies have also hired 33-year old Ned Rice, who was formerly the Baltimore Orioles’ director of major league administration, to an assistant general manager position. Rice was a “trusted ally” of MacPhail and Klentak during their time together in Baltimore, per Philly.com’s Matt Gelb.
For fans wondering what the team’s current front office structure looks like, David Montgomery remains the chairman, while Bill Giles is listed as chairman emeritus. Scott Proefrock remains as a key assistant GM, while the club retains a slew of “advisors” including Dallas Green, Charlie Manuel, and Ed Wade.
The decisions will be made by MacPhail and Klentak, with everyone else, including Gillick, simply having input in the process. So while some fans might think there are still too many voices in the room, the fact remains that those two men will make all the calls.
Good leaders always surround themselves with smart, experienced people to give input that will help them make the difficult decisions in a more informed manner. The Phillies have given their leaders such people. Fans hope their decisions help put the team rebuild on turbo charge.