The Phillies season was a bust. Underachieving play doomed the Phillies after a wonderful start. Lack of foresight from the front office failed to improve a subpar pitching staff. Now the question that has to be asked, who is losing their jobs?
If the Phillies make a change, we were expecting a decision to be made yesterday. Major League Baseball doesn’t like news breaking during the playoffs. The Divisional rounds start today. According to Jayson Stark, that may not be the case:
Let’s start with Matt Klentak. Klentak failed to understand that defense wins championships. I have written many articles about how he failed to make necessary changes. Klentak made positive changes to the offense. His failure to address the starting pitching could be his downfall.
But that’s not all. According to Howard Eskin, Klentak is allegedly fighting to keep Kapler.
I am hopeful that Klentak’s unwillingness to change his view on Kapler is the last straw. Middleton has to make a sweeping change and change the culture. It feels as if Klentak doesn’t have the leadership necessary to succeed. The Red Sox fired World Series-winning GM in Dave Dombroski. He is available to get and build this team into a winner. Dombroski has a history of success, winning two world series and was responsible for building the 2003 Florida Marlins second World Championship team.
Kapler as good as Gone?
Will Middleton fire Kapler? There are a few highly qualified candidates out there. Middleton can’t take his time on this one. Teams in need of a manager are likely to hire former managers like Joe Maddon and Joe Girardi relatively quickly.
Todd Zolecki puts together a list of potential managers. In his list are former Phillies Raul Ibanez, who has been a special assistant to the Dodgers GM. Ibanez is an interesting choice as he has no managerial experience, however, he has been involved in a front-office role since he stopped playing.
Another surprise name that came up is another former Phillie, Ruben Amaro Jr. HELL NO! I’ll paraphrase a statement from WIP’s James Seltzer. Are they looking for someone the Phillies Fans will hate more than Kapler?
Regardless, this is a time-sensitive issue. Middleton has to act and act now! The Phillies have to get out in front of the other 6 teams vying for a manager. Here is to hoping Middleton gets this done right.
Mandatory Credit: Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports
