The Phillies announced on Saturday afternoon that, almost a week following the finale of their 2020 campaign, Matt Klentak has stepped down as General Manager.
Matt Klentak was hired as GM following the 2015 season. He was brought in with the hopes of bringing modern-day analytics into the Phillies and to bring the Phillies back to the postseason. While Klentak brought analytics into the equation, he failed to make the playoffs, or even scrape up a winning record in his five years, ending with a five-year record of 326-382. Under Klentak and, previously, Ruben Amaro Jr., the Phillies own the second-longest postseason drought in the MLB (the Seattle Mariners being first).
Klentak’s successor will have a challenging path to fix the must-win Phillies. With a bottom-10 farm system (as Alec Bohm and Spencer Howard are no longer prospects), an average-at-best starting pitching staff, and a terrible bullpen of historic-proportions, there is a lot of work to be done. And that’s not even mentioning the fact that the Phillies need to either re-sign J.T. Realmuto or accept the loss of Sixto Sanchez as a sunk cost.
The Phillies join the Los Angeles Angels in the hunt for a new GM. Both teams possess some of the greatest names in professional baseball and are hungry to make the playoffs. Klentak, who is still owed $6 million of John Middleton’s “stupid money” will remain with the Phillies in a new position. Until a new leader for the Phillies’ Baseball Operations division is named, Assistant General Manager Ned Rice will act as Interim General Manager.
Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire
