David Montgomery: 'Decision Will Be Made On Amaro After Year Or Two'
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) --- Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. is officially on the hot seat.
Now that Pat Gillick has taken over as team President, the Phillies will allow Gillick---the general manager of the 2008 World Champs---to evaluate the job of Amaro.
"We think we have a pretty quality guy in that role," Phillies Chairman David Montgomery told MLB Newtork Radio of Amaro. "At the same time, I have a partnership group where they are looking at this closely as well. And the reality is we have a GM that we think is effective and we have a Hall Of Fame GM in our midst as well. And if Pat [Gillick] spends an entire year or two close with Ruben [Amaro], I think he'll have a very good idea as to how effective Ruben is and collectively a decision will be made."
Since their 102-win season in 2011, the Phillies have steadily declined finishing 73-89 each of the last two seasons. With the loss in production, came a natural decrease in attendance.
"I responded to one writer here [in Philadelphia] and said---he asked me the question---do you have concerns about attendance," Montgomery said on Thursday. "I answered it yes because I couldn't answer it no. And somehow it got more legs than it deserved. I mean, we aren't making decisions based on attendance, but we are cognizant of the fact that there's a lot of people buying tickets for us every year---from us rather---and, you know, the obligation we have in return is to do everything we can to win as many games as possible. Both now and in the future.
"We really had a period of time there when we were good we wanted to take advantage of it and deliver," he continued. "And we got to the World Series twice, we won one, we won 102 games one year and St. Louis knocked us out in that first series. The reality is, that I believe if you can be one of those eight anything can happen. And our goal is to get back to the point where we can be one of those eight. And I think if we do that, we'll probably be there for a few years once we do that."
