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Quiet on Phillies' front ... for now

The team must find creative ways to overhaul its stagnant roster in order to reverse its negative trend.

Phillies left fielder Domonic Brown. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)
Phillies left fielder Domonic Brown. (Yong Kim/Staff Photographer)Read more

ON THE FIRST DAY of what is expected to be a long offseason with a flurry of activity from the Phillies, no one lost his job.

The Phillies, at around $180 million, began the 2014 season with the highest payroll in team history and the third-highest in baseball, behind only the Dodgers and Yankees. They finished the 2014 season tied for the seventh-worst record in baseball.

The Phils finished in last place for the first time since Jimmy Rollins was 21 years old. Their 2014 win-loss record (73-89) was an exact replica of 2013.

While a young bullpen emerged (Ken Giles and Jake Diekman), the only All-Star under age 30 faltered (Domonic Brown). As the record suggests, there has been no progress in righting the proverbial sinking ship that is the Phillies franchise.

Barring an unforeseen development, senior vice president and general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. will keep those job titles and undergo the task of trying to undo some of his mistakes in an attempt to put a better product on the field in 2015. Interim club president Pat Gillick, sitting in for David Montgomery, who is on medical leave, said as much earlier this month.

On Labor Day, the man who preceded Amaro (and helped hire him) said the embattled general manager - and manager Ryne Sandberg, too - would "absolutely" keep his job beyond the 2014 season.

"They're under contract," Gillick said on Sept. 1. "Ruben is under contract through '15 and Ryne's under contract. So right now there's no thought whatsoever of replacing either one."

So that's that.

The Phillies did make one significant change in upper management when they dismissed assistant GM and scouting director Marti Wolever, who had been with the organization since 1992. There could very well be more changes on the way, within the front office and on the coaching staff, too.

"Everybody in our organization is being evaluated," Amaro said on Friday, adding that he's among that "everybody."

So what is on tap for the Phillies this offseason? Even if it's not in the general manager's office, change certainly will be coming.

Just as ownership was enamored by the sellout streak at Citizens Bank Park a couple of years ago, it is well aware that the team's poor record also showed up at the box office. The Phillies finished 16th in attendance in 2014; only five National League teams drew fewer fans to their ballparks.

The Phillies had the largest decline in attendance within the last year, with nearly 600,000 fewer fans in 2014 than in 2013. Since 2012, when they led baseball in attendance, the Phils have seen a drop-off of more than 1.14 million.

In recent years, ownership decided that it was best to hold on to core players from the 2008 world championship team because of their connection to the fans. That strategy has badly backfired.

As a result, there is a need for a culture change. The product is stale and the roster is stagnant; there aren't any untouchables.

Cole Hamels, the only player in that core still in his prime, is still the Phillies' best chance of fielding a competing team between now and 2019, while he's still under club control. The front office simply has to listen to offers in the event that he could fetch franchise-changing young talent into an organization lacking in premier prospects or promising players in their 20s.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Phillies will try to move Ryan Howard and Jonathan Papelbon (among others). Both have cumbersome contracts that the Phillies would have to eat to some degree to consummate a deal. But Howard's declining talent and Papelbon's reputation as a malcontent will make both players difficult to move.

Brown and extra lefty reliever Antonio Bastardo are prime candidates the team likely will try trading this winter, too.

As for what the Phillies need to add, and not subtract, there is no shortage of needs, which is unsurprising for a team that was in last place for most of the season, and every day from Independence Day to the final day of the season.

With only Hamels and David Buchanan under contract for 2015 - and Cliff Lee, too, although his status is questionable after an elbow injury held him to 13 starts in 2014 - the Phils clearly need to hit the free-agent and trade markets for arms.

A.J. Burnett could pick up a player option for $12.75 million (he must decide within a week after the World Series), but that seems somewhat unlikely, given his itch to retire this time last year and the forgettable season he just finished (he led baseball in walks and earned runs). Kyle Kendrick (a free agent) is unlikely to return; Jerome Williams (also a free agent) could come back, but wouldn't be projected to be anything but a bottom-rotation starter, not unlike Buchanan.

There aren't any major league-ready starting pitchers in their minor league system. Of course, there isn't much of anything close to major league-ready on the farm (a major reason Wolever lost his job, and others could within the next week or two, too).

After scoring two runs or fewer in 59 of 162 games this season (36.4 percent) and having a .665 team OPS (the lowest for a Phillies team in 23 years), it's beyond time to give the lifeless lineup a facelift.

With the exception of Rollins and Chase Utley, who each have full no-trade clauses and no intention of leaving, no starting position player has security this winter. The best chance of fixing what ails the offense might be to undergo a complete overhaul in the outfield this winter; signing Cuban free agent Yasmany Tomas (who could fetch a contract upward of $100 million) would be a start.

But it's not even October yet, so let's try not to get ahead of ourselves.

The free-agent season doesn't begin for at least another 4 weeks. Teams that aren't active in the postseason very rarely make headline-worthy roster moves in October.

So, sit back and heed the advice from Gillick, the last person to build a championship team in Philadelphia.

"One of the more difficult things to do in professional sports, and not only baseball but all sports, is to be patient," the acting president said earlier this month. "It's very difficult. It's very difficult for the fans to be patient, it's difficult for the media to be patient, it's difficult for ownership to be patient. But sometimes you get challenges, and the challenges are we haven't played well in the last 2, 3 years.

"These are basically the same people that made the decisions when we won five division championships from 2007 through 2011. These are the same people making the decisions . . . Ruben was here. All of a sudden [Ruben] didn't get dumb overnight. It's just right now, we're in a situation where we know where we're headed and it's going to take some time to get us where we want to go."

Blog: ph.ly/HighCheese