Phillies introduce Andy MacPhail as Pat Gillick's successor

FOR THE SECOND time in four days, three baseball men sat at the dais at the front of the press room at Citizens Bank Park, with bright lights shining down on them and dozens of reporters ready to engage in the news of the day.

The only man who was a part of both news conferences was Pat Gillick. Gillick's teary-eyed look from Friday's sudden departure of manager Ryne Sandberg was gone, however. It was replaced by the fire in the eyes of the man seated two seats down from him.

John Middleton, a part of an ownership group that's been best known for its silence and anonymity, was more than eager to take the vocal lead and make an announcement Monday that he thinks ultimately will take his team back from pretender to contender.

The Phillies hired longtime baseball executive Andy MacPhail to succeed Gillick as team president at the conclusion of the season. MacPhail, 62, who has worked for the Orioles, Cubs and Twins, including winning two World Series titles as Minnesota's general manager, will work as a special assistant under Gillick for the final three months of the season.

"When began discussing Pat's successor, our primary, and, in fact, paramount, concern was our team's on-field performance," Middleton said, beginning the news conference with an opening statement. "We need to improve it and get us back to the winning ways we enjoyed from 2007 to 2011. In fact, it was not just our primary objective, it was our first objective. I say that, because, when we were interviewing Andy, we made it clear to him that we expect him to devote the vast majority of his time on the baseball side of the business to improve the farm system and ultimately the major league team. Every other consideration in this hiring decision was secondary to that goal."

Gillick will remain president of the baseball operations department until the end of the season. Additionally, Gillick said general manager Ruben Amaro Jr., who is in the final year of his contract, will remain in his position for the duration of the season.

In replacing Gillick, the Phillies ownership group wanted someone similar, with a proven track record of success. They polled people throughout baseball. The choice became obvious.

"Every single person, without exception, listed Andy MacPhail as No. 1," Middleton said. "There was nobody else who was No. 1 on any person's list. And that was extraordinary. As talked with Andy over several months, we came to understand why he is held in such high regard, and we, too, quickly concluded he was the right person for the Phillies. In addition to the nearly 30 years of success he's enjoyed in Minnesota, Chicago and Baltimore, Andy has done an excellent job of keeping himself current with the changing trends in major league baseball, such as sabermetrics, that have become such an important tool. Thus Andy is a rare combination of both old-school experience and new-age thinking."

The ownership group - Middleton, Jim Buck and Pete Buck - reached out to him around the holiday season last winter. MacPhail said he was "flattered" by the interest. After being out of baseball for three years - his contract ran out in Baltimore around the same time his father became ill - MacPhail was eager to return.

In Philadelphia, he'll have his challenges, inheriting a team with a still-growing farm system, along with a major league team that's been saddled with onerus contracts and one that hasn't had a winning record since 2011. But, as Middleton made clear to him, MacPhail will have "whatever resources needs" to succeed with the Phillies.

"This organization has a terrific reputation in the game, doing things first-class, and you heard John say that the resources are going to be whatever we need," MacPhail said. "I'm really confident we're going to be able to get back, it's just doing work . . . It's going to happen. It's just a question of when and how efficient we can be, and effective we can be, to make it happen as soon as possible."

MacPhail wouldn't put a timetable on the process. But he was adamant in saying an organization must stick to that process, and operate under the assumption that the rebuild will take years.

"I think any team that really devotes itself to a rebuild kind of gets rewarded in the end," MacPhail said. "Teams like Kansas City, Tampa, Pittsburgh, Baltimore. If you stick with it and you go by that scenario, you're ultimately going to get rewarded. We tend to think of improvement as being linear. You win 72 games, the next year you win 76, the next year it might be 82. I don't think that's the way our game operates anymore. I think there are teams that will be hovering around 60 wins and the next thing you know, they're in the 90-win category. Tampa did it in 07-08. Baltimore did it."

MacPhail helped steer baseball's rebirth in Baltimore, in part with a pair of trades that netted Adam Jones, Chris Tillman and Chris Davis. But MacPhail won't be pulling triggers on trades in the next month, when the Phillies are expected to aggressively attempt to move veterans before the July 31 deadline.

Gillick remains the point man on capitalizing on the Cole Hamels market, on trying to find a fair return for Jonathan Papelbon, and on attempting to move Ryan Howard, Ben Revere and anyone else who could help expedite the rebuilding process.

MacPhail will have a voice and he said he isn't shy about offering an opinion. But he'll also respect Gillick and Amaro, who have spent months (years?) laying the groundwork.

"If I was Pat, I wouldn't pay too much attention to what I had to say . . . I've been out for three years," MacPhail said.

"I'm going to listen to his opinion," Gillick said. "Four or five heads are better than one. We're going to gather as much information as we possibly can and then we'll make the proper decisions. The trading and movement of players, that's in the hands of the general manager. But we operate all-inclusive and that's the way we do things. Opinions are sought out before we make a deal."

Speaking of the general manager, Amaro remains in place in the wake of the shake-ups above and below him within the baseball operations department in the past week.

During his first three months on the job, MacPhail said, he will be learning all of the ins and outs of the organization, which includes working with the people inside the front office. It remains to be seen whether Amaro, who took over for Gillick in November 2008, will survive that vetting process.

But unlike his recently departed manager, Ryne Sandberg, Amaro isn't ready to jump ship just yet, either.

"I believe in being a Philadelphia Phillie for my life," Amaro said. "I've bled Phillies red for a long, long time. My goal is to work with Andy and Pat and to get our organization back to the level that it's been. I've been part of a rebuild in the past, as an assistant GM. I've been part of building a championship-caliber club. And I am looking forward to trying to do what I can to do that and continue to do that. I can't worry about what decisions Andy and Pat are going to be making, as far as my personal status is concerned. My goal is to try to get us back to where we need to be."

If Amaro is not retained as general manager, finding his replacement will be one of MacPhail's first jobs after succeeding Gillick in October.

He'll have to find a new manager, too. Gillick said Monday that even if current interim manager Pete Mackanin is replaced this week - that business is still to be decided, but could come soon - the organization will finish out 2015 with an interim manager, period, and not someone they are handing the reins to for 2016, too.

It's probably too early to speculate on candidates MacPhail could consider for either job.

"Hopefully, within the three months, I'll have a clear idea of what I think is appropriate and needs to be done," MacPhail said. "I don't like the word evaluate. I like the word learn. I've got three months to learn what I need to learn. I think it's way premature to make personnel decisions. I don't need to have people I know around me.

"I don't think the record shows that I'm a guy that, four people get let go the minute that I'm in there. But they are case-by-case decisions. Once you get a feel on how your club needs to proceed, then you get a better idea of who you think can execute what you think you have to execute."

In addition to working under Gillick through the season, MacPhail will work closely with chief operating officer Michael Stiles. After David Montgomery took a medical leave last August following jawbone cancer surgery, Stiles assumed the team's business operations while Gillick handled the baseball end of the enterprise.

Gillick, who stepped into the job at the behest of ownership and never committed to staying in the position beyond 2015, could return to an advisory role next season. He remained with the Phillies in that role after stepping down as GM in the days after the 2008 World Series parade.

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