The Philadelphia Phillies have hired Andy MacPhail to be their next President of Baseball Operations, the team announced in a news conference Monday. MacPhail will assume the role in October following the 2015 season.
Effective immediately, MacPhail will serve as a Special Assistant to current president Pat Gillick until he succeeds Gillick in October.
"He's been around the game for a long time, and four or five heads is better than one. Certainly, I'm going to be looking [to MacPhail]," Gillick said.
"I am extremely flattered," MacPhail said at the press conference. "The game has probably evolved two times over since [I last worked in baseball], so I'm very grateful for the opportunity to spend three months with Pat to get me up to speed about how the game and the organization has evolved."
A two-time World Series champion, MacPhail has a great reputation when it comes to leading baseball teams.
“An executive's past performance is indicative of future success,” said Phillies ownership partner John Middleton.
Most recently, MacPhail was President of Baseball Operations of the Baltimore Orioles, a position he held from the 2007 season until 2011. Previously, MacPhail led the Minnesota Twins to two titles in 1987 and 1991 as the team’s general manager. He then served as president and CEO of the Chicago Cubs from 1994 to 2006.
“My three main functions are to read, to watch and to listen," MacPhail said.
MacPhail will be tasked with turning around a Phillies team that currently owns the worst record in baseball.
"Any team that devotes itself to a rebuild is rewarded in the end,” he said. "I’ve been known as deliberate and patient, and I think that’s because I want to collect as much information as I possibly can. The way the game is constructed today, everyone’s got a shot. It’s going to happen, it’s just a question of when it will happen.”
The move is the most recent in what is expected to be a flurry of changes atop the organization. Last Friday, former manager Ryne Sandberg announced his resignation. The team is also expected to make a decision about whether to move on from General Manager Rubén Amaro, Jr. in the near future.
MacPhail comes from a family of baseball executives — his grandfather, Larry, was a longtime front office member with the Cincinnati Reds, Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Yankees and his father, Lee, served as President of the American League after nearly two decades as a general manager.
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