Phillies 2026 News and Discussion

[Philsmania]

Some brief explanations here:

Phillies make baseball operations changes, including new role for farm director

Whoever becomes the new farm director will be the Phillies fourth farm director in seven years (Bonifay in 2021, P.Mattingly from 2022-24, Murton from 2025-26, new guy in 2027) and the fifth farm director in eleven years (Jordan 2012-18, Bonifay 2019-21). Not exactly the model of stability.

Meanwhile, Barber still has a job. Only two scouting directors in the last twelve years (Almaraz 2015-19, Barber 2020-present).

[zambonir]

Seems like Murton got both a de facto demotion (more narrow portfolio) and a titular promotion (Asssistant GM).

The Phillies obviously have their issues, but I wouldn't say it was instability when all these guys since Bonifay (obviousy a disaster and not hired by this regime) got promoted (including Fuld, whose leave of absence preciptated Mattingly's promotion). If anything you wonder if there aren't enough fresh eyes - except perhaps there will be now.

Barber was really Middleton's hire (just like Girardi) and I believe he reports directly do DD, not the GM, so he seems to be Teflon.

[zambonir]

also notable from the press release Potter posted:

Seems like Rice is being shifted over to Fuld's side of things. And Landry is the Phillies one ex-blogger type.

Additionally, Ned Rice, Vice President, Business Operations and Assistant General Manager, will take on an expanded role on the business side of the organization. Rice will remain a part of the baseball operations department, continuing to oversee contract negotiations. Soto and Phillies director of baseball operations Corinne Landrey will take on additional baseball operations responsibilities previously handled by Rice.

[zambonir]

Gelb's analysis makes it more clear that Murton is essentially being demoted back to his previous position, albeit with an elevated title (and perhaps salary). So I take it back about stability. But you don't want stability when it's not working. That's on our GM's tenure as much as it is Murton I'd think, since the overall approach surely didn't change, so hopefully they do bring in some fresh ideas, without necessarily shaking things up completely.

[Callison]

Phillies’ Alec Bohm Sends Parting Message With Free Agent Exit Looming

It may be true that Bohm is a goner, but there's a season to finish and nobody wants to hear about next season now, save the media slime, as they discuss Cora replacing Mattingly. Mattingly needs to have a talk with Bohm to remind him he's the 1B on this team. He could have been platooned for his weak hitting, but instead the Phils handed him 1B. Get out there and play. The talk should be loud for emphasis and tell him projecting his departure isn't part of his job. And tell him to pick up an extra gallon of testosterone ASAP.

[zambonir]

Don't fall for the bad article/headline. Forbes is just another website with a name you recognize that mostly publishes bad blogs.The Athletic article this piece is cut-and-pasting was good, and all Bohm did was answer some fair and obvious questions. Any website you see talking about Cora is also trash and doesn't deserve your attention. Or a share here. But this one did its job and captured your attention and got you upset over nothing, while also making you seem a much worse person than any journalist or Bohm with your final comment.

[Callison]

Zdog, you may know all these scribes and be accurate in your assessment of them but most of the rest of us think they're all alike.

Bohm should know better than to talk departure even when prompted. There's a season to finish and his future is TBD.

Opinions are cheap.

[andyb]

It is more that the article is likely AI generated and stealing a quote from an Athletic article and then changing its meaning.

The Athletic article was mostly positive about adjustments Bohm is making and was not really at all about next year (though with every free agent it gets mentioned like with JT last year).

Bohm is focused on this year and knows he needs to perform to get paid well next year. Non-stories used to be from columnists trying to stir things up. Now they are from AI writers trying to generate clicks.

[zambonir]

Right, and if Bohm was having a great year people would be asking what it would take to keep him, and speculating about the other teams who might be lining up to pay him. And if he keeps producing like this people will start talking about whether the Phillies might want him back.

It's all pretty mundane and non-dramatic compared to where things were 26 days ago. At that point it would have been fair for the writers to ask him how he felt knowing the team tried to trade him again. Or what he thinks of the fact that the people who post on a very intelligent fan website thought he should be DFAed to keep Harper at 1B and De La Cruz in 3B. Because he's a bum.

[andyb]

Tanner Banks (who I thought was done when they put him on the 60-day IL) is actually starting a rehab tonight. By my calculation he could be activated around September 7. Assume it would depend on him pitching well (and better than Backhus or Cortes or Lazar).

[zambonir]

Stranger things have happened. I think they'd said his season wasn't necessarily over. A good thing even if he doesn't return to MLB this year.

[xogfog]

If they are not going to resign Arraez, then I would consider bringing Bohm back, although Arraez and a RF would be a better investment, athough a platoon of De La Cruz and Rincones in RF might be better money than paying a bunch for another Garcia/Kepler clone.

[schillingfan]

It is more that the article is likely AI generated and stealing a quote from an Athletic article and then changing its meaning.

The Athletic article was mostly positive about adjustments Bohm is making and was not really at all about next year (though with every free agent it gets mentioned like with JT last year).

Bohm is focused on this year and knows he needs to perform to get paid well next year. Non-stories used to be from columnists trying to stir things up. Now they are from AI writers trying to generate clicks.

I listened to anAI expert that said incentivizing Ai teaches it to. Heat. It it’s rewarded based on the number of Clicks, it will cheat to win by getting the most clicks.

[zambonir]

Why the Phillies are restructuring how they run player development

This certainly outlines a lot of the same-old same-old.

Some of the bullet points.

• Murton was stretched too thin running player dev, as he was still doing not only his old hitting job but also quite a bit of scouting (his original background)

• The notion that the front office remains too insular is raised, i.e.

Mattingly had tabbed Murton, a close friend. Cotham and Weathers have a long-standing relationship. Mattingly’s father, Don, is the interim manager. The Phillies hired Murton’s brother as a hitting advisor in 2023. Matt Murton, a former big-league outfielder, held that role until being promoted to assistant to the director of hitting (his brother) before the 2026 season.

• Phillies originally planned to search for Kilambi's replacement but couldn't get permission to interview people from other teams given how late in the off-season it was. Aucoin's basically been doing the job since then, and now he has it.

• Still some inconsistent messaging and teaching from level to level.

• And Gelb notes that while the Phillies have a huge analytics department, under DD it "is not weighed as it is in other front offices, team sources said."

[allentown]

So, different faces, same old problems. A head honcho who isn't happy relying on analytics. Cronyism. Not a good look at all, suggesting the biggest change in the current era is free-spending owners. Like the last golden era, this lesser one will end because of inability to find and develop sufficient home-grown talent -- the cheap contributors to WAR who permit the budget to accommodate more star FAs.

[Carver]

Analytics is a tool in the toolbox. A very useful tool that they have invested in heavily, and they are in much better shape now (and indeed, if we listen to what others have said they are one of the better organizations in the league when it comes to saberdudery).

I would never expect DD to rely upon analytics to the detriment of old school scouting and baseball expertise...rather, I give them credit for how they eventually managed to up their game in this regard. We have seen the saber revolution perform some magic in the past twenty-five years, but we have also seen many organizations strip out their scouting departments as a result and also to their detriment.

If one is running a company, financial analysts are hugely important. But I also don't want my CEO to be an accounting purist that does not grasp the bigger picture. This applies to baseball as well - we have seen the downside to a saber-driven mindset that downgrades the importance of everything else. Owners have loved it as it has allowed them to cut costs in other areas, but it has led to some rather absurd approaches as well that have harmed the game in other ways.

I want a terrific AGM that runs the analytics department and has a strong voice that is heard at the highest levels. What I don't want? A GM / POBO that makes the larger decisions based upon a devotion to saber-modeling and that downgrades every other aspect of the decision-making process...nor do I want a saberdude in charge.

[VoteForKalas]

What I want is people in charge who convince ownership to maintain the current high level of investment

AND

are willing and able to invest seriously to find and hire the people, tools and resources necessary to evaluate, acquire, develop and retain player talent so our farm system helps us be competitive with the best organizations in the game.

I'd like to have an excellent farm system that produces talent and trade assets for the big club consistently once in my lifetime. I know this is not easy, but somehow organizations like LA, ATL, TB and others have done it for years. Figure it out and make it a top priority.

[BostonRoss]

I am happy that the Phillies are now a team that is willing to spend, but I wonder whether they don't spend enough time trying to Excel at player evaluation when they know they can buy players. Spending a lot doesn't guarantee anything by itself (meet the Mets...). The Dodgers spend a ton, but they also develop a lot of good players.

[Austinfan]

They do seem to be teaching plate discipline down the system, that's a good start.

[zambonir]

All of the above is true. As the Gelb article says, the Phllies have not been especially good at development for 140 years, with just a few outlier epochs.

And the Middleton era has still been very crony-like, including Gillick's influence. That is the main reason the Klentak era failed so spectacularly (both because MacPhail was a bad hire and because Klentak had the deck stacked against him as a baseball guy in addition to not being a skilled manager of employees, it seems).

It's also the main reason they stumbled into the good luck of hiring Dombrowski after nobody else (and nobody analytics-minded) wanted the job.

The teams that are really good at this - the Dodgers, the Braves, the Red Sox sometimes, the Yankees to some extent - already had a deep base of development and scouting success, to which they added analytics and money (except for the Braves, though they are also not small-budget). The Rays are probably the only team of the Moneyball era that have actually sustained success (but like Oakland, that still hasn't won them anything). Beyond that the various analytics family trees, including Friedman's and Beane's and the Astros, have been a mixed bag. The Dodgers are just lethal because they've got all three things always working.

Tampa has the benefit of both being forced to innovate (to save money) and having no cultural/organizational baggage. They made their own mold.

I still don't see things as completely dire, however. The team has been nothing but successful at the major league era and the lower levels of the system and some of the dev changes seem to be posiitive. The current ranking is still a combination of trades, graduation and bad luck, and the lack of impact guys at the highest levels until recently was still as much from the Klentak draft years. Barber's guys, at least in the first-round, only just arrived this year (and last year in Abel's case).