Ryne Sandberg resigned Friday afternoon, effective immediately. Ruben Amaro now on the clock.
I will say this about Ryne Sandberg. The man loves his baseball, and he can probably fill a role on a baseball staff. Manager of a major league baseball team proved to be too much for him to handle, and the roster he has been given to work with since taking over for Charlie Manuel just a few years ago has done him absolutely no favors. Some of the downfalls of the Phillies fell beyond the control of the manager, but he did not help things on more than one occasion.
Sandberg resigned from his post as manager of the Philadelphia Phillies Friday afternoon. Sandberg says the decision to step down was his own, and you can choose to believe that if you wish. The Phillies are 26-48 as he resigns, just before getting ready to play a weekend series at home against the Washington Nationals. Since taking over as manager in 2013, the Phillies have gone 119-159 and the strengths we were sold on Sandberg as manager never materialized as promised.
So the Phillies will have a new manager in 2016 (Pete Mackanin will serve as the interim manager in the immediate future), but who will be making the call on who makes that hire? Ruben Amaro’s hand-picked manager has now resigned in fewer than three full years, and the big decisions have been going through Pat Gillick once again. A change at general manager is very likely to be coming, especially with Andy MacPhail likely to be introduced in the Phillies front office in short time. When asked who makes the call on the next manager of the team, Gillick replied “I can’t really comment on that.” Keep in mind Amaro was right to his left side during the press conference. So that is not good news for Ruben.
The Phillies are now officially cleaning the slate, piece by piece. Big decisions are coming, and hopefully it helps get the team back heading in the right direction.
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