As per Philly.com

This just in. . .

Ruben Amaro Jr. is the new Phillies general manager.

Sources close to the situation confirmed to the Daily News' Paul Hagen that club president Dave Montgomery met with assistant general manager, scouting and player development Mike Arbuckle yesterday and informed him that he had lost out to Amaro in what had been considered a two-man sweepstakes.

Arbuckle, who was hired by former general manager Lee Thomas before the 1993 season, then informed Montgomery that he will be leaving the organization to pursue other opportunities, the sources continued.

An official announcement is expected Monday.....

Wow I absolutely didn't see either of those things coming. Right now I'm in "who cares" mode; just continuing to bask in the championship glow.

i think this should guarantee that no top tier free agent pitcher will willingly sign with the phillies.

nor will any pitcher with a NTC waive it to be acquired by the phillies.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

uggghh. I have no faith at all in Amaro, he's a complete tool. And it sucks to lose Arbuckle.

So Amaro is promoted and Gillick and Arbuckle are leaving? Isn't Arbuckle the one who drafted half of this team?

I can't believe they're not even considering anyone else.

Presumably, Arbuckle will be a GM somewhere, right?

nooooooooooooo

At least we won this year.

We should be fine for 2009. Sign Burrell, don't mess up on the arb guys, and sign a free-agent pitcher better than Blanton.

Well, I didn't think we were going to lose Arbuckle. That sucks.

How can anyone be surprised that Arbuckle is leaving? I'm frankly surprised it didn't happen much sooner. Passed over TWICE now for vacant GM positions w/in the organization. I won't be surprised to hear if he flipped a desk over and said "f*&k it. I'm out" during this meeting. It'd be totally justified

As for Amaro, he is what he is. An annoying, smug prick that we just don't know much about in terms of individual capability. His mettle won't be tested too much this offseason, but we'll surely learn some things in how he handles Burrell and several of the important arb case players.

assistant gm - promoted from within or someone from the outside?

Amaro is a smug prick, and that scares me; he's just arrogant enough to think he knows what he's doing.

ReadingPhilly wrote:assistant gm - promoted from within or someone from the outside?

I can see Marti Wolever getting this title next. I can just as likely see Amaro asking to not have an assistant and this request being met.

Is it not league policy that in the interview process, candidates with minority status must be considered and interviewed?

I think you're thinking of NFL coaching and anyway isn't Amari a minority

I'm pretty accepting of this. It was pretty clear that when he was passed over last time it was because the Phillies wanted him to train under another, experienced GM before they considered him ready, a situation Gillick was willing to accept. I think the only reason they would not have promoted Amaro is if Gillick had said no, this guy can't do the job. For better or worse, it's obvious that Gillick didn't say so.

I think the perception of Arbuckle is that he's more valuable when he's actively involved in scouting than as a supervisory manager, something a GM has to do a lot. So, if he wants to advance he's obviously going to have to do so with another organization. I'm not so sure he will, and we may see accepting a lateral move which at least means he doesn't have to work for Amaro.

We don't have any track record with Amaro as leader, and I don't think the Phillies organization is transparent enough for us to really have an understanding of what roles he's been performing. Hopefully they won't give him a burdensome contract and hopefully he'll show he's capable of taking in other points of view and incorporating them in his management-and I hope even more he'll know which points of view to listen to.

At any rate, it will be interesting to see how he does when it's his show to run.

como wrote:Is it not league policy that in the interview process, candidates with minority status must be considered and interviewed?

maybe they can bypass it when they hire a minority?

A good owner calls Arbuckle into the office and offers him a promotion, too, and more responsibility. Doesn't just tell him that he lost out. Keep the guy who built the team.

como wrote:Is it not league policy that in the interview process, candidates with minority status must be considered and interviewed?

Isn't Amaro hispanic? His dad was from Mexico.