David Montgomery says Phillies will bring back Ruben Amaro as GM in 2014 *Sigh*

Regardless of a growing discontent from the fanbase, the Phillies will bring back General Manager Ruben Amaro in 2014.Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Despite going out of my way to show my disdain for the job that Ruben Amaro has done in almost five full seasons as the Phillies general manager, it appears that Rube is safe for another season.

In an interview with Matt Gelb of Philly.com, Phillies CEO and team president David Montgomery gave the vibe that not only were the Phillies not going to fire Amaro, but they hadn’t considered it.

"Oh, Ruben is our general manager.I guess I have a broader perspective than other people do. I’ve seen Ruben at work since 1999. I’ve seen the diligence he’s put in as an assistant GM. I think he benefited greatly from the opportunity to work under two very good, but very different general managers in style with Ed [Wade] and Pat [Gillick]. It’s good we have both of their services still involved."

If there was a general manager who’s lead that you didn’t want to follow it would be Ed Wade’s. And judging off the fact that Ruben Amaro gives out deals longer than three years annually, it doesn’t seem like Pat Gillick, who refused to give deals longer than three years to any player, is too heavily involved in the Phillies front office affairs.

It gets even better though.

"One of the things Ruben has done well is, we make decisions. That’s a good thing. Where you get in trouble in life is if you start to think you should make decisions and the people working for you should support your decision. We listen to the opinions of others and then we make decisions together, that’s a good thing. It’s probably one of the best lessons Ruben learned from Pat. One of Pat’s strongest attributes as a general manager was he was a good listener. He wanted to make sure everybody expressed their opinion on a potential deal or talent evaluation or projection. Ruben has done well with that."

Good decision making? What move was good? Giving Joe Blanton eight million a year? Trading Cliff Lee to the Mariners for free? Throwing Jimmy Rollins a vesting option that he almost certainly will reach to make his deal worth four seasons? Getting virtually no return thus far for Shane Victorino or Hunter Pence? Am I missing something here?

And in case you were wondering, the Phillies still aren’t willing to admit that playing Darin Ruf over Delmon Young this season would have made the Phillies a better team.

"Have we had some bumps in the road the last few years? No question. Sometimes people look back and ask, ‘Why did they pick up so-and-so?’ Well they are probably missing the predicate as to why we did it. I had a couple people say to me, ‘It’s a shame you didn’t give Ruf at-bats all year.’ Well, yeah, it is as it turned out. But we didn’t go into spring training thinking both Domonic [Brown] and Darin Ruf could be our corner outfielders. So we wanted to bring a veteran. Domonic won the job in spring training. Then Delmon [Young] came. Darin probably benefited from his time [in the minors] — he certainly needed time in the outfield. Now you look at it and say, ‘Why would you have bothered with that other guy?’ If you knew in January what you know today, why bother? But you don’t know those things."

Did you go into Spring Training thinking Delmon Young was a quality corner outfielder? Did you think moving him from left-field were he was inept would make him a little less inept in right? I don’t get it.

And I guess it’s true that the Phillies didn’t know what they apparently know now in January, but they were the only ones. Everyone else knew this was an aging roster that was riddled with injuries, bad contracts, and a terrible bullpen. And the Phillies didn’t know that in January, so now that the Phillies are skidding to the finish with a record of 68-78, they know what we knew in January. Huh, who are the ones getting paid to know things here?

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