Ruben Amaro and Sam Hinkie: Legacies and Losing
By Mike Lacy
Ruben Amaro and Sam Hinkie both oversaw losing teams, but their reigns are unfairly regarded much differently .
After a few years near or at the bottom of the standings, both the Philadelphia Phillies and Philadelphia 76ers seem to have bright futures. The Sixers have two potential superstars in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, as well as a slew of cap space and draft picks with which they can acquire more talent. Meanwhile, the Phillies have a talented young core of players and now have one of the best minor league systems in baseball.
Both Ruben Amaro and Sam Hinkie left their positions as general manager with their teams in last place, but not before laying the foundation for future success. Because of that, you might think that they would be held in equal esteem by the fans of Philadelphia, but that is definitely not the case.
When Sam Hinkie resigned from the Sixers, many fans mourned. They regarded (and most still do) Hinkie as a genius who was overseeing the most brilliant rebuilding plan the NBA had ever seen. They were convinced that his “Process” would ultimately pay off with a championship.
In 2015, the Philadelphia Phillies parted ways with their general manager, Ruben Amaro. There was little mourning; just about every fan applauded the move, and believed it to be long overdue.
Why is there such a difference in opinion? I think it comes down to several factors:
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Initial expectations
Sam Hinkie and Ruben Amaro inherited much different situations. Amaro took control of a team coming off a World Series title, while Hinkie took over a lottery team lacking top-end talent. As a result, there was considerably more pressure on Amaro to win immediately.
Amaro’s efforts in his early years were almost completely focused on winning another World Series. He supplemented the team’s roster with star players like Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay, and the team’s record improved each of his first three years. However, despite being arguably the most talented team in baseball, they failed to capture another title.
Amaro may have been set up perfectly for short-term success, but his long-term prospects were much dimmer. The young core that Amaro inherited had grown progressively older and more expensive. Teams can counter this problem by supplementing the roster from the minor leagues, but the Phillies farm system had stopped producing good players. As a result, the Phillies began to descend towards the bottom of the standings.
Expectations were much lower for Hinkie. The Sixers had missed the playoffs and their future prospects appeared dim thanks to the disastrous Andrew Bynum trade.
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Personalities
When the Phillies were trading for big-name players and winning division titles every year, fans largely liked Amaro. His “cockiness” and “all-in” attitude were seen as strengths. Once the team stopped winning division titles, he began to be described as “smug” and “condescending.”
Amaro didn’t do himself any favors. He wasn’t great at explaining himself, and his public derision of sabermetrics made him an easy target for new-wave fans who believe that numbers reign supreme when it comes to running a baseball team.
He also probably made himself too accessible to the media. I’m sure many sports executives probably consider themselves to be smarter than fans, but most don’t go so far as to actually admit it.
Sam Hinkie was considerably less accessible. He rarely spoke to the press, and didn’t say much of substance when he did. This allowed fans to project a personality onto him.
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Rebuilding strategies
In the Fall of 2013, Amaro and Hinkie both probably realized that their teams didn’t have much of a chance at contention and accepted that the playoffs were a long shot. Faced with this reality, they took far different approaches at handling the situation.
The Phillies signed veterans like A.J. Burnett and Marlon Byrd and claimed that those additions – combined with rebound years from veterans such as Ryan Howard – would allow the Phillies to compete for a playoff spot.
Amaro was roundly criticized. Fans called him an idiot who refused to accept the reality that the Phillies core was too old to compete. They pleaded with the team to begin a long overdue rebuilding process, not recognizing that the Phillies had actually started to rebuild years earlier.
Ever since trading Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence at the 2012 trade deadline, the Phillies had been operating differently then they had during their division title years. They were no longer signing free agents to expensive long-term contracts that would bog down the payroll in future seasons. Nor were they signing players who would require the forfeiture of a first or second round draft pick. Instead, they were acquiring players who could be signed to two or three-year deals.
Meanwhile, the real change came at the minor league level where a much-needed overhaul was taking place. The Phillies began to spend more money on international free agents, and after years of poor drafting (a problem which preceded Amaro), they also improved in that area. As a result, the farm system gradually improved.
Sam Hinkie took a different approach: He blew his team up. He started by trading his lone All-Star Jrue Holiday for two lottery picks, and then spent the next three years unloading every veteran on the team, while loading up on cheap, young talent and future draft picks.
The logic was painfully obvious: Most NBA title contenders gain that status by having a superstar on the roster, and the best way to acquire such a star was to pick near the top of the draft. By trading their veterans, the Sixers were not only acquiring more draft picks, but they were also weakening the team, giving them a better chance at one of the top picks.
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Desire to feel smart
Amaro was the antithesis of the “smart fans.” His desire to rely primarily on scouting and not statistical analysis infuriated Phillies fans who wanted their team to be a part of the “statistical revolution” brought about by Bill James and Billy Beane.
Sam Hinkie supporters got to feel like they were getting in on the ground floor of the next great trend in sports. By being an early adopter, many Hinkie-lovers got to feel they were smarter than the “unwashed masses” who couldn’t understand what Hinkie was doing or why it was the most brilliant plan in basketball history.
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What will the history books say?
Hinkie may be beloved by his supporters, but will he maintain that status in the future?
If Joel Embiid helps lead the Sixers to a title one day, Hinkie will receive much of the credit. However, if the Sixers never become a legitimate contender, there will be a sentiment that they wasted three seasons. That still probably won’t damage Hinkie’s reputation all that much. If the team falls short, his supporters will just claim that he would have succeeded had he been given a chance to see his Process all the way through.
That feels like flawed logic because The Process may have been doomed from the start. In a theoretical world, The Process would likely work, but if we lived in a theoretical world, we’d all be communists.
In the long run, voluntarily giving up on seasons probably will eventually pay off. But Sam Hinkie didn’t seem to take into account that building a winning basketball team requires managing personalities as well as numbers. And that is the main reason Hinkie is now the team’s ex-general manager.
Hinkie didn’t seem to care that placing young players in a hopeless situation, might hurt their development. He also didn’t seem to account for the fact that player agents and rival executives might not appreciate his attempts to beat the system. And he didn’t seem to realize that either due to pressure from the league or their own impatience, team ownership wasn’t going to allow him to operate on an infinite timeline.
NBA executives were clearly unhappy with the Sixers’ tanking. They realized that if a team became successful by voluntarily sacrificing several seasons, it might set a dangerous precedent that would hurt the overall league product. The league went as far as to almost reform the draft lottery process to prevent it.
It is believed that the league pressured the Sixers’ owners to bring in the Colangelo family to help rein in Hinkie, but it wouldn’t be shocking if the team’s ownership group came to the decision by themselves. As much as they publicly supported Hinkie, I’m sure the constant losing began to wear on them. They probably didn’t enjoy being the subject of national ridicule, and I’m sure the bottom line was being effected as well.
As much as some fans say they trusted the Process, they weren’t showing it by watching the games. And while Hinkie’s supporters were vocal, the love was not universal. Many fans despised the tanking. To many loyal fans, it was a betrayal of their support.
Ultimately, I suspect that his semi-forced resignation may have been the best thing to happen to Hinkie’s as far as his reputation is concerned.
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As for Amaro?
Amaro was villified for the downfall of a championship team and for not rebuilding fast enough. And while there is some truth in those accusations, I feel Amaro deserves credit for giving the fans hope. Like Sam Hinkie, he was faced with a difficult situation, but unlike Hinkie, he chose to give his team a fighting chance.
It’s impossible to say exactly what Amaro was thinking before the 2013 and 2014 seasons. Maybe he was truly delusional enough to believe that the Phillies were good enough to make the playoffs in those seasons. Or maybe he just wanted to give the Phillies an outside chance at a playoff spot while the rebuilding process took place. (It’s also possible that he was just taking orders from Dave Montgomery and Pat Gillick – neither of which seemed high on publicly declaring the Phillies to be non-contenders.)
Obviously, the Phillies didn’t make the playoffs. And maybe he could have addressed the rebuilding more aggressively instead of the slow manner in which he did. If he had done so, the Phillies might be in better shape in 2017, and there might even be a chance they’d contend.
But that would have meant putting the fans through at least four seasons where contention wasn’t even a dream. While I’m sure ticket sales and television contracts had a lot to do with that decision, there’s something to be said for at least providing hope.
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The future for both teams appears to be brighter than the present. The Sixers have what appears to be a franchise player in Embiid, with another potential superstar coming soon in the form of Ben Simmons.
Meanwhile, the Phillies have a young team with a promising rotation and one of the best farm systems in baseball. Combined with a plethora of money available to spend on upcoming free agency classes, it’s not difficult to envision the Phillies returning to the top of the baseball world in the next few seasons.
Next: Ryan Howard and Donovan McNabb: Equivocal Legacies
If Embiid and Simmons someday lead the 76ers to the promised land, Sam Hinkie and his Process will deservedly receive praise. If the Phillies reach similar heights thanks to the players that were acquired during Ruben Amaro’s watch, I just hope that also he receives the credit he deserves.