SAN DIEGO — Four Decembers ago, Ruben Amaro Jr. was the toast of Philadelphia. He signed free-agent ace Cliff Lee, completing The Four Aces rotation. One overjoyed fan used Photoshop to create a Christmas card with Amaro, adorned as the Blessed Mother, holding Lee, the newly arrived Savior, as Cole Hamels, Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt looked on with reverence and awe.
Three straight years of not making the postseason, including back-to-back 89-loss seasons, have destroyed Amaro’s popularity in the town in which he was once celebrated, and it’s safe to say no one is making Christmas cards with his image on them this December.
But Amaro does have one significant supporter.
“I’ve got his back,” Pat Gillick said Monday.
Gillick was responding to a reporter’s question about whether Amaro, who is entering the final year of his contract in 2015, would survive the season. The Phillies have entered a rebuilding phase and many have justifiably wondered why Amaro, general manager since 2009, would be entrusted with rebuilding a team that disintegrated on his watch.
Why can Amaro survive?
“Because I’ve got confidence in him,” said Gillick, who as interim club president has a direct line to John Middleton, the most influential partner in the team’s ownership group.
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“Ruben didn’t all of a sudden get dumb,” Gillick added. “People don’t want to hear this, but there were five years from 2007 to 2011 and the last year in 2011 we won 102 games. He didn’t all of a sudden get stupid the last three years. There were just a lot of factors to factor in there. And it isn’t what you’ve done in the past, it’s what are you doing for us now. And we haven’t done anything the last three years.
"But as far as him getting a brain cramp or something — it hasn’t happened. I have confidence in him. I’ve got his back.”
Will Gillick’s support be enough to save Amaro’s job in 2015?
Time will tell.