Mets Promote Amaro to Front Office

When former Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. was let go by the Phillies, he did not immediately seek a front office role.  Instead, he took a position as the first base coach of the Boston Red Sox.  After that managerial change, Amaro took the same role with the New York Mets.  But Amaro will not be a coach in 2019; the Mets have different plans for him.

The Mets will be in need of some help from an experienced general manager.

The Mets took the unusual step this offseason by hiring a new general manager who had no front office experience.  In Brodie Van Wagenen, the Mets took the agent who represented many of their stars including pitchers Jacob deGrom and Noah Syndegaard, infielder Todd Frazier and outfielder Yoenis Cespedes and gave him his first front office role.  But he will have help even besides Amaro.

Former Blue Jays general manager J.P. Ricchardi serves as a special assistant to the general manager, as does former Mets general manager Omar Minaya.   According to Van Wagenen's deal, he will recuse himself from any negotiations involving his former clients, which means they will be needed.

For Amaro, he might have not seen a managerial role in his future.  Despite several teams replacing their managers this season and last, Amaro has not been given consideration for those roles.  While coaches earn as little as $150,000 a year, they are subject to the travel and daily grind of the players.  Amaro might have decided to re-gain some flexibility in his life by taking this new role and traveling much less.

Despite having been widely criticized in the past, Amaro received cheers from Phillies fans in 2018 when he appeared as part of the 1993 Phillies 25-year reunion.  The current young core of talent on the Phillies was cultivated under Amaro's watch, and he may be remembered for that in the same way former general manager Ed Wade received praise for the core that became the 2008 World Champion Phillies.

Amaro served as an assistant general manager for the Phillies from the moment he took his Phillies uniform off after the 1998 season through the 2008 season.  At season's end he was named general manager of the Phillies and assumed that role almost immediately after the World Series victory.