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What can we learn from the Philadelphia Phillies monumental downfall?

By Josh Sippie

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It’s a rare feat for a team to go from 102-60 to the worst team in baseball in a span of four years, but the Philadelphia Phillies have managed to do it. Under the ever watchful eye of Ruben Amaro Jr. the Phillies have turned nine straight winnings seasons and five straight first place finishes into the laughing stock of the Major Leagues.

But how?

The answer is actually a lot simpler than you’d think. The Philadelphia Phillies attempted the old “buy every player we can and pay for it with the blood of our farm system” approach. For those of you tempted to use this approach in organized sports, I’d recommend against it.

It’s the same approach that Ed Wade used to drive the Houston Astros into the ground. Wade of course made the memorable “five prospects for an aged Miguel Tejada” trade, which still manages to blow my mind.

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But the Phillies, particularly under Ruben Amero Jr., have taken the approach to a whole new level. The Phillies sent their farm system far and wide to pay for overpriced veterans who the Phillies hoped would lead them to continual success. The problem with overpaying for 30+ year old veterans with talented youth is that those 30+ year old’s age much faster than the 16-20 year old prospects do.

Even to this day, the Phillies future is incredibly bleak. The Phillies only have three prospects in the top 100 prospects list. Compare that to last years total of… three. In 2013, the Phillies were rocking out with 3% of the top 100 prospects, which translates into three guys. On the bright side, those three are up from the one they had in 2012 and the big zero in 2011.

You may be saying to yourself, “having guys in the top 100 isn’t the be-all end-all of a farm system” and you’d be right, it isn’t. But of the players on the Philadelphia Phillies right now, only Darin Ruf and Cody Asche have featured on the Phillies top prospects in recent memory and neither of them have turned out very well at all. Domonic Brown is the only real recent success story on the current team and the only Major League-ready player to come out of the Philadelphia Phillies farm system since Ryan Howard.

The first round of the draft is traditionally where the biggest stars are found, but no Philly first-round pick has reached the majors since Travis d’Arnaud (2007) and he reached the Majors for the Mets. The last one to reach the Majors for the Phillies was Cole Hamels (2002). That’s 13 years without a successful first round pick. 

Another side effect of loading up on big name guys and dishing out enormous wads of cash with no regard for what it means for your future is what it means for your future. The Phillies still have the 6th and 7th highest paid players in baseball in Ryan Howard and Cliff Lee. Howard is reaping in massive loads of cash and producing mediocre (if that) results. The Phillies would never offload him because no team wants to stomach that massive payout. Not only that, but Ruben Amaro Jr. likely still sees Howard as a key to their imminent success. Cliff Lee is still injured.

Then there’s Cole Hamels who, while he still has value and could be used as trade bait, is raking in so much money that potentially interested teams can’t even find Hamels in the massive mound of cash he’s hiding in. So for now, he remains in the city of brotherly love.

Overall, the Philadelphia Phillies payroll should surprise no one. Since 2011, the team has always been in the top three. What’s even more unbelievable about the whole scenario is that, when the Phillies achieved their best record ever in 2011, their payroll was at a 172 million, second only to the New York Yankees. In 2014, when the Phillies had been out of contention for three whole years, their payroll had increased to 180 million.

Even to this day in 2015, with the Phillies at risk of being the bottom feeders of the MLB, their payroll is still kicking in at 135 million. It’s hard to rebuild a team when you have guys like Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels leeching the life out of the organization with enormous paychecks. 

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The Houston Astros recovered from a drought in the farm system by cutting a large payroll down to 40 million dollars. Sure, they had to go through a handful of tough years, but look at them now. The Phillies too, have had to go through a handful of tough years, but look at them now – they’re now even father from improving than they were several years ago.

The Philadelphia Phillies have demonstrated how not to run a major league baseball team: run up the payroll on long, high priced contracts and send out massive amounts of prospects for more guys to give long, high-priced contracts to. If the Philadelphia Phillies want any hope of returning to relevance, the quickest method is to start from scratch, and Ruben Amaro Jr. is not the guy to do it.

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