Report: Phillies to name Matt Klentak GM

(Baltimore Orioles) When the Philadelphia Phillies said they were going to make a drastic culture change in leadership, they weren’t kidding.

The Phillies will reportedly name 35-year-old Matt Klentak to be their next general manager. The news was first reported by Nick Cafardo of the Boston Globe on Saturday and confirmed by Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal.

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Klentak has been an assistant GM for the Los Angeles Angels for the last four seasons. Before that he was the director of baseball operations for the Baltimore Orioles, where he worked under recently hired Phillies president Andy MacPhail. Klentak’s relationship with MacPhail presumably gave him the edge over Chaim Bloom of the Rays and Dan Kantrovitz of the Athletics, who were reportedly the two other finalists for the job.

It’s a stark turn for the Phillies from having former GM Ruben Amaro Jr. and his old-school thinking making the bulk of their personel decisions. Amaro was fired in September. Klentak is a Darmouth graduate with a degree in economics and despite his relative youth, has been working in baseball for over 10 years.

Along with MacPhail, Klental will be tasked to bring the Philadelphia into the 21st century in terms of player analysis and scouting and get the Phillies back to being the perennial playoff contender they were just a few years ago.

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