Sam Fuld is a pretty smart guy. His intellect was one of the things that made transitioning from being a player into a front office job that put him on the road to running the baseball operations of a major league team. Then, he decided to turn off of that highway, enter a backroad and emerge on a new highway that saw him assume his role as the Phillies president of business operations.
Front office setups can vary and the Phillies are no different. They used to have a team president who oversaw everything – baseball operations and business operations – but had their lieutenants to carry things out. Think Bill Giles with Lee Thomas as the team’s general manager. When Dave Dombrowski replaced Andy MacPhail, Dombrowski took over only the baseball side of the team. David Buck oversaw the business side of the team – revenue, sales, marketing, etc.
Dombrowski’s arrival also brought the promotion of Sam Fuld to be the team’s GM. Fuld was basically a “weak” GM with no authority to make deals on his own, but he could pursue deals and free agent signings. The difference was that he had to report to Dombrowski.
Looking for a different challenge, Fuld enrolled for classes at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business. The 44-year old graduated last month and was immediately installed as the team’s president of business operations. He also dabbles in the baseball side with Dombrowski, who values Fuld’s baseball acumen and seeks his input. In the middle of all of this, Preston Mattingly was bumped up from being the Phillies player development director to being a co-GM with Fuld.
What does the future hold?
It is increasingly possible that when Dombrowski exits the organization by one means or another, that the team will go back to having a team president with a strong general manager – most likely Mattingly – and a separate director of business operations, with Fuld taking over the title of team president, who will oversee both departments and will have strong input on both sides.
For now though, the Phillies will be operated as somewhat of a three-headed monster with Dombrowski heading the baseball operations, Fuld handling business operations, and Mattingly serving as Dombrowski’s protege and future head of baseball operations, GM.
How does this affect the Phillies?
At least until Dombrowski is no longer with the team, it’s not likely to have an effect on what we see on the field. At that point, Mattingly would take over the decision making when it came to players who are worth keeping or getting rid of. It’s likely that Fuld will put his stamp on the business side of things, which could affect the business decisions.
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