Nathan Ray Seebeck
The Phillies announced major changes to their front office structure under president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski Friday.
- Sam Fuld will transition out of his role as vice president and general manager, as he pursues his MBA at Penn's Wharton School. When he graduates in May of 2026, he will become the president of business operations for the Phillies.
- Preston Mattingly has been promoted to vice president and general manager.
- Luke Murton was promoted to the director of player development. Murton had previously been the director of hitting under Mattingly. He joined the Phillies organization in December of 2022, after having worked with Mattingly in the San Diego Padres organization.
- Edwar Gonzalez was promoted to the director of hitting development. Gonzalez, meanwhile, receives a promotion to director of hitting development after having served as the assistant director to Murton.
Fuld, a 42-year-old former outfielder, has been with the Phillies organization since November of 2017, initially working as the major league player information coordinator. He was promoted to general manager in December of 2020 when the president of baseball operations position was created upon Dombrowski's hiring. Fuld had interviewed for multiple managerial gigs before getting this high-ranking front office role with the Phillies. Now, he'll try his hand at something entirely different in the organization.
"I've always been interested in the business side of baseball," Fuld said on a Zoom call with reporters Friday. "It's certainly not an area to date that I've had a ton of exposure to, but I have had the good fortune of overlapping with a number of our decision-makers on the business side. You can't help but get access to all the great things that we've done historically and of late on the business side. And it's always been compelling to me."
Sam Fuld will transition into a new role in the organization for the Phillies. (Aaron Doster/USA Today)Fuld said this transition was born out of a conversation that he had with Dombrowski and managing partner John Middleton this past spring.
"We just sort of talked about both the short-term, the mid-term and the long-term implications of this opportunity and admittedly, it was not something that I had really given a ton of thought to at the time," Fuld acknowledged.
"But once I digested it all, and wrapped my head around it, it felt like a really compelling opportunity, both professionally and personally," Fuld continued. "It felt like a great opportunity that I was eager to take on."
There isn't a specific timeframe for the full transition to take place, Dombrowski noted. He said it will "gradually happen." Fuld and Mattingly, among others in the front office, will both do some of the talking to other organizations this offseason in regards to trade conversations.
"To me, Sam and Preston are two of the best young people in the game," Dombrowski said Friday. "They're outstanding in every respect. We have a good relationship between all of us."
As for Mattingly, it's been a fairly meteoric rise up in the organization for the Phillies. He joined the Phillies in September of 2021 as their director of player development. Last year, he was given the title of assistant general manager for player development. And now, Mattingly is the general manager, essentially the No. 2 to Dombrowski.
Mattingly, of course, is the son of former Yankees star first baseman Don Mattingly. His father has managed the Los Angeles Dodgers and Miami Marlins since his player career concluded, and is currently the bench coach for the Toronto Blue Jays. He has a great baseball background, and is clearly very thankful for this opportunity.
"Yeah, obviously I'm very excited about the role and honestly I just love baseball," Mattingly said. "It means so much to me. It's been in my life since I was born. Any aspect of the game, I'm interested in ... whether it's minor league free agency ... player development ... research and development ... I mean everything's always been of interest to me.
"And so I think when Dave approached me with this, I was obviously very excited to get to work with the people we have in the organization," Mattingly continued. "And Dave mentioned it, just how many quality people we have. They challenge you every single day. We all share the same vision of helping the Philadelphia Phillies achieve our ultimate goal, which is winning the World Series."
Preston Mattingly was promoted by the Phillies Friday. Dombrowski says that Mattingly, 37, and his family will move to the Philadelphia area at some point over the next six months.
Anirudh Kilambi, Jorge Velandia and Ned Rice also are assistant general managers. So what made Mattingly the one that got promoted?
"I really had thought about Ani and Jorge for these roles ... thought about them, talked with them," Dombrowski said.
"But I just think that Preston is really a special individual from where he will grow in baseball. He's very knowledgeable about the game in every respect ... he's done a tremendous job for us on the field ... he knows other aspects of the position and is diversified in his knowledge in that regard. And I think he has the ability to be a general manager, head of baseball operations for years to come."
Dombrowski reiterated that he thinks Kilambi and Velandi are "outstanding also," and there remains a great deal of respect between what he described as a collaborative front office.
Rice has been an assistant general manager with the Phillies since January of 2016, and was the interim GM between when Matt Klentak was reassigned and Dombrowski was hired. He was away from the organization for a period this past year as his daughter battled an illness, but he remains a very respected figure as well.
The feeling you were left with Friday, though, is that whenever the 68-year-old Dombrowski decides to step away from his current post, Mattingly is going to be the heavy favorite to succeed him.
