Matt Klentak Leaves the Phillies’ Front Office

Originally posted on Philly Sports Network
By Alec Kostival | Last updated 1/24/22

For 5 years between October 2015 and October 2020, Matt Klentak was the guy in the Phillies’ front office. His tenure as general manager was a mixed bag at best.

He traded Ken Giles to the Astros. He hired Gabe Kapler as manager. He signed Zack Wheeler. He traded for JT Realmuto. He brought Bryce Harper to Philadelphia. He assembled the worst bullpen since 1930. He traded for REDACTED and REDACTED (names redacted for the sake of our mental health) from the Red Sox to sure up said bullpen.

Again. Mixed bag.

Arguably, Klentak’s best move was flipping Luis Garcia to the Angels for Jose Alvarez. In the past 2 years, Garcia has posted a 4.25 ERA with 3 different teams. Meanwhile, Alvarez has had a 2.77 ERA in that span between the Phillies and Giants.

On Sunday night as the world watched playoff football, news broke that Klentak would be leaving the Phillies’ front office for the bright lights of Milwaukee.

Former Phillies GM Matt Klentak is joining the Brewers as a special assistant, sources tell me and @MattGelb. The Phillies reassigned Klentak to a position as strategy and development officer after he stepped down as GM in Oct. 2020. Had one year left on his deal with the Phils.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) January 24, 2022

It doesn’t come as much of a surprise. Although he had a year left on his deal, Klentak probably didn’t make many friends in Philadelphia. There’s a good chance he wasn’t happy with his position in Dave Dombrowski’s front office as Scott Lauber revealed he was no longer part of the baseball ops team.

Matt Klentak is leaving #Phillies and joining Brewers as a special assistant, major-league source confirms. Klentak stepped down as Phils GM 15 months ago. He was under contract through 2022, though was no longer involved in baseball ops. @Ken_Rosenthal and @MattGelb were on it.
— Scott Lauber (@ScottLauber) January 24, 2022

Klentak heads to the Brewers who feature the reigning Cy Young award-winning and overall great pitching staff. Playing in a weak division, the Brewers should be able to make some noise in the playoffs if all goes well. It’s a solid situation to walk into.

For now, we’ll forget about the drafting of Mickey Moniak and the terrible bullpens and wish good luck to Matt Klentak in his new role.

Maybe he’ll bungle a trade or 2 possibly facilitating a Josh Hader trade to Philadelphia.

A boy can dream.

This article first appeared on Philly Sports Network and was syndicated with permission.

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