Phillies announce changes to front office

The Phillies announced Friday that vice president and general manager Sam Fuld is pursuing his MBA at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He is slated to graduate in May 2026, when he will be president of business operations. Assistant general manager Preston Mattingly has been promoted to vice president and general manager.

Fuld, 42, played in the majors from 2007 to 2015. Given that he went to college at Stanford and majored in economics, many viewed him as a future front-office member. He was hired by the Phillies in 2017 as the major league player information coordinator. His name was then connected to various managerial openings over the years, but he stuck with the Phils and was promoted to GM going into 2021. Dave Dombrowski had just been hired as the club’s president of baseball operations, and Fuld would be second in the baseball decision-making pyramid.

The two sides have seemingly been happy with the relationship. In December 2022, Fuld and the Phils signed an extension running through December 2025. In October 2023, the Red Sox had some interest in Fuld to replace chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, though Fuld declined to be interviewed for the opening.

Since Dombrowski is 68, many considered Fuld a sort of protege or a president-in-waiting, but now it seems he is planning a shift. His focus will be away from the club for the next couple of years, and he will return to direct his attention to the business side rather than the baseball side.

Mattingly, 37, will now take over as Dombrowski’s second-in-command. The son of Don Mattingly, Preston played in the minors for a while but never got higher than High-A. He pivoted to non-playing roles, working with the Padres in the scouting department. In the fall of 2021, he was plucked away by the Phils, who hired him as director of player development.

He impressed the Phils, as he was promoted to assistant general manager just two years later, in November 2023. After a year with that title, he has gotten bumped up again. He is still second on the club’s front office hierarchy, but it’s an impressive rise in a short time, and it’s possible that he could eventually replace Dombrowski, depending on how things go. For now, given that there’s more than 30 years’ difference in age between the two, Mattingly will presumably be absorbing everything he can about the role from Dombrowski as he takes on a larger piece of the club’s front office makeup.