Ruben Amaro, Jr. has Cuban blood. His grandfather, Santos Amaro, has a Cuban background. But, the Phillies general manager has not let his ancestry push the Phillies toward signing any of the many free agent Cuban players in recent years. Today, Amaro explained why: there is simply too much risk.
David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News has Amaro's words on the matter in a column today:
"When you know you have an actual major league entity, that's a known. I understand the devaluation as a guy gets older, there's part of that too, but to me, it's a risk/reward evaluation process that we go through all the time. Certain clubs have different ways of valuing or putting their dollars into the club and we have a little bit of a different one. Every club is a little bit different."
In other words: their club is not willing to take the risk. Amaro told Brookover that the Phillies were "in" on various big name players in recent years:
"When you talk about the Cespedes and the Puigs and the Solers of the world, were we in on them? Sure," Amaro said. "Did we get to a point where we signed them? No, but that doesn't mean that we weren't part of the process."
Should fans take solace that the Phillies were "part of the process"? Absolutely not. Instead of signing Cespedes, Puig, or Soler, the Phillies spent money plenty other ways. None of those ways ensured that the Phillies will win long-term.
In 2012 when Cespedes was available, the Phillies gave Jonathan Papelbon $50 million. In 2013 when Puig and Soler were available, the Phillies had just cleared the salaries of Hunter Pence and Shane Victorino. They signed Delmon Young. In 2014, the Phillies gave $12 million to A.J. Burnett and $8 million to Marlon Byrd (which is really $12 million total when you factor in the $4 million they sent to the Reds) and have Ben Lively to show for it.
The Phillies finally spent some money on a Cuban free agent back before 2014, when they agreed to a six-year, $48 million deal with Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez. Gonzalez's physical revealed plenty of issues. The Phillies signed him for a quarter of the cash they had agreed to, for half of the years. The most risky player of them all the Phillies still signed.
The Phillies are a team with financial ability that far exceeds most teams in major league baseball. That is why they can afford to take risks for international talent. The result is that while a large number of Cuban players are starring in baseball, the Phillies have no one. That is why the Red Sox continue to develop and the Phillies are stuck in a hole they are not willing to get out of.
