The Phillies are forging ahead with their pursuit of a new general manager to work under new Phillies president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail. With names like Kim Ng, J.J. Picollo, and other impressive names in the fold, at least one name is emerging as someone being called back for a second interview with the Phillies. This one has experience in two organizations.
Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reports:
Sources: #Phillies will interview #Athletics assistant GM Dan Kantrovitz a second time for GM job. Others also in second-round mix.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) October 20, 2015
This could be the "mystery" candidate people were unable to identify before.
Kantrovitz has only been the assistant general manager for Oakland for one season, prior to the 2015, Kantrovitz left the St. Louis Cardinals to take the spot vacated by now-Los Angeles Dodgers general manager, Farhan Zaidi. Kantrovitz had spent his entire career that included a minor league playing career with the Cardinals. Kantrovitz moved all the way up to amateur scouting director before he moved to the Athletics, where he had done some interning while a student at Harvard.
In a 2012 article on MLB.com, Kantrovitz described his way into the game:
Roughly halfway through the statistics program at Harvard, I started working for the A's. I helped out on analytical projects and led the international scouting operation working with some very talented people in Sam Geaney, Farhan Zaidi, Billy Owens, David Forst and Billy Beane.
Phillies owner John Middleton has said he was hoping to have someone with an analytical background.
A report yesterday from Jerry Crasnick of ESPN said that the Phillies hoped to have a general manager by early next week. So, expect a Phillies general manager soon.
