Amaro, now a Red Sox coach, faces Phillies for first time
FORT MYERS, Fla. - Ruben Amaro Jr. stood in center field on Sunday morning, appearing to be as far as possible from his past life. The former Phillies general manager wore a uniform and carried a bat as the Red Sox finished batting practice at JetBlue Park, continuing his transition from the front office to the coach's box.
FORT MYERS, Fla. - Ruben Amaro Jr. stood in center field on Sunday morning, appearing to be as far as possible from his past life. The former Phillies general manager wore a uniform and carried a bat as the Red Sox finished batting practice at JetBlue Park, continuing his transition from the front office to the coach's box.
Amaro wanted to stay in baseball when the Phillies fired him in September. He latched on a month later with Boston. And Sunday was his first encounter with his former team. Amaro said he had been looking forward to the Grapefruit League game, which the Red Sox won, 5-1.
Amaro spent most of his life with the Phillies. He went from batboy to player to general manager. He was present for the Phillies' rise to glory and for their swift fall. Being on the other side, Amaro said, was weird.
"I was fortunate to be a part of it," Amaro said. "I'm on a new chapter now and I'm loving what I'm doing. And I've kind of moved on. I mean, listen, I'm going to watch and see how those guys progress, obviously, but for me it's about moving my own baseball life forward."
The Phillies replaced Amaro with a more analytic-centric general manager, who hired a Google analyst to oversee the team's baseball analytics. The team started this winter to use its own proprietary information system.
The Phillies, Amaro said, were behind in the use of analytics during his tenure. Amaro said time will tell if baseball now is leaning too heavily on analytics. He believes it plays an important role, but baseball is still baseball, Amaro said. The game is about people.
"The reality of it is we won without the analytics. We had the best team in baseball without the analytics," Amaro said. "Could we have been better? Maybe. There's always ways to improve, but that's probably why I'm in a uniform now."
Amaro greeted his former team as it left the visiting clubhouse. Many have never seen Amaro in uniform, which he is wearing this spring for the first time since 1998. Larry Bowa applauded him for his weight loss. Amaro said he lost between 15 and 20 pounds as he geared up to be on the field again.
He trained this winter hitting balls with a coach's fungo bat and threw batting practice with both hands. Amaro is ambidextrous. He is still perfecting his toss and his work is limited to the indoor batting cage. His pitching, Amaro said, is "not very good."
"It's not easy," Amaro said. "Especially with big leaguers. But I'm aspiring to try to get there."
Amaro is unsure of his future plans. He said might consider trying to become a manager. But he said he still has to learn to be a coach. Amaro said people often ask him what he missed when he entered the front office. He tells them that he missed being in the clubhouse. And this spring, Amaro said, is reminding him how much he enjoyed it.
"I'm just glad to get this experience and opportunity to be on the dirt with players and being out here," Amaro said.
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