Phillies Notes: Amaro, Mackanin, Franco

Ruben Amaro Jr.’s job security has long been a narrative throughout baseball, but retiring Phillies president Pat Gillick tells MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki that the team isn’t yet making a decision on the GM’s future. “We just got by the Trade Deadline,” Gillick told Zolecki. “Consequently, we’re moving a lot of people in the Minor Leagues from [Jerad] Eickhoff to [Alec] Asher and others. We’ve had our hands full. It’s a decision that will be made in the next 30 days or so.” As Zolecki notes, the Phillies have gone from one of the game’s worst farm systems to one of the stronger minor league systems over the course of the past year, and Amaro has done well to get value for aging veterans. Gillick said he believes that Phillies fans are knowledgeable and recognize that Amaro has done some good work recently, though he stopped short of making any definitive statement about Amaro’s future. President-to-be Andy MacPhail wouldn’t comment when asked by Zolecki — MacPhail is currently not granting interviews to anyone, he notes — and Amaro simply said that he’s hopeful of remaining with the organization and excited for the future.

Here’s more from the National League…

• Interim manager Pete Mackanin’s future is also up in the air, but CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury hears that the work he’s done so far has taken him from a strictly interim skipper to a legitimate candidate for the permanent position. Mackanin received an overwhelming vote of confidence from division-rival skipper Terry Collins (of the Mets). “The energy level they have right now is completely different than it was a month ago, two months ago when we played them,” Collins told Salisbury. “…[Mackanin] has a tremendous sense of humor. He’s a people person. I’ve known him for years, and the first time I met him, we just meshed. He’s an upbeat guy. He’s funny. He’s got the players’ attention. I hope he gets the chance. I hope when they sit down at the end of the year, they realize what they’ve got. He’s done it with young players.”
• The Phillies had begun to express optimism that Maikel Franco could return to the Majors this season, but as Jake Kaplan of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes, Franco’s chances took a hit this afternoon. Franco felt discomfort in his left wrist (which he fractured last month) while taking soft-toss swings at Citi Field today, Kaplan explains. If he doesn’t show improvement over the next week, the team may just shut him down for the remainder of the year. Mackanin told reporters that the odds of Franco returning this season are “50-50,” though Franco notes that those odds are perhaps too generous. Franco was firmly in the NL Rookie of the Year mix when he was hit by a pitch and landed on the DL; he was hitting .277/.340/.490 with 13 homers in 326 plate appearances at the time of the injury.