Phillies Front Office Rumors: Epstein, Hill

The Phillies have a couple of high-profile names on their list as they seek a new front office head. The club will check on Theo Epstein’s interest in becoming its next president of baseball operations, Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reports. It’s also planning to interview former Marlins president of baseball operations Michael Hill, per Ken Rosenthal and Jayson Stark of The Athletic. Philadelphia’s the latest team to show interest in Hill, who previously interviewed with the Angels and Mets for prominent front office positions. However, the Angels went on to hire Perry Minasian as their GM.

Epstein may be an extreme long shot for the Phillies, as he suggested when he resigned from the Cubs on Tuesday that he’s going to take a year away from the game. From the Phillies’ perspective, though, it’s at least worth trying to coax a three-time World Series winner and a future Hall of Famer into leading its front office.

Hill had an 18-year tenure in Miami’s front office before the club parted with him in October. While there wasn’t a great deal of team success during that span, it’s hard to place much blame on Hill, who spent the majority of it working under maligned ex-owner Jeffrey Loria and was at a payroll disadvantage. To Hill’s credit, he did help build a playoff team in his final year with the Marlins. Nevertheless, that wasn’t enough to save his job.

In heading to Philadelphia, Epstein or Hill would grab the reins from current president of baseball ops Andy MacPhail, who has become a placeholder as the Phillies seek a long-term answer. MacPhail plans to retire at the end of the 2021 season at the latest, but if the Phillies are able to find someone to take over for him before then, he’s poised to step aside. He and interim GM Ned Rice are currently running the Phillies’ front office.