Jan. 27: Though Klentak’s formal title is special assistant to president of baseball operations David Stearns and general manager Matt Arnold, he’ll actually be assuming oversight of the team’s international scouting department, tweets MLB.com’s Adam McCalvy. That responsibility had formerly fallen under the purview of vice president of player personnel Mike Groopman, but he was hired away by the Red Sox as an assistant general manager back in November.
Furthermore, Stearns indicated to reporters that Klentak’s role with the club is expected to eventually increase (Twitter link via Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel). “As he becomes more familiar with our processes, we look forward to his contributions in other areas as well,” Stearns said of Klentak.
Jan. 23: The Brewers have hired Matt Klentak for a special assistant role, according to The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal and Matt Gelb (Twitter link). Since stepping down as the Phillies’ general manager in October 2020, Klentak had still been working in Philadelphia’s front office as a strategy and development officer, and Rosenthal notes that Klentak will depart a year before his contract with the Phils was up.
While known best for his time in Philadelphia, Klentak has close to 20 years of baseball experience, including stints with the Rockies, the Orioles, MLB’s Labor Relations Department, and four years as an assistant GM with the Angels. Klentak moved from Los Angeles to Philadelphia after being hired as the Phillies’ GM in October 2015.
Klentak took over a Phillies team in the midst of a rebuild, but the Phils never posted a winning record over Klentak’s five seasons in charge, even after turning the course and signing several bigger-name veterans heading into the 2018 campaign. An 81-81 record in 2019 was the best the Phillies could manage under Klentak, as while the club acquired Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Andrew McCutchen, Jean Segura, and many other prominent players, the Phils still couldn’t crack the .500 mark.
Not all of Klentak’s big acquisitions worked out, of course, and yet the ex-GM did better than most at landing premium veteran talents for the roster. The bigger issue seemed to be a lack of help from within, as beyond Aaron Nola and Rhys Hoskins, the Phillies had trouble developing in-house prospects to provide extra (and cheaper) production alongside the pricier names like Harper. After the club went 28-32 in 2020, Klentak stepped down as GM, though the Phillies just reassigned him rather than let him go from the organization altogether.
Klentak will now provide Brewers president of baseball operations David Stearns and GM Matt Arnold with another experienced voice within Milwaukee’s front office. It isn’t yet known what Klentak’s specific duties will be with the Brewers, as “special assistant” responsibilities tend to vary based on the team’s needs and the talents of the individual in the job. Klentak is the latest familiar name to join the Brewers as a special assistant, as the team also has Doug Melvin, Carlos Villanueva, Dick Groch, Quinton McCracken, and Nick Davis working under that title in various departments.
Wish the Phils could have his draft picks back…
Isn’t Matt Klentak the one who made the infamous comment that the Phillies were going to spend “stupid money” when he was GM?
No. That was the owner, John Middleton.
Ahh. You’re right. I just checked it to make sure. Klentak was the GM then but Middleton made the “stupid” comment. Thanks for letting me know. I always thought it was Klentak up until now.
I mean, they sort of did. Threw a bunch of cash at Harper, traded for Realmuto + extension, signed McCutchen, signed Wheeler a year later etc. Didn’t work out, but they did spend.
Klentak’s best quote is prior to the 2020 season, where they had one of the worst bullpens in history because they didn’t address it:
“I absolutely think we have enough starting pitching and bullpen pitching to compete,”
The man phailed at his job in Philadelphia.
Now, he can bring his keen judgment to Milwaukee.
Good luck, Mr. Stevens. He’s your problem.
Easily one of the worst years of high draft picks ever. They make the Braves, who also struggle with top picks, look elite.
Smart move by the Brewers.
May I ask why? This guy is a decent mind, but nothing more than an average GM with little success. I don’t seem much value in him as a “special” assistant unless it’s to give advice on what didn’t work for him.
He was very well thought of in the game, which is why he was originally hired. Not having a great run in his first GM job, especially with the Phillies, doesn’t undo his past and his skills, and indeed he now has additional experience. He’s in his early 40s, the prime of his career. Adding that knowledge and that voice to a team’s front office should be quite valuable. Smart teams–and the Brewers are smart–look to add talent.
His judgment on amateur players was HORRIBLE. Look at the parade of failed premium first rounders, especially Randolph and Moniak.
I don’t find it particularly impressive that he acquired good free agents. The guys he got were already ranked at the top by everyone else and he just happened to have an owner with a ton of money to spend at that time. I think a lot of other GM’s would have made the same moves if they had that kind of cash available. I find it far more impressive when front offices draft very well and hit big on shrewd moves. Klentak did the opposite of both those things.
He may have learned from his mistakes though. He could always change and become a much better GM or front office person in the future. I think Alex Anthopolous was criticized for making some bad decisions in Toronto. He ended up changing his ways and now played a big part in winning that team a world championship.
I’m rooting for Klentak like I would anyone else and I believe it’s possible he could become an impact front office person. He has to do something impressive other than spending a lot of other people’s money to try and build a team before he should truly earn anyone’s respect, though. That drafting under his his management was atrocious and a huge part of the reason that the Phillies are disappointing now despite having the money to spend on top free agent players.
Like you I’ll be rooting for him, but as a Phillies fan I couldn’t have been happier to see him go. I agree with you that when you’re owner says he’s going to spend stupid money any GM can look good. Although I give him credit he signed Harper rather than Machado. But when it came to building the right team around him to draft and develop players he was abysmal. (A lot of this is the Phillies fault for hiring someone who didn’t have enough experience). He left behind a very bad minor league system after years of having a lot of higher picks.
Klentak is hated in Philly and blamed for a lot, but quite frankly, drafting, scouting and development for the Phillies has been bad more of than not. The Harper and Wheeler deals were both considered overpays at first, but now seem to be complete steals. So I give him credit there. Some of the other moves were pretty rough, but as I said, the problem is deeper than Klentak. I wish him well with the Brew Crew.
To me Klentak wasn’t a bad general manager. He made several signees that were great like signing Zack Wheeler, Didi Gregorious and bringing Joe Girardi as the manager. In his first year in Philadelphia Gregorious played well. He was able to acquire JT Realmuto, Jean Segura and one of the best trade for me was acquiring Jose Alvarez from the Angels. The issue was that the Phillies rebuild was a fail, no disrespect to the Phillies. The Phillies expectations were high because they wanted to win, but they were not ready to compete.
He was arrogant in a Ron Hextall vain. The smartest guy in the room according to himself.
He signed Santana and forced Hoskins to left field where his defense and offense suffered. To correct that mistake he took on the Segura contract which is an overpay. His drafts were crap. Should I continue?
I don’t fully blame him for draft picks. That’s on the whole organization.
@Pax vobiscum
You said exactly everything I was thinking. The worst GM I can remember anywhere. He is the prime example of “I’m the smartest therefore by definition everything I do is great” guy.
The arrogance of Matt Klentak is what happens when you are handed jobs that you are not qualified to do. Those opportunities were given to him by Andy MacPhail. The hiring of Matt Klentak in Philadelphia falls on MacPhail’s shoulders. Scouting and Player Development falls on Klentak’s shoulders due to the people he hired to run those departments and the experienced people he fired. Any incoming GM should have the opportunity to set the organization as he/she sees fit—the problem with Matt Klentak’s hirings—he followed Andy MacPhail’s footprints. Klentak surrounded himself with arrogant unqualified “Executives”.
The Wheeler deal was a good one,but how much credit really goes to him on Harper? Middleton made that signing happen.The Realmuto deal is a bit of a push.Realmutos been great in Philly,but the Phils paid Sixto and a large chunk of cash to bring him in.Over time that deal can steer either way.
I’m gonna remember Klentaks time in Philly by the Santana signing after Hoskins gave the team life in 2017,and for taking Moniak with the 1st pick because they could get him signed cheaper,so they could save slot money for later picks.The saving slot money for later draft picks really bothers me.Ya get the first pick,ya take the best player.
Cherington seemingly did that lowball first round pick successfully this year,but I agree that it is taking a risk.You have to make sure that you are getting a very good potential pro player.I have always wondered about the wisdom of taking a high school player in the first round unless he is really a stud.
emphasis on “Special” Assistant
Stearns is helping the Brewers out finding his replacement before he heads to the Mets.
His replacement would be Matt Arnold, not Matt Klentak.
Right, plus the Mets hired that kid from the movie Little Big League or whatever it was.
Well since he signed a 3 year extension in Milwaukee this winter. Starnes not going anywhere
He did a good job identifying high impact and established talent and locking them in a below market rates. His drafts were abysmal as was the think tank he and McPhail surrounded themselves with. I can only hope that the recent additions of Fuld, Mattingly and Kilambi begin to right the ship in that respect.
His draft picks (and reliever signings) were indeed extremely bad but he is a smart guy and maybe in a smart org like the Brewers he can learn enough to become a good GM somewhere.
Maybe the phillies just didn’t have the structures for him to succeed and he didn’t have the experience to change them. I could see him being an AGM or whatever that position is in a smart org to learn enough how those structures should work.
Some teams buy a smart and number oriented GM but keep all the old school guys and let them do their thing without the owner supporting the GM and maybe philly was a situation like this where a smart but inexperienced GM was forced to work with a bunch of “we did it like this for 20 years and we are not going to change” guys and got no owner support.
I’m not saying nothing was his fault, but maybe circumstances just weren’t right for him.
Obviously that is no guarantee, plenty of very smart and highly educated people fail in top level roles but it isn’t always easy and some need time to learn how it can work
He is terrible and will ride the coat tails of Stearn and end up a GM again by some team that is stupid to hire him and he will run that team into the ground.This guy is all ANALYTICS and does not have a baseball mind and will always be a LOSER.Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.If you need a ride to Milwaukee I will drive you there.Thanks for all the damage you caused to the Phillies.
I’m sorry he didn’t call your mom back.
What I’ve seen is a lot of people ragging on them bringing Klentak in cause Klentak wasn’t good at drafting. Maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t brought in for something he’s not as strong at?
Right, he wasn’t brought in to lead the baseball ops, he was brought in to add to it. The Brewers have lost some brainpower in recent months and they can use a smart, experienced baseball executive they think can help improve their organization.
He could not draft,trade and acted as if he built 10 WS Teams.He would be best at being in charge of the equipment manager,You will see if they give him any responsibility he will mess it up I promise.
Klentak is a smart guy and I never sensed any arrogance.The Phillies have never drafted well and that has been their bane as with many teams.I think Andy MacPhail did not help him,and he relied on analytics so much that the human element was lost.DD is much more experienced and realizes that baseball is much more than just numbers.I wish him well in Milwaukee where they will use what talents he has and ignore the rest.
I think that’s the issue at your beginning – he’s a smart guy. There are too many people that have really negative reactions to people who come off as the smart guy, kind of an anti-preppy thing. Couple that with the really oddly visceral reaction that a number of people have towards analytics, and Klentak had no shot of clicking with a number of fans. It’s the same folks who despise Gabe Kapler as some sort of example of why analytics will never win, despite Kapler going on to actually win in SF.
kJ- Your first point is well taken.But,like Kepler,they both relied on analytics way too much.Data usage is a tool,a powerful one,and those that just ignore it are well behind the eight ball so to speak as it is a very valuable tool in evaluating past results and trends of players.It can fairly accurately be used to predict future results.Some of the results seem to be more accurate than others.What undermined Klentak though it seems to me is that MacPhail may not have helped him in lending his extensive knowledge on the old fashioned methods of scouting and development,and did not curb his total reliance on analytics.Local papers have mentioned that the scouts were basically ignored in the evaluations.Two heads are usually better than one,but in the Phillies’ case DD I think has it over the two others.They clearly did not enjoy success here,and that is the proof of the pudding.
Ed Wade drafted well. Gillick and Ruin tomorrow never had any picks to make because of free agency signings. Klentak was horrendous and shouldn’t be allowed to pick his wedgie. Name one player he drafted/developed and is a half way decent major leaguer
Nothing to do with the draft and scouting right?
I guess eventually Stearns is coming to the Mets at the end of this season or next? Cohen, must’ve offered him the stars and the moon, if he comes to NY.
Klentak is “special,” no doubt. Phillies are still recovering from holding-on to the Utley-Howard-Rollins dream too long.
That was more Amaro than Klentak. Those guys should have been dealt back in 2012. Would have been unpopular but would have been best for the organization. Throw Hamels and Lee in that list too.
“Phillies are still recovering,” said I. I did not attribute that slow-down to Klentak. Amaro, at the time, appeared fearful of making a bold move. I enjoyed those Phillies teams, but it was clearly over beyond a certain point. Yes, Lee & Hamels. I recall the Phillies wanted Blake Swihart in a Hamels deal with Boston. I remain amazed anyone saw Swihart as a big league ball player.
Under Klentak, may I present their first round draft picks…
2016: Micky Moniak #1 overall over Ian Anderson, Kyle Lewis, and others
2017: Adam Haselay over Trevor Rodgers and Jo Adell
2018: Alec Bohm over Nick Madrigal, India, Kelenic, Grayson Rodriguez, etc.
2019: Bryson Stott may be a good pick, but Anthony Volpe went 16 picks later
2020: Abel may turn out ok, but of course he wasn’t good and got hurt last year
Phillies fans trash this guy, much like they did Kapler. Watch him become one of the best execs in baseball under a new regime.
Kc-I doubt that what you are saying about Klentak will be true,but the Brewers May end up emphasizing and using his strengths.
Kepler was another story.His early blunders were legendary.I do not doubt that he is a smart guy,but Philadelphia is not the place where one wants to start his managing career.
Terry Francona raises his beer to you!
They put him in charge of international scouting.He could not hit on any draft picks and was a terrible gm so they stuck him in the closet where he can’t hurt them too much.This hire is a joke for the Brewers I thought more of them.He must have pictures of the owner or Stearns.