Fuld, 42, played in the majors from 2007 to 2015. Given that he went to college at Stanford and majored in economics, he was viewed by many in the game as a future front office member. He got hired by the Phillies in 2017 with the title of major league player information coordinator. His name was then connected to various managerial openings over the years but he stuck with the Phils and was promoted to GM going into 2021. Dave Dombrowski had just been hired as the club’s president of baseball operations and Fuld would be second on the baseball decision-making pyramid.

The two sides have seemingly been happy with the relationship. In December of 2022, Fuld and the Phils signed an extension running through December 2025. In October of 2023, the Red Sox had some interest in Fuld replace chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom, though Fuld declined to be interviewed for the opening.

Since Dombrowski is 68 years old, many considered Fuld a sort of protege or a president-in-waiting, but now it seems he is planning a shift. His focus will be away from the club for the next couple of years and he will return to direct his attention to the business side, rather than the baseball side.

Mattingly, 37, will now take over as Dombrowski’s second-in-command. The son of Don Mattingly, Preston played in the minors for a while but never got higher than High-A. He pivoted to non-playing roles, working with the Padres in the scouting department. In the fall of 2021, he was plucked away by the Phils, who hired him as director of player development.

He has clearly impressed the Phils, as he got promoted to assistant general manager just two years later, in November of 2023. After a year with that title, he has gotten bumped up again. He is still second on the club’s front office hierarchy, but it’s an impressive rise in a short time and it’s possible that he could eventually replace Dombrowski, depending on how things go. For now, given that there’s more than 30 years’ difference in age between the two, Mattingly will presumably be absorbing everything he can about the role from Dombrowski as he takes on a larger piece of the club’s front office makeup.

The Athletic’s Chad Jennings adds another trio of potential candidates for the role who have declined an interview, noting that each of Twins president of baseball operations Derek Falvey, Phillies GM Sam Fuld, and Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes have all declined to interview for the position. Fuld and Gomes had both previously been floated as potential candidates, though this is the first time Falvey’s name has come up regarding Boston’s baseball ops vacancy.

That said, it appears that Boston has a number of other potential candidates available. As previously noted, assistant GM Eddie Romero has interviewed for the role, with Jennings noting him as the favorite among potential internal candidates. Plenty of external candidates appear to be under consideration though, with Jennings noting that former Astros GM James Click remains in the mix after being previously reported as a potential option earlier this month. Meanwhile, WEEI’s Rob Bradford indicates that both former Pirates GM Neal Huntington and current Twins GM Thad Levine about the role, with Jon Heyman of the New York Post adding that Levine is expected to interview for the job. Meanwhile, Joel Sherman of the New York Post puts forth Cubs assistant GM Craig Breslow as a potential option.

The wide array of candidates still on the table speaks to Boston’s willingness to consider a number of potential options for the role. Romero, Levine and Breslow all have not yet controlled the helm of a baseball operations department during their careers, though that’s hardly a surprise after team president Sam Kennedy indicated that previous experience as the head of a baseball operations department was not a necessary quality for the club’s next GM. That hasn’t stopped the club from considering more experienced candidates, of course. Several known candidates remaining have considerable experience at the helm of a baseball operations department. Click led the Astros to ALCS appearances in 2020 and 2021 before winning the World Series in 2023, while Huntington helmed the Pirates from 2007 to 2019. Click is currently a special assistant with the Blue Jays, while Huntington currently works in the Guardians front office.

Another experienced potential candidate, of course, is former Marlins GM Kim Ng, who parted ways with Miami earlier today after leading the Marlins to their first full-season playoff berth since 2003 this season. While Ng has been floated as a potential candidate throughout the process, though Jennings notes that it’s currently unclear if the Red Sox plan to pursue Ng at this point.

Nightengale adds that while the Red Sox have (as previously reported) interviewed assistant GM Eddie Romero for the position, the favorite to take over for Chaim Bloom as the club’s chief baseball officer could be Phillies GM Sam Fuld. It’s unclear to this point if Fuld has interviewed for the position. He’s under contract with the Phillies through 2025 after signing an extension last winter, meaning the Phillies would have to grant the Red Sox permission to interview Fuld for the role. That being said, it’s somewhat rare for organizations to stand in the way of their personnel interviewing for a potential promotion as this would be for Fuld, who serves as the club’s second-in-command to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who previously helmed the Red Sox from 2015 to 2019.

Other notes from around the league…

• Nightengale adds that the Diamondbacks are expected to offer manager Torey Lovullo a multi-year contract extension this winter. That’s hardly a surprise, seeing as Hazen, who the club recently extended through 2028, previously indicated that the club could look to retain Lovullo beyond the 2024 campaign in the event that Arizona went on to make the postseason. The DBacks, of course, have done far more than that, making it all the way to the NLCS after sweeping the Brewers in the Wild Card series and the Dodgers in the NLDS.
• FanSided’s Robert Murray noted yesterday that Giants bench coach and interim manager Kai Correa has been interviewed for the club’s vacant manager seat. Correa joins third-base coach Mark Hallberg as the only known candidates to interview for the position. Correa, 35, began his coaching career immediately after graduating college in 2010. He spent four seasons with his alma mater, University of Puget Sound, and another four seasons coaching for the University of Northern Colorado. His first professional coaching role came with Cleveland in 2018, for whom he served as an infield coach in the Arizona Complex League. He stayed with the organization in 2019 before joining the Giants ahead of the 2020 season in his current role as bench coach.
• Jon Heyman of the New York Post recently noted that the Angels, who have been reported to have mutual interest with Buck Showalter regarding the club’s managerial vacancy, are seeking a veteran manager for the 2024 campaign. While Showalter certainly fits that description, another candidate Heyman puts forth is Darin Erstad, who played for the Angels in 11 major league seasons and in retirement served as the head coach for University of Nebraska, with whom he spent eight seasons in the role.

“The Phillies have been nothing short of first class in my time here,” said the 41-year-old Fuld, who was named GM under Dombrowski following the 2020 season. “I’m thrilled to continue to work for such a tremendous organization in a city that my family and I love so much.  We have an exceptional group of players, staff and employees that I’m excited to grow with over the next few years.”

Fuld played parts of eight big league seasons as an outfielder, the last of which came back in 2015 with the A’s. He’s been in the Phillies organization since 2017, originally joining as their Major League player information coordinator — a role in which he worked to distill data from the Phillies’ analytics staff and front office to the players on the field in a more relatable manner. He held that post until 2020 when he was elevated to GM. Along the way, Fuld interviewed for a handful of managerial opportunities around the game but eventually began turning away interviews for dugout positions as he continued to focus on his front office work.

The 39-year-old Rice is a veteran baseball operations executive at this point, having joined the Phillies in 2016 after spending more than a decade with the Orioles’ front office. He’s held the position of assistant general manager for his entire stay in Philly. Velandia, meanwhile, was promoted to assistant GM back in Dec. 2020. After an 18-year playing career (including parts of eight seasons in the Majors), he’s spent more than a decade working for the Phillies in a variety of roles. Velandia has worked with the Phillies’ player development staff, coached in the minors and served as a special assistant to baseball operations before settling into his current role.

More out of the National League:

• The Phillies have revamped their front office this winter, bringing in Dave Dombrowski as president of baseball operations and promoting Sam Fuld to general manager. Dombrowski has final say over personnel decisions. That’s not a responsibility he’s planning to give up any time soon, but Dombrowski acknowledged that part of his job is to prepare Fuld to potentially lead his own front office someday. “I’m not looking to move out because I just started with the Phillies organization, I have a lot of energy and I look to do this for a while,” Dombrowski told reporters (including Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia). “I’m not, though, 44. I’m 64. And if I’m doing my job correctly and we’re doing our job correctly, as Sam progresses, he will be the guy making those types of decisions, the final decisions. That’s where my goal is.” Seidman chronicles Fuld’s quick ascent as an executive in a piece that’s worth reading in full.
• The Phillies were among the teams interested in right-hander José Ureña, reports Jon Heyman of MLB Network (Twitter link). Ureña ultimately wound up signing a one-year deal with the Tigers. The 29-year-old had spent his entire pro career with the Phils’ division rivals in Miami, pitching to a 4.60 ERA/4.74 FIP over parts of six seasons with the Marlins.
• The Cardinals have been exploring “cash-neutral” trades this winter, writes Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as part of a reader mailbag. More specifically, a framework in which St. Louis moves MLB pitching for big league ready offensive help makes some sense, Goold feels. Cardinals hitters ranked just nineteenth leaguewide in park-adjusted hitting last season, with particularly dismal work from the outfielders. The St. Louis organization has generally been expected to have a quiet offseason after chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. claimed the baseball industry “isn’t very profitable” in June. Nevertheless, the front office exploring cash-neutral deals perhaps hints there’s no organizational mandate to further slash costs. St. Louis currently projects for a 2021 payroll around $131MM, per Roster Resource, after opening the 2020 season in the $167MM range (before prorating).

12:59PM: The Phillies are set to promote Sam Fuld to the role of general manager, according to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury (Twitter link).  Fuld has been working for the team for the last three seasons as the director of integrative baseball performance.

Much like Philadelphia’s recent hire of Dave Dombrowski as the president of baseball operations, the news comes as something of a surprise, as there wasn’t any indication that Fuld was under consideration for the GM role.  However, after months of uncertainty about the front office after former GM Matt Klentak was reassigned, the Phillies’ baseball ops pyramid is now led by the one-two punch of a veteran executive in Dombrowski and a younger, first-time general manager in Fuld.

It was only back in 2017 that Fuld retired from a playing career that saw him play in 598 Major League games from 2007-15 with the Cubs, Rays, Athletics, and Twins.  Fuld moved from the diamond to the Phillies’ front office, operating (as he explained to Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer in 2018) in a role that allowed him to transmit and teach analytical data provided by the front office to the Phillies’ players.  “I can appreciate what it’s like to step in the box and understand that some of the things that we may be asking them to do are really, really hard,” Fuld told Breen.  “I think that’s been an issue in the past I’ve seen.  Players are told to do something from someone that doesn’t quite have playing experience at a high level and it can be frustrating when you’re told to do something that is really, really difficult.  It’s taken for granted sometimes.  Hopefully I can relate.”

The skillset of being able to blend recent playing experience with new-age analytical data made Fuld a sought-after managerial candidate in recent years, though he turned down most interview requests before finally sitting down with the Red Sox about their managerial vacancy this past fall.  Fuld was known to be a finalist for the position the Sox re-hired former skipper Alex Cora.

Rather than turn to managing, the 39-year-old Fuld will now take a new path as a GM.  He joins the Rangers’ Chris Young and the Mariners’ Jerry Dipoto as current general managers who also played in the majors (Oakland executive VP of baseball operations Billy Beane also has MLB experience.)  Young’s recent hiring in Texas might be the most obvious comp, as both Fuld and Young are recently retired players working under seasoned presidents of baseball operations — Dombrowski in Philadelpha and Jon Daniels in Texas — who will have the final say on personnel moves.

• Southpaw Brendan McKay remains in Baseball America’s list of top-10 Rays prospects, but J.J. Cooper sounds concerned about McKay’s ability to recover from shoulder surgery on Kyle Glaser’s Baseball America podcast. Cooper notes that Hyun Jin Ryu took about three years to really return to form after a similar surgery. All that said, it’s telling that McKay remains at number six on the list. Until he begins his return and something new emerges, the only confirmed change for McKay is his timeline and his risk profile. The upside that made McKay a top prospect in the first place remains.
• Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom was given full discretion to make the final hiring decision for the Red Sox managerial opening this offseason. Bringing back Alex Cora wasn’t money in the bank, as it might seem, writes Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. The assumption would be that Bloom had the final say-so, but given the unique nature of Cora’s return, and the fact that Bloom didn’t hire Cora the first time around, it would be fair to wonder how much ownership weighed in on the decision. The idea to interview Cora at all, however, was Bloom’s, per Dan Shaughnessy of the Boston Globe. Bloom and general manager Brian O’Halloran met with Cora in an “empty hangar on the airport tarmac.” It was an exhausting but thorough interview by the accounts of those involved, and it didn’t seal the deal. That interview simply entered Cora into the field. Bloom and O’Halloran kept ownership and their assistant general managers involved in the process throughout, but ultimately the decision was left to Bloom, who went with Cora over the Phillies’ integrative baseball performance director Sam Fuld.  Definitely read Speier’s piece for the full account.
  

More coaching-related notes from around baseball…

• Marlins bench coach James Rowson was the third finalist for Boston’s managerial job, Jennings writes.  It was already reported that Cora and Phillies director of integrative baseball performance Sam Fuld were the other two finalists (and perhaps the top two choices) for the position, though it wasn’t known whether Rowson or Pirates bench coach Don Kelly was the other candidate to make the final cut.
• Rowson’s future still looks bright, however, as The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal writes that Marlins “officials are intrigued” by their bench coach as a potential manager of the future.  Miami hired Rowson as their bench coach and something of an organizational hitting coordinator a year ago, following Rowson’s past stints as a hitting coach for the Twins and Cubs and multiple years working as a hitting instructor in the Yankees’ farm system.  Of course, the Marlins already have a manager in Don Mattingly, though Mattingly’s contract is only guaranteed through the 2021 season (with a club option for 2022).  It certainly doesn’t seem like Mattingly is in danger of being replaced any time soon, both due to Miami’s success last season and, as Rosenthal puts it, “it’s difficult to imagine them making a move with Mattingly and paying two managers at once.”  However, Mattingly is one of the few holdovers remaining from Jeffrey Loria’s ownership, so Derek Jeter could want a hand-picked manager in charge if he feels the Marlins have fully turned the corner on their rebuild.
• Fuld may not have been the choice as Red Sox manager, but Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe wonders if the team’s interest in Fuld could make him a candidate to be the team’s next bench coach.  Fuld has never worked as a coach or manager at either the MLB or minor league levels, as his post-playing career has been spent in his current role with the Phillies.  If not Fuld as bench coach, the Sox could promote from within their current coaching staff, with Abraham suggesting Ramon Vazquez or Carlos Febles as potential candidates.

Alex Speier of the Boston Globe also suggests that the search is nearing a conclusion, reporting that Mendoza and one other finalist have been informed they’re no longer in the running. Cora and Fuld are indeed among the three remaining finalists, per Speier, who adds that a decision is expected to be made “soon.” While the widespread expectation has been that the Red Sox will simply re-hire Cora, Heyman notes that Fuld is seen as having a “very real” chance at winning the gig.

Fuld’s name was only linked to the Boston job less than a week ago, though the 38-year-old has past ties to Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom since both were members of the Rays organization (Fuld as a player, Bloom in the baseball operations department) from 2011-13. Multiple teams have expressed interest in Fuld for managerial positions in the past but he has declined interviews, so the fact that he has been speaking with the Red Sox is perhaps itself notable. Fuld was hired to his current position by former Phillies GM Matt Klentak, though since Klentak is no longer running Philadelphia’s front office, this could hint at why Fuld may now be open to exploring job opportunities on other teams.

Fuld has never worked as a coach or manager at any level, making him an interesting contrast to a World Series-winning manager like Cora. The unknown candidate, whether it’s Rowson or Kelly, would also be a first-time manager.  Rowson has worked as Miami’s bench coach for a season and over a decade of experience as a Major League hitting coach and minor league hitting instructor.  Since retiring from playing after the 2016 season, Kelly spent two season as a scout for the Tigers before moving onto coaching roles with the Astros and Pirates.

Fuld has spent the last three years in Philadelphia’s front office, and he has often been mentioned as a future manager.  Heyman’s report would suggest that Fuld has interviewed for the Boston job, which seems like an obvious step except for the fact that Fuld has declined multiple opportunities to interview for managerial positions in the past.  Just last winter, for instance, Fuld passed on talking with the Pirates, Cubs, and Mets.

With baseball’s trend towards hiring younger managers who are only recently retired from their playing days, Fuld checks both boxes — he turns 39 later this month and officially retired in 2017.  He doesn’t have any official coaching or managing experience, but Fuld does have something of a unique skillset in his role as a bridge between the Phils’ analytics department.  Red Sox chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom also has a past relationship with Fuld, as Bloom was working in the Rays’ front office when Fuld played with Tampa Bay from 2011-13.

Reports from Saturday indicated that the Red Sox had interviewed both Kelly and Mendoza a second time, and of course there has been speculation over Cora’s potential return basically since the moment he was fired in January.  Cora’s one-year suspension for his role in the Astros sign-stealing scandal was officially up after the World Series, and the Sox wasted little time in getting in touch with their former skipper.

The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Matt Breen profiled Fuld last season, examining the manner in which he serves as a liaison between the club’s analytics department and the clubhouse. “I think a lot of the times, the information can get overwhelming. It’s hard to sift through and pick ’OK, what’s important for this game?” Rhys Hoskins said at the time. “To have Sam, he’s recently out of the game, kind of act as that bridge just makes it so much easier on us players.”

Given his Stanford degree in economics and his work both within the clubhouse and interacting with the Phillies’ analytics and baseball operations departments, there’ll likely be multiple paths for Fuld to consider as he determines what trajectory best suits him.  Kapler, meanwhile, is set to interview with both the Giants and the Cubs after being dismissed as the Phillies’ manager.  The Phillies, Mets, Cubs, Angels, Giants, Padres, Royals, and Pirates all have managerial vacancies at present.

Both Bell and Fuld have been tied to managerial openings in the past, and Bell is currently reported to be a candidate with the Mets as well. Fuld is just 37 years old and played in the Majors as recently as 2015. He’s been in his current position in Philadelphia since late 2017, serving as a sort of liaison between the front office and players. In that sense, he seems to fit the mold of the industry’s ideal manager in 2019: young, inexperienced, analytically-inclined, a good communicator, and relatively cheap to boot. Fuld earned an interview last offseason with the Blue Jays, with The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reporting at the time that the young Fuld “made a strong impression” on Toronto brass, though he ultimately withdrew his name from consideration.

Bell, meanwhile, will be recognized for his roots in a distinguished baseball family: his father Buddy Bell enjoyed a fine playing and managing career, while Mike’s brother David manages the Pirates’ division-rival Reds. He interviewed with the Orioles and Rangers last offseason, so teams have been eyeing him for a bit now. Bell has been with the Diamondbacks for more than a decade, previously serving as the director of player development before he was promoted to his current role three years ago. As such, he can claim at least some of the credit for the homegrown talent that has climbed through the Arizona ranks in recent years.

It would seem that the Pirates are considering a wide variety of candidates to be the franchise’s first new manager since 2011; the organization doesn’t appear to be confining its search to a particular archetype or background, which could pay off as the team also seeks to fill out the remainder of the coaching staff. That seems a fair approach for a team that hasn’t had to undergo a managerial change in nearly a decade, especially considering the scrutiny under which general manager Neal Huntington has found himself of late. Pittsburgh is home to what may be the Majors’ most confounding managerial vacancy, with relatively little being reported regarding the organization’s hiring process. As details emerge, though, the Pirates job will certainly offer its fair share of intrigue to this offseason’s storylines.

As of Oct. 18, the Blue Jays were “believed to be down to five candidates,” per Shi Davidi of Sportsnet.ca. He cited Astros bench coach Joe Espada, Rays field coordinator Rocco Baldelli, Cubs bench coach Brandon Hyde and Giants director of player development David Bell as finalists, though Bell’s name is obviously no longer in play since he’s been hired by the Reds as their new manager. Here’s where things presently stand…

Latest Update – October 23

• Rays bench coach Charlie Montoyo interviewed with the Jays today, per Fancred’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link). It’s not clear if it was a second interview and Montoyo had already emerged as one of the reported finalists or if the Jays set up additional interviews after the Reds hired Bell (a reported Jays finalist) away. That brings the Blue Jays to 15 or more candidates interviewed for the managerial vacancy.

Full summation of the Blue Jays’ managerial search below:

Read more

Here are some more items from both the AL and NL East divisions…

• Blue Jays manager John Gibbons told Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi (Twitter links) and other reporters that infielder Gift Ngoepe will break camp with the team.  Veteran Danny Espinosa was recently signed to a minor league deal to provide some competition for the utility field job, though it appears Ngoepe will head north to begin the season.  He’ll provide backup at shortstop behind Aledmys Diaz, who is himself filling in at the position for the injured Troy Tulowitzki.  Gibbons also said that more roster moves will be in the works tomorrow, as the Jays need to clear 40-man roster spots for John Axford and Tyler Clippard.
• One of those 40-man spots could be opened up if Tulowitzki is moved to the 60-day DL, as the Blue Jays veteran continues to be plagued by bone spurs in his right ankle.  Davidi reports that Tulowitzki is visiting with an ankle specialist tomorrow to determine the next course of action, and surgery could be a possibility.
• The Mets don’t have another trade in the works involving Bryce Brentz, MLB.com’s Anthony DiComo reports, so it looks like they will try to keep the outfielder in the organization.  Brentz was claimed off waivers from the Pirates on Monday and would have to pass through waivers again before the Mets could send him down to Triple-A, as Brentz is out of minor league options.  New York already has a crowded outfield picture that includes Yoenis Cespedes, Jay Bruce, Juan Lagares, and Brandon Nimmo, plus Phillip Evans and Jose Reyes capable of corner outfield work and Michael Conforto expected back from the DL early in the season.
• Sam Fuld’s status as a former player and a newly-minted member of the Phillies analytics department makes him an ideal conduit for bridging the gap between advances metrics and everyday baseball use, Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Daily News writes.  “Players are told to do something from someone that doesn’t quite have playing experience at a high level and it can be frustrating when you’re told to do something that is really, really difficult,” Fuld said.  “It’s taken for granted sometimes. Hopefully I can relate.”  Rhys Hoskins, for one, has already taken to Fuld’s advice, such as using a “cheat sheet” to determine specific batter-by-batter positioning while in the outfield.

Fuld, 35, is a Stanford graduate who has long been seen as a potential future front office member. He was most recently seen on the field in the World Baseball Classic, playing for Team Israel, which represents a nice bookend for his playing career after rotator cuff surgery kept him out for all of 2016.

In just over fifteen-hundred overall trips to the plate in the majors, Fuld managed only a .227/.307/.325 batting line with a dozen home runs. Yet the former tenth-round pick managed to compile an even 5 career fWAR, due to his highly-rated defensive work and baserunning (including 67 total stolen bases).

Fuld opened his MLB time with the Cubs but will likely be best remembered as a member of the Rays and A’s. He endeared himself to the fans of those two low-budget clubs with his motor and body-sacrificing dives in the field. Fuld ultimately spent the bulk of his time with those two organizations; he also played in part of the 2014 campaign with the Twins, where he enjoyed one of his most productive runs at the plate.

It sounds as if Fuld is already well on his way to making a mark in a non-playing capacity. In his new role, the club says, he’ll “help integrate the use of information in all areas of on-field performance and preparation and make recommendations regarding the most effective areas of future research and analysis.” Former Orioles staffer Ben Werthan will hold a similar position on the minor league side of the equation, the Phillies also announced.

It certainly sounds as if Fuld is being hired to help translate analytical knowledge to the field while hopefully inspiring new frontiers from a player’s perspective. That seems to mesh with the team’s decision to hire the youthful Gabe Kapler as its next manager, a move that many observers are framing as something of a bold gambit.