Elephant Rumblings: Phillies name Sam Fuld as GM

Good morning, Athletics Nation!

The Oakland A’s appear to be keeping their front office intact for 2021, but not every MLB team is able to say the same thing this winter. Five clubs have hired new general managers since November, with the most recent coming Tuesday when the Philadelphia Phillies named Sam Fuld as their GM.

Fuld played eight seasons in the majors as an outfielder for four teams, including two stints in Oakland spanning much of 2014 and all of 2015. Super Sam became a national fan favorite as a player, and has been a candidate for the manager position in various teams’ dugouts, including the Red Sox this winter.

The Phillies already hired Dave Dombrowski this winter to be their President of Baseball Ops, and it wasn’t a sure thing that he’d add a GM below him. He decided to do so by promoting Fuld, who spent the last few years working for the club in various analytics roles.

Susan Slusser of the S.F. Chronicle tweeted the following: “So happy to see Sam Fuld get a shot as general manager. Well deserved. Philly can be a tough town but he’s smart, even keel and has great emotional IQ. Congrats to him and the Phillies.”

There were more promotions below Fuld. Another former A’s player, Jorge Velandia (Oakland infielder from 1998-2000), got a bump up to ... well, I’ll let MLB Trade Rumors explain:

Also, Jorge Velandia was promoted to assistant general manager from special assistant to the GM (as reported earlier today by Jim Salisbury)

So to be clear, he used to be the assistant to the general manager. But now he’s moved up the ranks of the front office, and his new title is simply assistant general manager. Quite shrewd.

To fill Velandia’s old special assistant title, former Twins GM Terry Ryan was promoted from elsewhere in the Phillies organization.

As for Fuld, he joins the following new GMs around the majors this year: Kim Ng (Marlins), Perry Minasian (Angels), Chris Young (Rangers), and Jared Porter (Mets).

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Congrats on an excellent career!

... including a championship in Washington in 2019 (and also NLCS MVP that year)

The team is the KIA Tigers, managed by former A’s coach Matt Williams (and featuring former A’s pitcher Aaron Brooks)

... Meanwhile, Alcantara leaves Korea to head to Japan

... and Overton heads to Taiwan. The Monkeys’ 2020 roster featured pitcher Brandon Mann, once a teammate of Overton’s in the A’s minor league system.