Phillies announce series of changes to baseball operations department

Ahead of Tuesday’s interleague matchup with the Tampa Bay Rays, the Philadelphia Phillies made a series of changes to the structure of their front office.

Both Bryan Minniti and Scott Proefrock are no longer assistant general managers in the front office, with both slated to move into roles as “consultants” for the 2022 campaign.

Proefrock had worked in the Phillies front office since November of 2008. Minniti joined what was then Andy MacPhail and Matt Klentak’s front office in November of 2016, and “had directed the player development and amateur scouting areas since September of 2017.”

In addition to Minniti and Proefrock, the Phillies have also removed Josh Bonifay as the director of player development, a position he had been in since October of 2018. The team says that Bonifay has been offered a job as a professional scout for the 2022 season. It’s not immediately clear whether Bonifay plans to accept the offer.

“Change is always difficult but sometimes necessary,” said president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, who was hired in December of 2020. “I appreciate and respect Bryan, Scott and Josh for the contributions they have made to the organization, but I believe it is time to take our player development department in a new direction. These staffing changes will provide the opportunity to begin that process.”

The Phillies do plan to hire a full-time replacement for Bonifay, but in the interim assistant general manager Jorge Velandia and player development coordinator Dana Parks will assume the responsibilities that Bonifay had been completing.

Velandia — who was promoted to assistant general manager last December — will also be reported to by Sal Agostinelli, who will remain in charge of international scouting.

Meanwhile, scouting director Brian Barber will now report directly to Dombrowski. Dombrowski is the top baseball executive in the organization, and the first president of baseball operations. Previously, the top baseball ops position had been general manager. So Barber will go from reporting to the general manager to the president of baseball operations.