Phillies news and rumors 11/7: Matt Klentak promoted in Brewers’ front office

Matt Klentak is the former general manager of the Phillies. (Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire)

The Milwaukee Brewers’ non-player personnel group saw a significant change on Monday, an earth-shattering move that had the collective baseball world’s undivided attention immediately upon its announcement:

Matt Klentak was promoted. He’s now an executive advisor to the general manager.

In all seriousness, while Klentak’s promotion (and those of three other front office members now named assistant general managers) didn’t garner the headlines that Craig Counsell’s managerial jump from Milwaukee to Chicago did, it’s a nice step for the former Phillies GM. Klentak had been serving as a special assistant to general manager Matt Arnold since January 2022. He was also a special assistant to president of baseball operations David Stearns until September, when Stearns left for the New York Mets.

Klentak’s stepping down from the general manager role following the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, in which the Phillies went under .500 and missed the playoffs for the fifth straight year under his leadership, wasn’t the end of his time in Philadelphia. He worked as a “strategy development officer” in the Phillies’ front office until leaving for the Brewers early in 2022.

It was an unceremonious end to a “mixed bag” of a Phillies tenure. Klentak, who took over a poorly run organization at rock bottom of its rebuild era, did not necessarily accelerate that rebuild as much as he and the team had hoped — but he deserves credit for a few wise moves that brought some of the team’s current core to Philadelphia. Klentak landed J.T. Realmuto in a deal that now seems like a steal, and his big bet on Zack Wheeler paid off in the form of what now looks like one of the best free-agent contracts in MLB history — among other moves, whether or not you give him partial credit for the Bryce Harper signing.

But baseball is a results-oriented business, and Klentak simply didn’t see concrete results fast enough in Philadelphia. He’s found a new home in Milwaukee, and at least based on Monday’s news, it seems the partnership is going well.

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Aaron Nola received the qualifying offer, which he is certain to reject, on Monday. Rhys Hoskins did not receive one. Our Tim Kelly and Destiny Lugardo have more.
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The Phillies had some other activity on Monday, claiming one Rays pitcher and trading for another.