Philly area fan here who lived and died through 8 years of Wade's stewardship of the Phils. FWIW, I thought I'd share one person's perspectives on your new GM.
Virtually the entire nucleus of the Phillies' current team was signed and developed during his tenure as general manager (1998-2005). Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Cole Hamels, Pat Burrell, Brett Myers, Marlon Byrd and Taylor Bucchholz were all drafted when Wade was in charge.
The credit goes to Asst GM Mike Arbuckle for this. Arby was Scouting Director and still heads up Scouting and Development. Arbuckle came out of the Braves system and was hired by Wade's predecessor, Lee Thomas, to turnaround an ailing scouting department. Arbuckle has been more than competent as his draft record shows. Wade's contribution was primarily to let Arbuckle do his thing. Wade never played, scouted, coached or managed at the professional level before becoming GM and it's generally believed he doesn't have an eye for talent. What Wade did contribute was the hiring of Sal Artiaga to head up Latin American operations. The Phils once had the best scouting system in Latin America going back to the Carpenter ownership years but Giles suspended operations and the Phils have been playing catch-up ever since. Under Wade, Arby and Artiaga, the Phils established academies in both DR and Venezuela and prospects are beginning to appear stateside and work their way through the minor league levels. C Carlos Ruiz is hopefully the first fruit of the renewed emphasis.
He took over an organization that was a mess and made it almost as productive as any.
The organization is hardly a mess. It's a well-managed organization and team CEO Dave Montgomery, a Wharton grad, is very highly regarded within MLB circles. For years, they were handicapped by a bad stadium, a worse stadium deal that severely curtailed revenues and fan disaffection for the ownership group. What frustrates local fans is the perception that ownership lacks interest, involvement or any desire to win. Giles has been quoted as saying their objective is to provide quality family entertainment. That winning wasn't mentioned and the franchise hasn't made the playoffs since 1993 is the sticking point. Wade is a local guy whose career actually began in the Phillies PR department after graduating Temple University before he went to work for the Astros and Smith back in the day; there's some thought that Giles, who himself has Houston connections having been VP Marketing for Hofheinz, brokered Wade's going to work for Smith and learning contracts and procedures as part of a grooming program for him. Wade quickly became Asst GM to Thomas after he returned to Philly. He was seen as very much a company man who did Giles and Montgomery's bidding; it would be extremely hard to make the case that he was in any way a turn-around artist. His teams struggled to play .500 ball until he was given increased payrolls beginning in 2002-3 in anticipation of the new ballpark in 2004. He used the money to buy free agents like Thome and trade for salary castoffs like Wagner. The teams he had in the latter part of his tenure were better but he still could not find a playoff combination despite a payroll approaching $100 million.
Ed Wade is tough, smart and organized. His track record says he'll fix what's wrong with the Astros at that level. From the narrow perspective of player development, the Astros couldn't have hired anyone better.
Wade knows contracts and MLB procedures, so the organized part of that is correct. He's a capable Ass't GM and if his real role is to front for Smith, he may do well. He had a reputation of having poor relations with the media (despite being a former PR hack) including a chair throwing incident, so perhaps that's where the "tough" label comes from. It's hard to make much of a case for either his being very smart or having much skill at player development. Wade's handling of the Rolen and Ashby trades is indicative of his "smarts". Wade was working on deals with both Cincy and St. Louis for Rolen. The St Louis deal was to get the Phils Polanco, Timlin and then highly-regarded pitching prospect Journell. Wade told StL he was taking the Reds deal before it had been cleared through the owner. When Cincy pulled out, he had to go back to StL hat in hand and re-open talks. The Cards took Journell off the table and put in Bud Smith instead, who proved to be damaged goods. Although Journell didn't amount to anything either, this kind of blundering was costly. It was generally believed SD GM Towers bluffed him into thinking he had another offer for Andy Ashby and was able the extract then highly regarded prospect Eaton in the deal. Wade's ability to play poker with the big boys is an issue, but hopefully Smith stays involved on that front.
On the player development front, Wade tried to implement "The Phillies Way", a handbook that intended to standardize instruction throughout the minor league system. It never gained traction for reasons that aren't clear, but it's likely that Wade, a suit, pushing an instructional manual on baseball lifers was doomed from the start.
He hired two managers--Larry Bowa and Charlie Manuel. Bowa's tenure was interesting if nothing else. Manuel might be the NL Manager of the Year.
These are good examples of Wade at work. Bowa was hired primarily to provide a jolt to ticket sales. Bowa, the SS of the 1980 World Championship team has a very large following in the area. Manual has a very close relationship with Thome and his hiring was widely seen as a move to please Thome and restore some calm to a clubhouse rent by Bowa's shenanigans. Thome's hiring was especially criticized because Leyland had thrown his hat into the ring and was passed over, purportedly because he couldn't be trusted to take the company line. In both situations you can see Wade's decision process being influenced by factors that have little to do with a drive to win. It was reported in the local papers after Manual's hiring that Wade said that one of the other candidates, Terry Pendleton, had interviewed so well they had to find reasons not to hire him.
Now the bad. He traded Scott Rolen and Curt Schilling and didn't get nearly enough for them. He handed out some horrendous contracts to Mike Lieberthal and David Bell and dumb no-trade clauses in deals for Bobby Abreu and Jim Thome. He got into childish feuds with the Philly media.
That Wade made bad deals for Schilling and Rolen is an understatement. The Phils have not one asset left in the organization from either of those trades. The Lieberthal and Abreu contracts came on the heels of Schilling and Rolen openly criticizing Phillie management for being too cheap to put a winning product on the field as they headed out the door. Those contracts were damage control and in truth, were not complete disasters. Wade gave away FNTC too easily however. The criticism about his media relationship is spot on.
This hire tells you that Tal Smith still has huge power with Drayton McLane. That's okay. Considering who has been in charge of the baseball operation the last year, Tal Smith is a huge upgrade.
He believes in being aggressive with young players and with emphasizing pitching and defense. Ed Wade clearly believes in the same things, or he wouldn't have been hired.
The Ed Wade who worked here was absolutely not aggressive with young players. Take a look at the pace Utley and Howard were moved through the minors and you'll pretty much see a level at a time. Utley was even held prisoner at AAA well beyond when he was ready for an everyday job with the big club. After getting Polanco to play third in the Rolen deal, wade overpaid David Bell in the offseason, moving Polanco to second, effectively blocking Utley. While Utley was stuck in AAA and Bell struggled with injuries and non-performance, when Wade finally made a move it was to unload Polanco. We're suffering the consequences of that decision to this day.
Wade isn't completely inept but his skill set is extremely limited. He knows the intracacies of MLB's rules. He won't make mistakes there. He can generally work out fair contracts, FNTC aside. He generally did a good job hoarding his top prospects when he was making trades (although it was rumored he had Howard on the table at the 2005 deadline). He has the reputation of being very loyal and being a company man through and through. It's very likely that's the reason Smith wanted him in the first place; he will work well with Smith and not create waves.
But his modus operandi here was to come out of the October organizational meetings with his to do list for the next season and diligently ticking off the tasks before Spring Training. But once that was done he was incapable of moving on the fly. His midseason transactions were a running joke. Aside from free agent acquisitions that he made when his budget was suddenly increased in 2002-3, you'll have a tough time finding any transactions in which he brought in players that improved the team. Robert Person for Paul Spoljaric, Paul Byrd (rumored to have been strongly recommended to him by Scheuerholtz) and Victorino (recommended by Ruben Amaro Sr) pretty much exhausts the list. Not much to show for 8 years, which of course explains why he never reached the postseason and why he was available to you.
I was glad to see him gone and I'm glad he was hired by another NL club. I'm only sorry it wasn't a divisional rival. Good luck.
