Phillies Deny Report of Big Changes
UPDATE: The Phillies have released a statement on Howard Eskin’s report of the Phillies’ ownership shakeup, and have denied any forthcoming changes to the partnership.
Here's the Phillies full statement, shooting down report that team president David Montgomery had been pushed out: pic.twitter.com/y73laBhAoD
— Ryan Lawrence (@ryanlawrence21) October 3, 2014
[Original 6:05 a.m.]Big changes are coming to the Phillies, Howard Eskin reports — and in fact the changing of the guard began to take place earlier in the season.
According to Eskin, the changes break down like this:
• Team President David Montgomery is losing much of his power — and in fact, his leave of absence for cancer treatment this season was partially a pretext for allowing him to step back in favor of new management. Montgomery is seen as too loyal to aging players to effectively rebuild the team, Eskin said.
• Minority owner John Middleton — he owns 48 percent of the franchise — is attempting to acquire majority control of the team.
• The Phillies are attempting to trade Ryan Howard and Cole Hamels — the former to be rid of an albatross (though they’ll still pay most of his contract) and the latter to restock a depleted farm system.
