BOCA RATON, Fla. -- The general manager of the Seattle Mariners believes the Phillies made a good choice in hiring Matt Klentak as their new general manager.
“Matt’s ready to go,” Jerry Dipoto said at the general managers meetings on Tuesday. “He’ll do a great job.”
Dipoto was general manager of the Los Angeles Angels from the fall of 2011 to the summer of 2015. He hired Klentak as one of his chief assistants and the two worked together closely in all phases of running the ballclub. Before that, Klentak, 35, worked for the Colorado Rockies, Baltimore Orioles and in the commissioner's office.
“Matt is a what-you-see-is-what-you-get guy,” Dipoto said. “He is a wonderfully nice guy. He’s extremely intelligent. Good family guy. He knows the baseball rules inside and out. I think one thing you’ll not see, he’s a ferocious negotiator. He’s very good in that milieu.
“He has a good feel for players. I guess most importantly, Matt is a listener. He listens to the people around him. So what is being said, he will absorb. He checks all your boxes, really. He hasn’t had the scouting and player development background, but Matt sits in rooms with the player development and scouting people. And he listens.
“He was part of every free-agent deal we ever did. He was pivotal in every contract negotiation we did to the point where I don’t know if I would have survived the four years without him.”
Klentak has likened roster construction to putting together a puzzle. Dipoto said Klentak was heavily involved in constructing Angels’ rosters.
“Every day, every move,” Dipoto said. “I would ask his opinion on anything. A lot of times I would not do things because he would be against a move. I’d bounce things off him and sometimes he’d tell me I was crazy and sometimes he’d tell me that was something he thought we should try.”
Dipoto resigned his post with the Angels in July after clashing with manager Mike Scioscia. He was hired as Seattle’s GM in late September. Klentak interviewed for the Angels job, which went to Billy Eppler, formerly of the Yankees front office. Klentak ended up getting the Phillies job, which opened when Ruben Amaro Jr. was let go in September. Before being hired by Dipoto in Anaheim, Klentak worked under Andy MacPhail in Baltimore. MacPhail is now the Phillies club president.
“I know Matt learned lessons working with good baseball people and he'll make good decisions based on what he's learned," Dipoto said. "I think he understands where the Phillies are in their progression right now, where they need to go, and he’ll make good, balanced decisions that incorporate the people around him.”