According to baseball news god Jeff Passan, the Phillies are hiring 27 year-old former Tampa Bay Rays Assistant Director of Research and Development Anirudh Kilambi to be their new Assistant General Manager. A quick look at Kilambi’s LinkedIn shows he began his career in baseball with the Rays as an intern in 2015 and quickly moved his way up through the ranks of their research and development department.

This is great news and a terrific hire for the Phillies considering their own research and development department was an empty janitors closet for the past 15 years. Philadelphia should honestly hire the entire Rays front-office considering they consistently field better teams with 1/3rd the resources. At this point I think any Phillies fan would be willing to consider any viable alternative to the mess that has been the Phillies farm system.

But somehow I already know the cranky Philly talk-radio and social media will rip this hire as another hopeless attempt by the Phillies to modernize, by applying analytical and statistical analysis to the great American past time. Half would rather they hire execs from organizations like the Orioles who make decisions based on their gut feelings. The other half will be jealous because a 27-year-old just took their dream job. How about we give the guy a chance? It’s not like he’s going to be making the decision over Dave Dombrowksi on which free agents the Phils ultimately sign.

We got our own version of Jonah Hill and Dave Dombrowski is Brad Pitt. I’m personally excited.