Ed Wade - Work As The Phillies GM

Work As The Phillies GM

Wade traded Curt Schilling, the Phillies' long-time ace, to the Arizona Diamondbacks for Omar Daal, Vicente Padilla, and Travis Lee. He signed veterans Mike Lieberthal and David Bell to large contracts when they were approaching the end of their careers. He also included no-trade clauses in star players Bobby Abreu, Jim Thome, and Pat Burrell's contracts.

During his tenure, the Phillies drafted power-hitting outfielder Pat Burrell, starting pitcher Brett Myers, All Star second baseman Chase Utley, MVP first baseman Ryan Howard and World Series MVP Cole Hamels. He also hired manager Charlie Manuel, who led the Phillies to their first world championship in nearly 30 years.

Wade hired two managers during his tenure. He inherited Terry Francona when he was promoted, whom he fired after the 2000 season. Wade hired former Phillies shortstop Larry Bowa, who led the Phillies to their first winning season since winning the 1993 National League pennant in 2001, falling just two games short of the postseason. Bowa was fired with two games remaining in the 2004 season.

Wade was fired by the Phillies after the 2005 season due to the team's inability to make the postseason despite several seasons of high expectations. In Wade's last three seasons with the Phillies, the team missed the playoffs by margins of 5.0, 6.0, and 1.0 games respectively. In total, the Phillies compiled a record of 643 wins and 652 losses over Wade's eight-year tenure, with a winning percentage of .497. Although the Phillies showed marked improvement from the first three years of Wade's tenure (217–269, .447) to its next five years (426–383, .527), the team never exceeded 90 wins in any given season, instead winning exactly 86 or 88 games in four of Wade's last five seasons.