Fire Ruben Amaro Jr.

Amaro has been ranked worst GM by Sporting News. Now why would you want to keep the worst GM in the league? Also, he has only made one good trade in his 6 year tenure, that would be getting Cliff Lee from the Indians for Carlos Carrasco, Lou Marson, Jason Donald, and Jason Knapp. However, he almost immediately made up for his good trade with an awful one trading Lee to the Mariners for "Three of their top prospects" including Phillippe Aumont, JC Ramirez, and Tyson Gillies. He did get Halladay from the Blue Jays but in doing so, he traded the Phillies top 3 prospects for no reason.

Trade the Old Guys

The Phillies have way too much money committed to guys that are older then 34. These guys include: Ryan Howard ($60M over the next 3 years), Chase Utley (in all likelihood $60M over the next 4 years), Jimmy Rollins ($11M next year), Cliff Lee (most likely $25M next year), Marlon Byrd ($16M over the next 2 years, however if Byrd continues to play how he is, his contract won't be that big of a deal), and then Jonathon Papelbon ($26M over next 2 years).

They are counting too much on these guys who have yet to prove they are still the players that they used to be (except Utley, Byrd, and on occasion Rollins). The Phillies must eat some of these astronomical contracts to get some decent talent for the future. They especially need to trade Ryan Howard not only because of his terrible production but also he is blocking the way for a power hitter in his prime, Darin Ruf, and number three prospect in the organization, Maikel Franco.

Sign International Players

The Phillies rarely sign international players that are highly coveted. They do sign international players but they are never the top guy, they sign out side the top 10 kind of guys, not in the top 10. Even after the huge success of guys by the name of Yasiel Puig, Yoenis Cespedes, Jose Abreu, Yu Darvish, Masahiro Tanaka.

There are three international players that this writer truly believes the Phillies need to get.

First, a speedy Cuban center fielder with power named Rusney Castillo, he would replace the very shaky Ben Revere. MLB teams could bat 1,2,7 due to his natural speed, or because of his power he could hit 3,4,5, or even 6 in the lineup. 

The next guy is also a Cuban outfielder with excellent hitting power by the name of Yasmani Tomas. Tomas has the second highest raw power rating in Cuba at 70 (20-80 scale). He is a corner outfielder who would probably replace the inconsistent Dom Brown in left field.

 The last prospect the Phillies could reach out to sign is a 20 year old Japanese pitcher named Shohei Ohtani, who is considered better than the Texas Rangers ace Yu Darvish. He is not only a terrific pitcher but also a pretty talented hitter, batting over .270 with 2 homers, 14 RBIs, an OBP of .339, and a SLG of .438. He could easily fit in the Phillies rotation in the 2 spot behind ace Cole Hamels.

This writer believes that if the Phillies can follow these steps they will be a contender for their 3rd World Series sometime in the near future.