Howie Kendrick Joins Phillies Front Office

Fresh off retirement, Howie Kendrick is now joining the Phillies front office.

His name headlines a group of additions that looks like this, per press release:

Howie Kendrick has been named special assistant to the general manager.  Kendrick, 38, played in 1,621 games over parts of 15 seasons in the majors for the Los Angeles Angels (2006-14), Los Angeles Dodgers (2015-16), Phillies (2017) and Washington Nationals (2017-20).  With the Nationals in 2019, Kendrick hit a grand slam in Game 5 of the National League Division Series, was named NL Championship Series Most Valuable Player and hit a go-ahead two-run home run in Game 7 of the World Series.

Brian Kaplan has been named assistant major league pitching coach and director of pitching development.  Kaplan comes to the Phillies after serving as vice president and co-founder of Cressey Sports Performance in Jupiter, Fla.  Prior to his time at CSP, Kaplan founded Athletic Development Performance which is a sports performance facility based in Jupiter.  He played collegiately at the University of Notre Dame.

Jason Camilli has been hired as assistant major league hitting coach.  Camilli, 46, joins the Phillies after most recently serving as a development coach for the Cincinnati Reds affiliate in the Arizona League.  Prior to his time with Cincinnati, Camilli worked in the player development system of the Arizona Diamondbacks as hitting coach for several minor league teams from 2012-19.  He was originally drafted by the Montreal Expos in the second round of the June 1994 draft.

Morgan Gregory has been named director of strength and conditioning and nutrition.  Gregory spent the last nine seasons in the Cincinnati Reds organization, where he most recently served as assistant director of strength and conditioning.  From 2018-20, he was Cincinnati’s strength and conditioning coordinator.  In 2011, Gregory graduated from Carson-Newman College with a bachelor’s degree in exercise science and in 2014 he earned his master’s degree in performance enhancement and injury prevention from the California University of Pennsylvania.

Furey Leva has been named assistant major league strength and conditioning coach.  Leva previously served as minor league strength and conditioning coordinator with the Phillies beginning in January 2017.  Prior to joining the Phillies, he worked four years as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates player development staff.  Leva is a 2012 graduate of Temple University, where he received his bachelor’s degree.

Christian Bermudez has been named medical operations liaison.  Bermudez joined the Phillies this year, serving as the athletic trainer for triple-A Lehigh Valley.  Before his time with the Phillies, he worked for the Houston Astros organization for eight years.  During his time with the Astros, he served as an athletic trainer at various levels and spent 2017 as the club’s Latin American medical coordinator.  He graduated from the University of South Florida in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in athletic training and interned that summer with the New York Yankees.

Kendrick was a Phillie for about five seconds. That was the 2016 trade with Darin Ruf and Darnell Sweeney. In the summer of 2017, he was then sent to the Nationals for McKenzie Mills and some international signing bonus money. What a deal!

This seems like a good move though. Kendrick hit the ball well for years and was a respected veteran. You want those kinds of guys in your organization.

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