The Phillies should hire Rays’ GM Erik Neander before someone else does

In 2008, a young baseball executive from Wall Street named Andrew Friedman led the Tampa Bay Rays — a team with the second-smallest payroll in Major League Baseball — to their first-ever World Series appearance. The team loaded in young talent eventually fell to the Philadelphia Phillies in five games.

Erik Neander’s Tampa Bay Rays are heading to the World Series for the first time since 2008. (Photo by Cliff Welch/Icon Sportswire)Twelve years later, a lot has changed but so much has stayed the same. Friedman is now at the helm in Los Angeles but his former team’s success can be traced back to him. His Dodgers will face off against a Rays team constructed by Friedman’s former protégé: Erik…