Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Quinn wants to be a quick stick in 2020
PHILADELPHIA » Longevity hasn’t exactly been one of Roman Quinn’s professional strong suits. We’ll spare you the Quinn’s Anatomy of injuries in the speedy outfielder’s career, but suffice it to say he’s spent just about as much time on the injured list as off it.
The one-time high draft pick’s ninth professional season will be different than the previous eight, as the summerspring training and the masks indicate. But for someone who’s never sniffed 100 games in a season in his pro career, the changes caused by COVID-19 just might work to Quinn’s – and by extension, the Phillies’ – advantage.
The first edge is provided by the condensed schedule. Quinn has had too few chances to really show his talent for an extended spell thanks to those injuries. The most he’s played in a season is 92 games in 2016 across three levels, including 15 in the big leagues. He played 88 games (in full-season Class A) in 2014 and 88 in 2018. Last year, bookending groin ailments in April and August limited him to just 56 total games, 44 of them in the big leagues.
So losing games 61 to 162 when MLB shrunk the schedule doesn’t hit Quinn all that hard. He wasn’t used to being out there for them anyway. The cynical view would posit fewer games as fewer chances for Quinn to get hurt. The more hopeful perspective, though, is to see the shortened schedule and added wrinkles to accommodate for COVID-19 as offering chances to increase the 27-year-old’s value.
The obvious one is the hurry-up rule of extra innings, which would start the 10th with a runner on second base. With Quinn’s speed, it means that one hit, just about anywhere, equals a run.
“I’ve experienced some of that when I was in Triple-A,” Quinn said on a Zoom call Thursday before an intrasquad scrimmage in which he didn’t participate. “I mean, I liked it. It sped the games up, and they didn’t last as long. I thought it was a pretty cool thing they were doing, and I’m excited to see how it plays out up here.”
The addition of the designated hitter also benefits Quinn more than most. When fully healthy, the Phillies have six viable outfield options. Quinn and Adam Haseley are battling for the center field job. Nick Williams and Jay Bruce should platoon in left with Bryce Harper in right. Andrew McCutchen is in the mix when he’s back to full health.
It’s a safe bet that one of the outfielders will DH most days, except for when J.T. Realmuto needs a day off behind the plate. With Haseley able to play a corner spot, the choice between him and Quinn isn’t such an either-or.
The desire to expand his repertoire is part of the reason why Quiinn is going back to switch hitting. Last year, he decided he’d stop batting left, in part trying to simplify his swing and preparation with the lack of healthy time to work out. The decision didn’t stick, and he’s back to switch hitting. He’s the only switchhitting outfielder in camp with the Phillies and one of only four on the 40-man roster (Andrew Knapp, fellow catcher Rafael Marchan, infielder Arquimedes Gamboa) plus invitee Neil Walker.
“Just to give me more opportunities to play,” Quinn said. “I feel like being a switch hitter is very key in the game and there’s not too many switch hitters out there. It’s something that I was working my whole professional career on, and abandoning it like that, it didn’t sit too well with my spirit. So it’s something I’m glad I’m doing again and I’m going to stick with it.”
With that in mind, Quinn tried to make his quarantine a productive one. The Port St. Joe, Fla., native spent plenty of time at home, hitting off the tee and working out with his brother. He returned to Philly leaving his wife, Jeni, in Florida. She’s pregnant with the couple’s third child.
Uncovering Quinn’s talent has been an ongoing quest for three Phillies managers now, Joe Girardi the latest to take his turn at solving it. Quinn has hung on so long not just because of the obvious speed and talent that made him the 66th overall draft pick in 2012 but because of his frustrating lack of games. Almost a decade in, those nagging “what if” questions over his health remain hypothetical. It would be hard to move on from the Quinn experiment until it gets a full, sustained sample.
The truncated 2020 season won’t necessarily answer all of those quandaries. But for a player that has shown tremendous value over short stretches, the chaos of 2020 presents a ready-made short stretch over which to demonstrate that value.
“It’s been different, but it’s been fun too,” Quinn said. “These guys around us are doing a very good job of keeping everything organized and following the protocol. Everything’s been going smoothly right now.”
Contact Matthew De George at mdegeorge @delcotimes.com; you can follow him on Twitter @sportsdoctormd.