McCaffery: Re-tooled Phils cool, confident as they head to Clearwater

The seventh loss in their final eight games over, their postseason hopes and their pride long gone, too, the Phillies were surrounded in doubt as they closed the strange 2020 baseball season.

Just a year-plus after emerging as the newest marquee team, with a fresh $330,000,000 outfielder, a young Cy Young candidate and a clubhouse literally fit with a disco ball to best set a party atmosphere, the organization had been beaten down.

That 2019 feeling long gone, the 2020 disaster would be worse. And by its ugly, unacceptable end, there was Aaron Nola in another of his September fades, J.T. Realmuto returning to Oklahoma on a one-way ticket, Scott Kingery’s production hinting that he never fully recovered from the coronavirus, Andy MacPhail all but asleep in an executive suite, Matt Klentak out of rambling and nonsensical answers and a bullpen so horribly constructed that it should have inspired a 30for-30 documentary.

There had been other disturbing Phillies seasons. Nineteen-hundred-andsixty-four had a certain ring to it. But not many. Few, actually. That’s how bad it was at the end, when the only reason fans sitting in Citizens Bank Park weren’t setting souvenirs ablaze was because they were also made of flammable material.

So that is the recent back story as the Phillies regroup Wednesday, the catchers and pitchers being invited to appear first in a charming baseball ritual. As for the more current angle, there is just one: The Phillies, surprisingly enough, emerged from a turningpoint offseason with a better team, better leadership and more reason for their fans, cardboard or otherwise, to pay attention to what is about to unfold.

“I’m the new guy,” a guy named Dave Dombrowski said. “No matter where I’ve been, I’ve never been much on prognostication. I kind of always think that works itself out. “But I like this club.” Dombrowski is the new team president, and had only two months to take the best of what MacPhail had left behind, add to it and mold it into the contending team it was supposed to be in 2019 and what it was for much of 2020 before a September collapse. That he did by rebuilding the bullpen, successfully re-recruiting Realmuto, adding responsible major-leaguequality rotation depth behind Nola, Zack Wheeler and Zach Eflin, strengthening his bench and handing it all back to Joe Girardi, who deserved better than what he was made to manage in his first season in South Philadelphia.

The Phillies didn’t need to be imploded and rebuilt. They needed to be trusted and strengthened. With new general manager Sam Fuld, the input of Girardi, new pitching coach Caleb Cotham and the continued refusal of John Middleton to treat his franchise as a small-market novelty act, they became solidly repositioned to contend.

As a result, Spencer Howard will start slowly in the alternate camp, Seranthony Dominguez will remain a half-season away after Tommy John surgery, Vinny Velasquez should be offloaded in a minor trade and the ridiculous Tuesday announcement that Odubel Herrera will receive a nonroster look should be but a move to prove that he can no longer be of help and can finally go away.

With the National League not committing to using a designated hitters this season, this is how the Phillies’ 26-man roster should look when the Atlanta Braves visit for the April 1 season opener:

STARTERS >> Nola, Wheeler, Eflin, Matt Moore, Ivan Nova, Chase Anderson.

RELIEVERS >> Archie Bradley, Jose Alvarado, Hector Neris, Sam Coonrod, JoJo Romero, Brandon Kintzler, David Hale.

INFIELDERS >> Alec Bohm, Didi Gregorius, Rhys Hoskins, Jean Segura, Brad Miller.

OUTFIELDERS >> Bryce Harper, Andrew McCutchen, Roman Quinn, Adam Haseley, Scott Kingery, Matt Joyce.

CATCHERS >> Realmuto, Andrew Knapp.

There will be some surprises, some injuries, some victims of goofy virus protocols. But if that is the group Girardi drags north, it will mean the Phillies have a deeper bench, a more versatile bullpen, and a starting rotation strong up front and mature in the back including, at long last, a left-hander in Moore.

“I think your goal as a pitching staff is to make hitters uncomfortable,” said Fuld, the new GM. “And if you can line up a back end of a bullpen where, as a hitter, you know you are going to be uncomfortable in the box, that’s not a good feeling for a hitter. When you look down at a bullpen and know that there is 95-plus (velocity) everywhere, that immediately kills your confidence.

“So to do it with high-velocity, high-level stuff, with different secondary pitches, it makes what we have right now pretty cool.”

The Phillies were considered cool in 2019 but never fired under Gabe Kapler. They were considered cool in 2020, but the season was butchered and the bullpen was historically weak.

Dombrowski has built world championship teams in Miami and Boston, so he knows the formula. He also knows when and how it can be done.

“I consider this a re-tool, not a re-build, for sure,” he said upon joining the Phillies. “I think there’s too many good players on the club. And the way I looked at it, we have a star player in right field in Bryce and some other good players around him. Any time you have three good starting pitchers like we have at the top of the rotation, you’re in pretty good shape to be competitive. Nola, Wheeler and Eflin is a good place to start, with some other arms behind.

“So I think it’s a re-tool.

I know John wants to win. We want to win this year. We’ll do what we can.”

With that, Dombrowski went to work. Middleton, without overspending, provided responsible financing. Realmuto is back. Gregorius is back. The bullpen looks strong. The starting pitching, too. Loosen the catchers. Warm the pitchers. As the Phillies hit Clearwater, the worst is behind them.