At whatever cost, pitching depth a welcome commodity
PHILADELPHIA >> The eternal buyers-or-sellers, sellers-or-buyers debate that serves as a basis for most big-league baseball franchise construction will never have one firm answer. For that, the best any team can hope for is to benefit a little from both.
The Phillies, if they haven’t already, are about to be one of those teams.
Not so long ago — or maybe it was — the Phils were in full N.L. East dynasty mode, rightfully addicted to firstplace finishes. Then, their farm system was believed to be thick with value, and it would provide the financing to feed their compulsion. So they dumped three top prospects for Roy Halladay, who was 33. And they spent four others on Cliff Lee, who was 30. Later, they wanted Hunter Pence, 29, and willingly, aggressively spent four minor-league properties of some assumed skill.
And it all worked as they would reach a World Series and two more postseasons after they’d already won a world championship. Their hidden hope at the time was that, some day, when it was their turn to be on the selling side, that whatever they picked up in return would have been worth every jolting franchise turn.
Pete Mackanin was thinking about that Tuesday, before a scheduled game with the Miami Marlins was postponed due to rain. He’d been thinking about it a lot lately, too. He thought about it when Clay Buchholz ripped a tendon in his forearm, and the Phillies calmly turned to Zach Eflin. That would be Eflin, who worked seven innings Sunday, allowing three hits, retiring the first 10 Atlanta Braves he’d face in a 5-2 victory. That would be Eflin, who once cost the Phillies Jimmy Rollins in a trade with the Dodgers. Though Rollins was 36, he was a Phillies legend, if not statue-eligible, then at least a candidate for a retired No. 11.
Mackanin thought about it the other day, when Aaron Nola reported a sore back, and when Nick Pivetta was recalled from Lehigh Valley, where he was 3-0 with an 0.95 ERA and 24 strikeouts. Pivetta? He was the right-hander acquired from Washington for Jon Papelbon.
Last week, when Pat Neshek needed paternity leave and the Phillies needed an arm, Ben Lively was brought to CitiField from Lehigh Valley, that after going 18-5 in the high minors last season. He was the haul for Marlon Byrd, whom the Phillies once were happy to unload on the power-starved Reds.
“They aren’t just guys we’re trying to pull off the heap,” Mackanin said, acknowledging that the Phils spent plenty for their rights. “They are guys that aren’t just hanging around.”
No. They came at a price — a price of talent, of franchise legends. But they came. So did Vince Velasquez, who cost the Phillies Ken Giles. And so did Jerad Eickhoff, who arrived in a deal with Texas that included Jake Thompson and cost them Cole Hamels.
The season is only 18 games old and already the Phillies have fished for three valuable minor-league starters acquired in trade, even if Lively did not appear in a game. And none of them were of the closeyour-eyes-and-hope variety. Rather, they were deemed ready, as they should have been, given their cost.
“I think that helps,” Pivetta was saying Tuesday. “I mean, there’s a lot of good competition down there. Jake Thompson just threw an outstanding game. Ben Lively has been outstanding. Ricardo Pinto has been throwing amazing too. So it’s a big competition and I’m just blessed that I’m here and that they chose me.”
Though he was scheduled to pitch Wednesday, Pivetta will have to wait for his majorleague debut. Because of the rainout, the Phils will just push Velasquez, who was scheduled to pitch Tuesday, back a day. Technically, Pivetta has not been activated, but he is expected to join the Phillies sometime over the weekend for a start in Los Angeles.
“Pivetta has pitched really well in Triple A,” Mackanin said. “We saw him a little bit in the spring. I liked him. I’m anxious to see all of the guys. The one thing we haven’t had in the past is some inventory for things like this. We saw Eflin come up. Hopefully we have a few others.”
Inventory comes, and it goes, depending on the situation. The Phillies will never regret acquiring Halladay, who won the Cy Young for them in 2010, or Lee, who helped them into the 2009 World Series, or Pence, who helped them win the division in 2011.
Indeed, in retrospect, they didn’t surrender much value for any of them, even if the moves were a bit risky at the time. And in that, the Phillies are in a position to win both ends of the buyers-sellers game, should Pivetta, Velasquez, Eickhoff, Lively, Thompson and more prove as effective they have hinted. At the minimum, it has given the Phillies a staggering level of pitching depth.
“It definitely helps, having those guys around me, learning from them,” Pivetta said. “It was really, really nice, being able to drive myself to do as good as they did every single time out.”
That was the idea, difficult as it was, at a cost of so much franchise history.
That will be the idea, too, if so many young pitchers are successful enough to one day make the Phillies buyers again.