Questions ring about commitment to Herrera
WASHINGTON >> By 2014, Odubel Herrera was a Texas Rangers afterthought, a nice young player, yet one exposed in the Rule 5 draft.
By 2016, the Phillies were guaranteeing him $30.5 million. Too fast? Too soon? Too jumpy? Those were some of the questions asked after Matt Klentak, with exactly zero public demand at that moment, chose to lock the center fielder down through 2021 with club options to maintain his rights, at up to $12.5 million annually, through 2023. An entertaining outfielder likely to create defensive highlights even if he’d take curious routes to batted long balls, Herrera had surfaced as a 2016 All-Star. For that, the Phillies — who almost needed to do something newsworthy just to justify keeping the ballpark heat on through the winter — offered him a guarantee they knew he could not resist.
That news was met with indifference. In the context of baseball economics, the Phillies hadn’t so overspent on Herrera as to reset the industry payroll model. The most they would be obligated to pay in any one year would be $10,350,000, or about what they are throwing at Ryan Howard this season not to play at all. Majority owner John Middleton would not need to begin laying off parking lot attendants to make those ends meet.
So the money was not the driving issue behind any criticism, which mostly centered on Klentak and his judgment. Herrera was a good hitter with a little power who had just provided 15 home runs and 49 RBIs. And wasn’t it just a few months earlier that the Phillies spent the No. 1 overall pick in the draft on Mickey Moniak, a good hitter with marginal power? And wasn’t he supposed to be the center fielder of the future? Why so quick to commit to Herrera, who was an asterisk All-Star, chosen for the event because every team must have one representative. He simply was, as horse racing handicappers occasionally identify, the class of that weak field.
The Herrera issue turned relevant over the weekend in Washington, where Sunday he did not start the opener of a day-night doubleheader at Nationals Park. The night before, the 25-yearold outfielder had gone 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, including one when he didn’t swing at one pitch over the plate. He stranded six runners and, while hitting into a first-inning double play, jogged to first base with such indifference that the ballpark ushers almost shooed him out of the aisle.
Pete Mackanin, a recent recipient of a contract extension of his own, Saturday offered the excuse that Herrera had complained of a sore leg. But that was not why the thirdyear major-league player was benched early Sunday. Rather, it was because Mackanin said he wanted to give everybody a chance to play sometime in what was about to be about an 11-hour day. That was the Phillies’ story, and they made it reasonable by resting the left-handed-hitting Herrera against lefty Gio Gonzalez, then starting him against Game 2 starter, right-hander Max Scherzer. But with the Phillies having lost 11 of their last 13, it was an odd time to rest a player identified and paid as a star, even if his .252 batting average reflected otherwise.
The Phillies would win the opener, 4-3. Aaron Altherr, who was in center, hit his usual home run. Herrera provided a sixth-inning pinch single. Between games, though, he was not only absent from the clubhouse but from all of the usual players’ safe zones, the training room included. Even the Phillies’ press relations staff was legitimately stumped. He could have been anywhere. Maybe he had personal business. It’s a non-issue, even if his recent play has generated some frowns and some conversation around the Phillies’ traveling party. Besides, as Mackanin had promised, Herrera was in the lineup for the night end of the doubleheader, back in center, hitting second. Nor did Mackanin elaborate when he had a formal chance to address his early-morning meeting. “It’s in-house stuff,” he said. Asked again if Herrera were healthy, the manager replied, “I think he’s OK.”
It’s early in the season, and Herrera has been prone to slumps. The Phillies were aware that he was hitting .343 last May 16, dropped to .275 in early September, then hit .366 over his final 19 games. Klentak, a numbers man, Dartmouth ‘02, had that information and more in his computer. But what could not have shown up in any program was the likelihood that Herrera would need a sit-down with the manager before Memorial Day of the first season of his new contract.
Mackanin knows how to manage. It’s why Klentak gave him a small contract extension last week. And it’s why Mackanin showed some authority Sunday after being oddly tolerant of recent failure, at least in public. It was a strong showing, and it paid, with the Phillies scoring once in the seventh and three times in the ninth to win.
Klentak, with Andy MacPhail holding his coat, hasn’t made many signature moves since becoming general manager. But he did sniff out and re-sign Jeremy Hellickson, a quality move. And he did commit to Herrera, choosing to do so before similarly enriching, say, Maikel Franco, who is making just $565,000 this season and is about to be eligible for arbitration.
It’s too early to declare the Herrera commitment wrong. But it is not wrong to wonder if it wasn’t done too early. If Mackanin’s initiative Sunday works and Herrera begins to stir, then Klentak will have had a two-ply strong last few days. If not, then he will face even deeper questioning the next time he makes a seemingly quick decision.