Klentak writes different ending for Saunders and Gomez
PHILADELPHIA » Rather than dwell on a season of abject failure — after all, who wants to think about (or pay to see) that? — Phillies general manager Matt Klentak was sure to promote the idea Tuesday that his roster shuffling was more the product of advancing the career of Cameron Perkins than a very belated sacking of free agent flop Michael Saunders.
Took that one right off his Power of Positive Spinning app.
“The truth is, we still believe Michael Saunders is capable of ... getting hot and getting through a stretch where he gets going again,” Klentak said after he gently told Saunders to start walking the plank. “Hopefully for him that will happen. But we reached a point now, we’re getting toward the end of June, Cameron Perkins has had a really good first half of the Triple-A season, and more importantly, he’s done it in areas that are really important to us as a franchise.”
To clarify, Saunders, who was signed in January to a 1-year, $9 million deal, was designated for assignment just over two months into the season. Joining him was reliever Jeanmar Gomez, who looked like a lockdown closer until late August, but essentially hasn’t looked like a major league pitcher since.
Soon, he probably won’t be one.
Klentak has seven days to trade either player or give them an outright release. While praising the worth of both of them he assured the media that neither would be expected to go to the minors if/when they were to clear waivers.
“They both have enough service time ... they will be traded in seven days or released,” Klentak said. “Those are our two options.”
His decisions during the offseason to sign Saunders and avoid arbitration with Gomez via a $4.2 million re-upping probably weren’t the best of options, either. But Saunders was an All-Star last summer with the Toronto Blue Jays. Of course, that was off a monster first half, with his post-All-Star break performances being rather abysmal (.178 average in the second half).
Saunders would wind up hitting .253 with 24 home runs, 57 RBIs and an .815 OPS. Good numbers, though that first half should have stood out like a beacon. That’s because the power pace Saunders was on this season wasn’t far off what his other years had been about. This is a guy that had 75 career homers (with nearly a third of them coming last season) over 702 games prior to this season.
This terrible year had seen him hit six homers in 61 games, pretty much following suit in his career pace. What stung the Phillies was the .205 average he’d compiled, and the way many of his recent games showed him producing so many ugly at-bats.
“It definitely didn’t work out the way that we hoped it would, or the way Michael hoped it would,” Klentak said. “Obviously in January this was not the story we were hoping would be written. I think one of the things as management that we have to do is to always keep an open mind. You can’t lock yourself in and become too rigid in your decision-making. You have to be willing to make adjustments when the time is right. And we’ve tried over the first couple of months of the year a lot of things to get Michael going.
“As I said, it very well may happen. It may happen in the second half of this year with somebody else. But for where we are as a franchise we thought it was the right time.”
The right time to get rid of him, that is. Which brings us to the new guy ... (what’s his name again?) ... Perkins.
“This is a guy who has worked hard at controlling the strike zone, he can play all three outfield spots, he’s a good athlete,” Klentak said of the Phillies’ apparent new right-fielder, starting Wednesday. “He’s a little bit older for a minor league guy. He’s done everything he needs to do. It’s an excellent time for him to come up and get some playing time.”
Perkins, 26, was a sixthround draft choice in 2012. He certainly hasn’t torn up pitching at every major league level; in fact, he only got into double figures in home runs once, hitting 11 of them in 100 games with Reading in 2015.
The wind can be beneficial at that park.
But Perkins has been solid at the plate since being elevated to Triple-A. He hit .292 with eight homers and 47 RBIs in a full season with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs last year, and was at .298 through 63 games this season with a .388 on-base percentage. In case you didn’t know... “He’s the 10th-leading hitter in the International League right now and third in on-base percentage,” manager Pete Mackanin said in pumping-up Perkins. “He’s a solid defender anywhere in the outfield. I like his approach. He’s a hard-nosed player, so I’m anxious to see him play.”
Actually, Mackanin has his fair share of anxiety everywhere else with this team. He should be eager to see Perkins, if only because it’s something different to look at when the Phillies are on the field.
There were other newcomers, too, with reliever Hoby Milner coming up to replace Gomez. Other than his name, the interesting thing about Hoby is he’s actually left-handed. The Phillies don’t normally do lefty pitching.
Another “newcomer” is Brock Stassi, who failed an audition after coming north with the club, was recently demoted ... and is back because Jerad Eickhoff was put on the disabled list with back issues.
Could be a very temporary stay for Stassi because the Phils are going to have to call up a starter to take Eickhoff’s turn in the rotation this weekend.
But then, one setback and subsequent positive spin at a time, OK?