SNAIL’S PACE
After a handful of minor moves, rebuilding effort for the Phillies continues to inch forward
PHILADELPHIA » Through the horror that has been the Phillies’ season, there was always the allure of July 31. Wait until then, and things could change. Wait for the trade deadline, and the outlook could be different. They didn’t. They weren’t. It was the same. Even though the Phillies had been playing better since the All-Star break — simple baseball odds were that they would not be so inept through the entire buck62 — the trade deadline itself provided the usual: Nothing of help to the major-league roster. By the time the Phils would defeat the Atlanta Braves, 7-6, Monday the only thing fresh about the lineup backing up Nick Pivetta was left-fielder Hyun Soo Kim, who’d arrived from Baltimore in the grab-bag for Jeremy Hellickson. Kim is 29, on an expiring contract and was hitting .232 for the Orioles. Save the date for the bobblehead night.
Just before the deadline, and then right at it, general manager Matt Klentak was able to execute what seems to have been the maneuver on Page 1 of his playbook. He flipped four players he’d acquired in the offseason for that very purpose in exchange for prospects. Pat Neshek went to Colorado. Howie Kendrick landed in Washington. Hellickson rolled into Camden Yards. And Monday, Joaquin Benoit was bounced to Pittsburgh.
For that, the Phillies would receive Kim, Double-A pitcher Garrett Cleavenger and a bunch of prospects so deep in minor league baseball that, for them, just someday becoming an IronPig would be a fantasy.
Acquiring veterans for half a season and then turning them into prospects is a good way to ensure that a team will forever be just good enough to never make it far from that treadmill. It’s a quick fix, scratch-off-ticket stab. It’s a plan, but not much of one. Yet Klentak is so convinced of its value that he hasn’t ruled out doing it next year … or beyond.
“As a general rule, I don’t mind the one-year deals, whether you’re a rebuilding club or a winnow club,” Klentak said. “There’s some value in these kinds of deals, as evidenced by the trades we made this week. So I would not say that we’re out of that, though I don’t think our offseason plan changes by virtue of the fact that we made these four trades.”
Sometimes, the flipthe-veteran game can have alluring results. The Phillies, or so say the scouts, did well in moving Neshek. They acquired J.D. Hammer, a relief-pitching prospect with an ability to keep the “K” counter busy. They pulled in shortstop Jose Gomez, a noted contact hitter. And they brought back righthanded pitcher Alejandro Requena, whose lowlevel-minor-league stats sparkled. The Phillies were so lost in the N.L. East race that any highly paid, seventh-inning pitcher was a luxury, even one of the All-Star variety. So, well, OK.
“They obviously have more ground to cover before they reach the big leagues, but we like all three of these guys for a variety of reasons,” Klentak said. “It is a very balanced trade. We got a young starter, a young reliever, and a young shortstop that can do a lot of things that we like. We do think highly of these three guys.” Splendid. Whatever Klentak did at the deadline was not going to turn the Phillies into contenders before 2019 at the earliest. But that didn’t mean he had to move in and out of the thing without making them significantly different. Even if Scott Kingery, J.P. Crawford and Dylan Cozens have yet to be sufficiently seasoned, nothing Klentak did would clear an avenue to the big leagues for Rhys Hoskins. The bullpen, leaky all season, was not improved. The starting pitching was not improved. The everyday lineup was not improved. It’s almost as if Klentak and Andy MacPhail are terrified of doing anything other than flooding their farm system with players who have a chance to help in five years. (In a related note, Markelle Fultz threw out the ceremonial first pitch Monday.)
The Phillies have realized a value in their strength-in-numbers approach to acquiring young pitchers. Pivetta, a what-the-heck stab acquired in the Jon Papelbon sell-off, was outstanding again Monday striking out five in six innings, allowing one run. Vince Velasquez, part of the haul from Houston for Ken Giles, is pitching well again, but must stay healthy. So it’s a plan. It’s just not a reliable plan. And it’s certainly not a soothing plan.
As the deadline neared, the news leaked that Klentak was exploring what it would take to acquire Giancarlo Stanton or Christian Yelich or both from Miami, which is about to engage in one of its famous salary purges. It would have been a $300,000,000plus investment, but John Middleton has that kind of a stash. It might even happen in the offseason. If so, even with Stanton’s history of injury, it would be a franchise re-defining initiative.
Not that the Phillies had to be buyers, not sellers at the deadline, but they could have used such a move just to prove they were serious about establishing a fresh foundation. Instead, they wrapped themselves in a five-game winning streak and considered themselves productive.
Veteran players on pricey one-year deals were out.
Young players many steps from the major leagues came in.
Next trade deadline just 365 days away. Don’t miss it.