Galvis happy to help with move to center for nightcap
PHILADELPHIA » When the lineup for the nightcap of a doubleheader with Atlanta surfaced Wednesday, Freddy Galvis may have been the least surprised of the scant crowd at Citizens Bank Park to see himself penciled into center field.
The shor tstop, whose manager has consistently touted him as a Gold Glove talent in the midst of a career year at the plate, had met with Pete Mackanin and general manager Matt Klentak earlier in the week. As the Phillies prepare their collection of assets to mobilize into winning baseball lineups in the notas-distant future, the mantra of the present is versatility. So when posed with testing a new position, Galvis was onboard.
“I just want the team to win,” Galvis said after a 5-2 loss to the Braves. “And I’m going to try to do my best, every single time. It doesn’t matter where they put me, I’m going to play hard and try to win that day.”
Galvis had never before played an inning in center field in the bigs. He had a 10-game f lirtation with left field in 2013, making no errors in 20 chances. But since the start of 2015, he’d played just four games away from shortstop, all at second base.
Galvis’ experimentation with the out f ield, however brief it’ll be, follows K lentak’s versatility mantra. Given Galvis’ natural gifts as a fielder, Mackanin wants to see how much f lexibilit y he can extract from a player who has expressed a fervent desire to play all 162 games — at shortstop or elsewhere.
“A s an organization, we’re at that the point where we don’t have the greatest record and we’re going to cover all our bases and move people around just to make sure we don’t end up f latfooted on some kind situation that might arise,” Mackanin said.
Galvis didn’t have much time to prepare, but that didn’t much matter, since his infield brilliance translates smoothly. He’s got an outfielder’s glove that he breaks out from time to time for batting practice fungoes, and with experience from spring trainings of the past, he had all the knowhow necessary to draw on.
“I’ve played outfield before, I don’t know, three or four years ago, something like that,” Galvis said. “It’s baseball. Sometimes you’re shagging, catching f ly balls. So it’s nothing too crazy.”
“Freddy ’s unique in that he can play any- where,” Mackanin said. “I’ve seen him play the outfield in the past for us and you can see him move out there. He knows what he’s doing.”
Much was made in recent weeks of third-base reps materializing for prospects J.P. Craw ford and Scott Kingery, regularly a shortstop and second baseman, respectively. Concerns over the tinkering may be overblown, especially since the moves snugly fit the ethos Klentak has instilled.
Both Aaron Altherr and Nick Williams have played all three outf ield positions. Rhys Hoskins’ partition of time between first base and left field has succeeded, despite the slugger logging just three games in the outfield at Triple-A. (Odubel Herrera, don’t forget, didn’t play the outfield until his sixth pro season in the Texas organization. He had 13 outfield games under his belt before the Phillies plucked him in the 2014 Rule 5 draft and installed him as an everyday — and All-Star — centerfielder. He hasn’t donned an i n f ielder ’s glove in three big-league seasons.)
With Herrera and Altherr due to return from the disabled list, the outfield pecking order will grow crowded. And callups to Crawford and Kingery are bound to blow in with the winds of September, starting with an 11-game road tr ip that the Phillies embark on following a homestand bookended with twin-bill sweeps (including last Tuesday’s at the hands of the Marlins).
Crawford is hitting just .237, but considering that he languished at .189 in early June, he’s turned it on of late. Kingery, mean- while, torched Double-A to the tune of a .313 average and 18 homers in 69 games. In 57 outings with Lehigh Valley, he’s still raking, batting .298 with 72 hits and 20 RBIs. The duo is ranked third and fourth on MLB.com’s prospect rankings.
Mackanin hinted at more changes. Cesar Hernandez could play shortstop. Maikel Franco could play first. Pedro Florimon, who’s batting .342 pr imarily in the outfield and pounded out hits in both halves of the double dip, could get more looks at shortstop in an audition for a 2018 bench role.
So the decision has nothing to do with Crawford. And yet everything to do with prospects like Crawford.
“Well it might,” Mackanin said. “They moved him around, they moved Kingery around. They’re playing them at different positions. Hoskins came up and played left field and he looks OK in lef t field, not that we’re putting him out there. For that type of reason, that’s why we’re doing all this for.”
As for Galvis, he’s going to do what it takes to keep a memorable 2017 season going. And if that means a few days in center, then so be it.
“September is coming. A lot of players have to play,” he said. “It’s baseball. It’s the way it is. In September we call up a few players. We call up a few pitchers, too. And we try to see almost everybody and try to see what they have for next year.
“Like I said before, I’m just going to be available to play wherever they want to put me. Like I said, I think it’s good. Everything is good so far.”