McCaffery: Phils shouldn’t wait too long to trust Kingery
PHILADELPHIA » One by one, they’ve arrived, some out of necessity, all out of merit. One by one, they’ve excelled, some with the bat, some in the field, some with strikeout-to-walk ratio. One by one, the core components of the Phillies’ rebuilding plan have snaked through Reading and Allentown and into South Philadelphia.
There was Nick Williams. Then Rhys Hoskins. Then J.P. Crawford and Jorge Alfaro. Previously, there were the young pitchers, Nick Pivetta and others.
There will be one more.
It will happen soon.
“One step away,” Scott Kingery said Tuesday. One. Kingery is 23, and he was in Citizens Bank Park for the day to accept a Paul Owens Award as the Phillies’ top minor league player. He was joined by Tom Eshelman, also 23, honored as the best pitching prospect. Once they become Phillies, and it is going to happen soon, the core players for some excellent minor league teams will have made it to where they belong. Save for a few stragglers, they will be Phillies. And they will either work, or they will not.
Every indication is that Kingery will work.
He hit .304 with 26 home runs, 29 doubles, and eight triples during Class AA and Class AAA stops this summer. He had an .889 OPS and a 23-game hitting streak. He stole 29 bases. At one point, he played error-free second base for 47 consecutive games. The top minor-league prospect? Sounds about right. Even with Crawford and Williams and Alfaro. Even with Rhys Hoskins, who didn’t just enter the big leagues, but set the record for most home runs by a player making a season debut in August. The previous leader was Ted Williams.
That’s the kind of summer it was for the Phillies’ development process. It was a robust one. And Kingery will be, and he must be, next.
“Scott showed the ability to be an impactful everyday player on both sides of the ball, and that is the most exciting thing,” said director of player development Joe Jordan, in the announcement. “The power showed up this season, and he wins as many games on the defensive side as the offensive side. That, and his energetic style of play, makes him an exciting young player with a very bright future with the Phillies.”
Since they don’t have much of a present, the Phillies need a future. They’ve promised one for too long. They owe the fans one. And as soon as they can do some roster re-arrangement, Kingery should wind up as their second baseman. Maybe at the beginning of next season. Certainly by the end. Nightly, Pete Mackanin is made to shove Crawford around his infield, playing him at third, short and second. “We have to see him,” the manager explained. The Phillies have seen him. He defends with a rare ease. But Maikel Franco can hit line drives off the wall, Freddy Galvis should win a gold glove, and Cesar Hernandez has surfaced as a valuable leadoff hitter. So where does everyone fit?
“Personally I think I’ll try to block most of that out,” Kingery said. “I know it’s probably going to be tough. I’ll probably see some of it. I’m just going to do what I can this offseason to get myself the best shot to come into spring training and have a good year.
“Honestly, anything can happen. But we kind of got switched around a little bit in the end, which I think is a good thing. Obviously J.P. came up and made his debut at third base, which is not his natural position. I think he only had played five or six games there. But there was the opportunity open and he was able to take that final step. And even if you do have the versatility to able to play different positions, if one opportunity opens up and you’re able to go in there, that might not be where you end up for you career. But if it gives you the opportunity to take that final step, then it’s good to have that versatility.”
Kingery is a second baseman. Though he played a little at short late in the Lehigh Valley season, that’s where he should stay.
“I said going out of spring training — and that was before we even broke camp — that I saw two guys that stood out, big-time, to me,” Larry Bowa has said. “And that was Hoskins and Kingery. They both stood out like sore thumbs. The rest of the guys have their pluses and minuses. But those guys stood out with their professionalism, with their work ethic. So we’ll see how that goes.”
By the time Williams, Hoskins, Crawford and Alfaro made it through the big-league checkpoint, the Phillies season was well on its way to insulting awfulness. It’s what happens when somebody has the big idea not to use the most talented players. It’s what happens when Owens Award winners are not quickly trusted.
“You hear ‘consistently’ a lot,” Kingery said. “And obviously you look at players like Rhys and Nick. Rhys has incredible plate discipline, and you can see how that carries over here. So when they get up here and they start doing that consistently, it’s why they’re there. And it’s why they’ve made that final step.”
The project is just about complete. It might be down to one final step. One.