Uncertain offseason includes question of Klentak
It was right there for the Phillies on Sunday.
The Brewers were losing. The Giants were losing. The Phillies ... well, of course they were losing.
It’s what they do down the stretch drive of a season, whether it’s the September regular kind or a screwy, 60-game COVID chase.
It’s what they’ve done for the last three years of Matt Klentak’s tenure as this team’s general manager, one that is clearly in question as another disappointing offseason approaches.
It began for him nearly five years ago, amid an ongoing, necessary rebuild. He’s fired two managers, hired one of the most respected baseball men out there in Joe Girardi, bought one of the most expensive free agents of all time, and has yet to reverse a downward spiral for a Phillies organization that faces a crossroads.
For the third straight September, the Phillies flopped from a playoff race. For the ninth straight October, there will be no playoffs.
This year the meltdown was more spectacular, since the rewards of a compacted, disjointed and altogether phony schedule for a short season replete with COVID cancellations was that eight teams from each league would make the playoffs, and the Phillies entered the final week essentially in control of their own postseason fate. This largely because they began September with a four-game sweep of the defending champion Nationals, and even though they had the second-worst bullpen in the league, the
Phillies looked certain to break their playoff schneid.
But from that Nationals sweep to the end, they would go 8-13, and even more remarkably, 1-6 in their final week ... and losing even when a win on this last day would still have landed them in the postseason party.
“Coming up one game short, and there were a lot of chances to win that one game, and we weren’t able to do it and it’s extremely frustrating,” Phils manager Girardi said after a lifeless,
5-0 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in the biggest game of this shortest of seasons. “We were up and down all year. It was just kind of how we played; we were streaky. And we happened to finish on a bad streak instead of just an OK streak.
“I can tell you it’s not from lack of effort. It’s not from the guys not preparing to play and to win every day. It’s hard ... there are things we definitely have to get better at.”
One of those things would evidently be to learn how to perform in the clutch. Or to put it another way ... show a little heart and soul?
This sad Sunday anti-performance was only the topper to a dismal Phillies performance over a three-game sweep by the Rays, who are the American League’s No. 1 playoff seed, but also aren’t exactly the ‘ 27 Yankees.
Or maybe not even the
‘20 Yankees, for that matter. Time will tell on that.
For the Phillies, they had a season of relentless injuries. And so did a lot of other teams. Although would-be franchise-changer Bryce Harper has been here two seasons, and Girardi just one 60-game season, they have a long way to go to be truly competitive. And with an owner in John Mid
dleton who might go from impatient to insane any upcoming press conference day now, these Phils are closer to rebuilding than they are to return to glory.
From seasons of 80-82 and 81-81 during the twoyear managerial run of Gabe Kapler, this shortseason winds up 28-32. A below average start some years, a bad season this time around.
“You can call it both ways,” starting and losing pitcher Aaron Nola said, “but it sucks. It’s frustrating. I put that on myself a lot, too.”
He should. The team ace had his fourth straight sub-par September. Sizzling through this season’s first half, Nola finished at 5-5 with a 3.28 ERA. And over his career, his ERA for September starts is in the mid4’s, so there’s that.
“My Septembers aren’t that great,” Nola noticed.
“This year obviously not great. I could have done more. I could have put the team in a better position.”
Put the team in a better position? That, too, is the GM’s job. Klentak failed to do that with an amazingly bad bullpen, and there are no quick fixes there on the horizon.
Free agency will be impacted by the vast loss of revenue across the league, but pitching help aside, you wonder if the Phillies will be able to keep shortstop Didi Gregorious and especially their prized catcher J.T. Realmuto, who should test the free agent waters and could be the subject of a bidding war across the majors.
None other than the highest paid player on the team already laid his stake on that budgetary issue.
“You have to build from within, you have to rely on the guys within the organi
zation to get to where you need to be,” Harper said. “And J.T. Realmuto needs to be our catcher next year. Plain and simple. He’s the best catcher in baseball. He’s the best hitting catcher in baseball. Our guys love to throw to him. ... Anybody that is the best at their position in hitting and fielding needs to be signed. And that’s J.T. Realmuto. I don’t think that should even be a question.”
It might be a question for Realmuto again, but he was unavailable for Zoom comment after the game. Then there’s Klentak, who will keep such talk close to the vest. Of course, he also has his own situation to worry about. Despite two years remaining on his contract, there is a strong majority opinion out there that his time with the Phillies is about to end. So, supporting statements anyone?
“I have loved working with Matt Klentak,” Girardi said. “I think we have an outstanding relationship; we talk about situations all the time. I have loved working with him.”
Also asked about Klentak, because his salary size qualifies him, was Harper. His vote was, well, kind of mailed in.
“I mean, I’m not an owner,” Harper said of Klentak: stay or go. “So, I’m glad I don’t have to make those decisions.”
Klentak made the decision not to make a trade or try to free up free agent dollars to help a relief corps that last year obviously needed relief, and this year was a riotous joke, with an ERA above 7. Once he saw the disaster in the making, Klentak tried to make it over, acquiring the likes of Brandon Workman, Heath Hembree, David Hale and finally David Phelps at the Aug. 31 trade deadline. Pretty much struck out on all of them.
At the end, Girardi was losing with holdover relievers Adam Morgan and Hector Neris, while prospects JoJo Romero and Connor Brogden were offering hope for the future. But is that hope enough?
The Phillies led all of baseball with most blown leads, 21 of their 32 losses.
“The bullpen, it’s made from within,” Harper almost shouted. “Not all teams go out and spend a million-bajillion dollars on bullpens; I mean, you can’t do it. You can’t go out and spend crazy amounts of money on a bullpen, because you have to be able to rely on guys in your organization to get the job done.”
Possible translation: The GM didn’t get the job done when it came to the bullpen. Words to ponder heading to an unclear future