Loss of revenue no excuse for not re-signing Realmuto
Flyers take a shot at forward with top pick » Pages 61-62
For the good of All Things Phillies, John Middleton has reassigned Matt Klentak to some unspecified job that will not include identifying pitching talent.
That’s a start.
But making an example of Klentak, which he knew would be popular with the public, does not absolve Middleton of his responsibility. That is to keep the Phillies operating as a Mega-Market Franchise, no matter how many pitches are being thrown at his head.
Until recently, Middleton was willing to do exactly that. The $330,000,000 he dropped on Bryce Harper was a signal that the Phillies would never fold in a no-limit game. Tucked, though, into his press availability after firing Klentak was a disturbing and alarming comment. The topic turning to J.T. Realmuto, who is no longer contracted to catch one wobbly Phillies pitch, Middleton tried to pretend that he is not a $3.5-billionaire.
“Can you tell me what the governor and the mayor of
Philadelphia are going to allow us to have next year in the way of fans?” Middleton said. “Because if you do, you know something that I don’t. I have no idea what’s going to be allowed. And obviously that’s going to determine revenues. And revenuers determine what you can do and what you can’t do.”
Many thanks, J-Midz, for the cash-in, cash-out business tutorial. But prerationalizing a potential departure of Realmuto is a sequel to Bill Giles’ onceridiculed “small market” proclamation.
The Phillies, and that included Klentak and Middleton, were roundly applauded for the willingness to include top pitching prospect, Sixto Sanchez, in a package for Realmuto. But once that trade was approved, it was mandatory that the Phillies made sure the best catcher in baseball was more than a year-anda-half rent-a-player. That cash to re-sign him had to be in the budget long before politicians irrationally shuttered major-league box offices.
By next season, J.T. Realmuto will be the highestpaid catcher in history and will be playing for a majorleague team that was not allowed to have fans in its stands this season. It could be the Phillies. But if it isn’t, Middleton will no longer be able to hide behind the cover of a scapegoated general manager.
• In other years, Aaron Nola’s annual late-season fade could have been blamed on fatigue. But when he wilted, too, at the end of a 60-game season, the code had been broken.
It’s not a workload that affects Nola. It’s the weight of September baseball, even if it happens to be the third month of a season.
So while Middleton is at it, he ought to be jumping into the bidding for Trevor Bauer, making Nola the Phillies’ No. 2 pitcher, not their ace.
That is, unless he is running a small-market operation.
•••
I’m thinking an in-home trash compactor is not a necessity. You?
•••
Most likely, Chuck Fletcher’s recent verbal back-pat of Shayne Gostisbehere was a signal to keep the defenseman’s trade value high.
It might also have been a nudge to Alain Vigneault.
“I think he had a frustrating season,” Fletcher said of Gostisbehere. “I don’t think physically he was at the level he wanted to be at until the end. Shayne is 27 years old. There’s not many 27 year olds in the league that have had 60-point seasons.”
Gostisbehere was healthy at the end, yet was a regular scratch. That’s the call of Vigneault, whose core appeal is his willingness to set a lineup with his gut, not a statistics sheet. But in his six seasons, Gostisbehere has had 22 goals and 75 as
sists on the power play. A coach whose man-advantage struggles led to a second-round postseason exit should be able to find some use for that kind of pointproducing defenseman.
Often in sports, unexpected circumstances provide surprise value. And when Matt Niskanen chose the other day to retire, the Flyers suddenly were a little less flush with good defensemen. Yet there was Gostisbehere, still under contract, just two seasons removed from that 65-point season.
A game of breaks, that hockey. If Vigneault opens his mind to Gostisbehere, the Flyers can benefit from one.
•••
You want me to vote for the other candidate? Then text me that you want me to vote for yours.
•••
The minute the state of Pennsylvania announced Tuesday that up to 7,500 people would be permitted
to attend outdoor sporting events, Jeffrey Lurie should have been out on 11th
Street, personally stringing the velvet ropes at the Linc’s entrances.
He should have triggered fireworks from the stadium’s roof, bought full-page newspaper ads welcoming fans back, and announced that he’d personally buy a beer for every of-age customer at the Eagles’ next home game, in two weeks against Baltimore.
OK, so there are hurdles, among them a final approval from the mayor of Philadelphia to reopen the allowable 15 percent of the Linc. But the end of the sports complex fan-ban is drawing nigh. And isn’t that what Lurie pretended all along that he wanted?
“We are hopeful there’s going to be real ways of having significant fans in our stadium pretty soon, maybe not for September, but after that,” he had said. “We’re looking at innovative ways of testing, with rapid
testing, with point-of-care testing, with home testing.”
He’s had the time to arrange the (pick a description) testing. He’s had the time to prepare a lottery to decide which fans should be allowed to use their licensed seats. He says he wants the fans back.
He can’t be slow off the ball on this one.
•••
I refuse to believe that anyone has ever been frightened by a so-called scary Halloween movie.
•••
If Ben Simmons is a Sixer past the next trade deadline, Doc Rivers will be the Coach of the Year.
If Ben Simmons is not a Sixer past the next trade deadline, Doc Rivers will be Coach of the Next Year.
•••
The fake fan noise at sporting events … I don’t get it.
Contact Jack McCaffery at jmccaffery@21stcenturymedia.com