Moniak will get chance to keep job in center
PHILADELPHIA » Joe Girardi hasn’t been bashful about saying that the Phillies need more production from center field, who its occupant might be.
But when the next man up is the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft that the Phillies have long waited on, in a season where the offense at large has struggled, a little tempering of the tone may be in order.
Girardi will walk that line with Mickey Moniak, called up Wednesday. Moniak will play, come what may. Girardi hopes he’ll take ownership of the job in a way the three players before him have failed to. With even a chance of that, Girardi is content to toss Moniak the keys to the car and let him take the wheel.
“We told him he’s going to play,” Girardi said Friday before a 9-2 win over St. Louis. “That’s the bottom line. It’s not like I’m going to play you one day and then sit you the next. That’s not what I’m going to do. You’re going to against right handers and I might even choose to play you against some of the lefthanders, so just go out and play and do your thing. I don’t want him saying, ‘if I don’t get a hit today, am I going to be in there tomorrow.’ No, he’s going to play.”
Moniak hasn’t had many of chances to play since the end of 2019 thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. After a promising Double-A season in 2019, Moniak whiled away a disjointed 2020 at the simulated games of the Lehigh Valley site, getting eight games and 18 plate appearances in the bigs.
That taste sent him into the offseason with an idea of how to improve. A strong spring was both a confidence boost and a “sense of belonging”. Though the 12th-best prospect in the Phillies system, according to MLB.com, didn’t factor into the threeman race in center, he hit .273 with two homers and five extra-base hits in Florida.
“It’s different than last year,” Moniak said Wednesday. “I think I have a better idea of what’s to come. It’s early in the year. … My whole mindset is to play hard every single pitch, do what I do, stay within myself and try to do everything I can to help the team win.”
No one has claimed the center field job in any meaningful way. Adam Haseley, who fought a groin injury in spring training, is hitting .190. He’ll be away from the team indefinitely to attend to a personal matter. Roman Quinn is 1-for-20. And it says something about the long-term prospects that the Phillies bypassed both Odubel Herrera and Scott Kingery.
“Mickey had a really good spring training, too,” Girardi said. “You look at Mickey’s numbers, they’re pretty good, too. When we look at Odubel, he’s not quite there yet with consistent at-bats. It came down to, we felt better about Mickey’s at-bats on a consistent basis.”
Moniak made his his first big league appearance in center Friday. He acquitted himself better on a windy South Philly night than his opposite number, the Cardinals’ Dylan Carlson, who misjudged a Jean Segura fly ball by 30 feet for an RBI double in the six-run second inning.
Moniak went 0-for-3. He was walked intentionally in the second, then flied out to the track against lefty Andrew Miller in the eighth.
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Another way to lift the burden on the guys in center?
More production from the other two regular outfielders.
After Bryce Harper excoriated his team’s lack of urgency this week, he backed up his words with a two-run double in the rally. Harper also scored on J.T. Realmuto’s homer in the seventh and hit two long fly balls that got battened down by the breeze.
“On a normal night, he’s probably got two home runs and a double,” Girardi said. “Not tonight. The weather will change. I like the way he swung the bat.”
“I came to the Bank to hit homers and it’s just not happening. That wind’s brutal,” Harper said. “But I feel good. I’ve felt good in the box but it’s just getting pitches over the plate to do damage with.”
Andrew McCutchen has started slowly, batting .139 with a homer and two RBIs. Friday, he hit a two-run single in the second and added an RBI knock in the eighth.
The relief after the first hit was palpable, and it trickled down the order. It’s also part of why Girardi is reticent to make lineup changes this early.
“He’s such a great at-bat for us, he gets on base, has really good at-bats, sees a lot of pitches,” Harper said of his fellow
former NL MVP. “So when he’s doing that and getting on base for us, that’s huge. We need him to be the guy.”
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There’s usually not much good to come from a series with two rainouts as the Phillies got in New York. But one opportunity presents itself.
Thanks to Monday’s postponement, the Phillies can start Aaron Nola on regular rest Sunday in the series finale with the Cardinals. Matt Moore will go Saturday with Chase Anderson likely Monday vs. the Giants.
That splits the bottom two in the rotation. Nola, Zack
Wheeler and Zach Eflin, who pitched into the eighth before the Cardinals touched him for a hard-hit ball much less a run, are averaging 6.1 innings per start this year. Anderson and Moore are averaging 4.1 innings. That gives the bullpen, in theory, a respite between their heaviest days.
“We’ll have to see how it works,” Girardi said. “We felt comfortable doing that, separating them, in a sense because when you look at the three other guys, we expect them to go deeper in games. So that’s why we decided to do that. The rainout might actually help us.”