Phils’ weak bench buckling under stress of mediocrity
A couple of weekends ago, two tightrope walkers traveled the length of Times Square in a televised spectacle that was unnecessarily risky. Soon after, Gabe Kapler would roll into town and try the baseball variety of the same stunt. For reasons from farmsystem failure to generalmanaging mediocrity, from injury to suspension, and from rotten hitting to an over-stocked bullpen, the Phillies’ manager would be made to carefully spend a weekend series in Citi Field placing the only eight Phillies position players worth anything onto his lineup card.
Then, he would try not to look down. Why? Because this would be his safety net of a bench: Sean Rodriguez, a 34-yearold career .226 hitter; Roman Quinn, hitting .200 at age 26, out of minor-league options and basically reduced to a pinch-runner and marginal last-inning defensive upgrade; Andrew Knapp, 27, who has chased his .198 batting average of 2018 with a robust .152 this season; and Brad Miller, 29, a .240-hitting veteran dragged from the Yankees’ Class AAA garage sale.
Rodriguez. Quinn. Knapp. Miller. The Marlins, who didn’t even try to build a contender, can project a more threatening bench. No wonder the Phillies, once so proud of their depth of power and production, have been trending more toward third place than the top of the NL East.
There are some explanations. Odubel Herrera was arrested for an alleged domestic violence incident and suspended for the season. Andrew McCutchen ripped his knee. Both had been major-league AllStars. There were the challenges of Aaron Altherr and Nick Williams, each considered valuable prospects as recently as a year ago, to hit big-league pitching. Scott Kingery was ticketed to be Kapler’s superutility player yet had to become a regular. And Jay Bruce was hired to provide outfield depth, then immediately had to replace McCutchen in the lineup. But the depth problem is connected, too, to GM Matt Klentak’s insistence on carrying 13 pitchers, no more than four worth more than two days of job security.
The Phillies are not the only team with such a crowded bullpen. And it is Kapler’s desire to have multiple backup arms. So the Phillies will dress eight relievers, even if four are likely to do nothing on any night but vandalize the bullpen with spent sunflower seeds while the other four are doing the same to their earned run averages.
Better they should employ an extra hitter … John Mallee should excuse the obscenity.
“I think if you have Matt Joyce sitting at home or at Triple-A, maybe you’d toy with the idea of five men on the bench,” Kapler said. “In a perfect world with a perfect option, sure. But you are also examining personnel. I will say this: It is much more frequent that we get concerned about not having enough pitching than not having one additional hitter on the bench.
“We almost never run out of position players.”
No, not them. They’re roster savants. All it would take, though, is for one of that everyday eight to report a tweaked oblique and suddenly Kapler is trusting Rodriguez for a boost back into a pennant race.
Then again, what peace it must bring a manger to know that he has both Edgar Garcia and Yacksel Rios just a hotline phone call away.
“There are days when we’re like, ‘We don’t want to use this guy, he’s probably best served to be down today,’ and we have to use him or something like that,” Kapler said. “So I think the best construction for us is probably eight relievers.”
When David Robertson is healthy, and whenever Pat Neshek finds the energy, and if Seranthony Dominguez can be salvaged, and with the way Hector Neris is pitching, and with a healthy Tommy Hunter, the Phils’ bullpen could yet be a late-season strength. But treating a manager of a team that often struggles to score with enough relief pitchers for an NBA postseason playing rotation is a misuse of human resources.
“We’re constantly evaluating the way that we do things and looking at the results and trying to figure out if there are other things we should’ve done,” Klentak said recently. “As I think back to the offseason, there’s not a lot that I would’ve done differently in the depth department. We thought we were going to have too many outfielders, with Altherr and Williams and Quinn, plus the guys coming in the system, plus the regulars. And then Odubel gets placed on administrative leave, Aaron’s designated for assignment, Quinny’s on the DL, (Adam) Haseley comes up and hits the DL. It’s hard to project you’re going to have that many guys go down at roughly the same time.”
Klentak will try to add depth before the July 31 trade deadline, but has said he will not disrupt the roster core. He needs a better backup catcher, and should be able to pry a veteran from a non-contender looking to cut payroll. Quinn has ability but is running out of time. Kapler is sold on Rodriguez, even if it is difficult to know why. Miller is a left-handed hitter with some pop.
But the Phillies need more help from their bench and less clutter in their bullpen. Because the way they are constructed, they are a reckless act with too flimsy a safety net.