Lack of pitching has Mackanin in the September rough
PHILADELPHIA » Pete Mackanin has played golf for 40 years, and like most amateur participants, vice-versa. He has hit long drives, drained crooked putts, dropped approach shots pin-high. Just not all in the same 18hole endeavor.
“Three times in my life, I broke 80,” he said. “But if you saw me on those days, you’d think I was a pretty good golfer.”
The Phillies’ manager was making a point Tuesday before a game against the visiting Miami Marlins. Though the season had long been lost, he’d seen not one, not two, not three, four or five, but maybe more of his pitchers make statistically impressive starts.
Aaron Nola made some. So did Nick Pivetta and Jake Thompson, Ben Lively and Mark Leiter Jr., Vince Velasquez and Jerad Eickhoff. Zach Eflin, too. Everybody but Clay Buchholz, actually. They all had certain days that hinted at a project completed. Just the same, Mackanin barely has been able to summon the energy for a polite golf clap.
“They all have potential,” he said. “It boils down to being consistent, repeating your release point, repeating your mechanics. And that’s how you become successful. And that’s where they are at. They are at the point of their careers when they start doing that, that’s when they start becoming very successful. It doesn’t matter how hard you throw, it depends on how you locate your pitches, how you use them.”
As march-to-the-box-office orders go, that failed. But that’s where the Phillies are as their season rolls into football weather. They are not convinced that they have the pitching necessary to contend any time before 2019. And Mackanin’s balloon-pop Tuesday was only an echo of everything else that has been said and done as the building project has made a late-season U-turn.
Where once they seemed to have a surplus of inspiring, young arms, by Tuesday the Phillies were down to gambling on 27-year-old Henderson Alvarez, who spent part of this season with the independent Long Island Ducks before a quick hit at Lehigh Valley and a promotion the other day to the Phillies.
Tormented by shoulder troubles since 2015, Alvarez seemed on his way to big-league greatness as recently as 2014, when he was an All-Star for the Marlins while going 12-7 with a 2.65 ERA. In 2013, he fired a no-hitter in Detroit. But after repeated shoulder trauma, he would need to re-invent himself in the independent-ball underground. By Sunday, Mackanin will turn to a six-man starting rotation, with Alvarez in the mix.
“This is definitely a great place to get my career going again,” said Alvarez, 27. “All I want to do is take advantage of this opportunity that they gave me and show them, everyone actually, that I’m ready to do this again. I want to show them that my shoulder is strong and that I’m ready to go.”
It’s worth a chance. And it is not likely to be the last one the Phillies take. Suddenly, they are inside-out, rosterwise; that is, they have so many intriguing position players that Mackanin is unable to settle on an every-day eight, yet he has a pitching staff that typically fizzles.
In his last public appearance, Matt Klentak indicated it was possible that he Phillies would package hitters in an offseason initiative to add pitching. And Mackanin was even more blunt about the idea the recently, saying, “I think we have to upgrade.”
How? There are some indicators. The lineup Mackanin authored Tuesday, along with an accompanying sales pitch, hinted that Cesar Hernandez could be an offseason lure. Mackanin had J.P. Crawford at second base in his highly anticipated Citizens Bank Park debut, with Odubel Herrera leading off. Quickly, though, he would move to stabilize the perception of Hernandez’s value.
“‘I’ll say this: Cesar Hernandez is a prototypical leadoff guy with a .360plus on-base percentage,” Mackanin said. “He’s a .280-.290 hitter and he plays good defense. He can run and he needs work on stealing bases, but I like him in the leadoff spot.”
Hernandez can’t become a free agent until 2021. And that will make him valuable in trade. The Phils could use Crawford at short and Freddy Galvis at second next season, with Rhys Hoskins and Maikel Franco on the infield corners. With some young players, Hernandez could land a responsible, major-league starting pitcher. Buy now, and for just the cost of shipping and handling, the Phillies might throw in Franco or Tommy Joseph. The Phillies have decided their future lineup is beginning to make sense, but their starting pitching is just tantalizing enough to lose games.
There are 18 games to play, and 18 times for Mackanin to tee-up a young starting pitcher. As usual, he’ll just take his hacks.