For Klentak, now is time to get to work

Gabe Kapler was in his regular conversation with baseball writers the other night in New York, answering questions, providing medical updates, engaging in back-and-forth non-baseball chatter, conjugating the verb profile. Standard stuff.

“Well now that it looks like you could be contenders,” one question began. With that, the Phillies’ manager interrupted: “We are contenders.” Present tense. Of course. And with that, there was a message, just as there would be a similar message after the game, one in which the Phillies would be shut out for 10 innings and lose to the sputtering Mets. Asked if his club needed another bat, the manager said, “Everything we need is in this clubhouse right now. We know that Matt (Klentak) is looking under every stone to give us any possible advantage. And we trust that.”

So there was the demand, and it was consistent from the early evening to late at night: Hey, MKlenny, get to work.

Through his two-plus years as general manager, Klentak has done a splendid job of maximizing his honeymoon period. And given that he had a massive workload from a disintegrating mess left by Pat Gillick and others, he has needed every possible survival instinct. So with the clear comprehension of a textbook that a Dartmouth grad would be expected to demonstrate, Klentak nicely bought himself early peace by keeping Pete Mackanin as his holdover manager. That way, once Mackanin failed, Klentak could re-set his career timer and hire his own manager. Doug Pederson could not have more expertly designed such a complex scoring maneuver.

With Kapler in place, but with the fans still un-sold, Klentak would spend his third offseason investing just enough in free agency to hint at a re-set rebuilding timeline. In purchasing Carlos Santana and Jake Arrieta, he bought himself fresh protection against any accusation that he was unwilling or unable to push the operation forward. That’s how it’s done.

All of which brings Klentak to the All-Star break, which will be followed shortly by the trade deadline. All of which brings him to a vital career decision point. He must make a move. And it must be a big move, not an Ed Wade Special, the kind that yields Turk Wendell and leaves the fans instantly disappointed and figuring out how to use the newly acquired personification of ordinary as a talk-radio punchline.

Every season is different. Every moment provides its own opportunities. This summer, the Phillies are hanging around the top of the N.L. East as they near the 100-game checkpoint. And that makes it more ripe for a major in-season move than at any time since 2009, when Ruben Amaro Jr. was too timid to acquire both Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay, settling for one. And the Phillies never did win that follow-up World Series, did they?

For weeks, Klentak has been haunted by the reality that developing Hall of Famer Manny Machado, still just 26, will be traded by the Baltimore Orioles before July 31. Careful not to break any tampering regulations, he has had to stop questions before they’d even been asked. But Machado is available. And Klentak, professionally raised in the Baltimore organization, knows it. He also knows his surprisingly contending Phillies are not likely to reach the playoffs without an offensive upgrade at shortstop, no matter how many of John Middleton’s millions he plopped on Scott Kingery before he’d ever played a major-league inning.

So he must understand, too, that if he wants to thrive professionally in a city that rarely canonizes a general manager, he must start giving fans what they want, when they want it, and at whatever price the market demands.

“Every market develops for its own reasons, so one year is not necessarily going to be like the next year,” Klentak said. “It’s very possible that there could be more sellers in this year’s market then there have been in prior years. Ultimately, most trades come down to supply and demand. What’s the competition for a player’s services? Until you have those conversations and talk to all the teams and figure out what the market is it’s hard to know for sure. But right now in theory it should be a good thing if there are more sellers.”

The demand: Machado, even for just a summertime rental.

The Phillies’ supply: Zach Eflin and Sixto Sanchez. Not complicated. Eflin, 24, has been spectacular this season. Understandably, Klentak is reluctant to part with such a talented starting pitcher. But the right-hander has been prone to physical setbacks since he was in high school. If ever there was an opportunity to sell high, Eflin has peaked at the ideal time. One of two things is about to happen: Eflin will continue to develop as dominating major-league righthander, or he will either have another physical issue and retreat to aboveaverage. The racing form doesn’t favor the former.

Sanchez, 19, is the Phillies’ top pitching prospect. At least that’s what good folks who fancy spending time in 3,000-seat, bushleague mini-parks say. But why wait for Sanchez, who already has some injury issues, to help in 2024 when neither Kingery nor J.P. Crawford can hit well enough to help win a playoff spot in 2018?

Good pitchers. Plural. Top prospects, at least as declared by often inaccurate minor-league-niks That’s the type of package the Yankees will throw at Baltimore if the Phillies don’t do so first. It’s why they’re the Yankees. It’s the way every grown-up franchise could act.

Klentak’s hand-picked manager is screaming as loud as he can for help in the middle of his infield and batting order without causing a scene. Every market has its own dynamic. The Phillies are close to making a move for Machado. They must. Because a general manager running low on honeymoon-package perks has to be ready to act when the time is right. That’s in that textbook, too.