MacPhail won’t scuttle system at trade deadline
PHILADELPHIA >> With the Phillies more than one player away from a world championship, yet close enough to a playoff spot that they could use a boost, Andy MacPhail Friday spilled his trade deadline strategy.
The Phillies’ president will not approve shattering his farm system or roster to provide Gabe Kapler’s team with late-season help. He wound, however, be willing to ransack John Middleton’s wallet.
For that, the Phillies’ plan before July 31 is clear: They will take high-salaried players off the hands of non-contenders, yet they will not be at-all-cost buyers.
“Our ownership has been pretty clear and they’ve demonstrated by their actions that salary is not something that is going to be something that will hold us back,” McPhail said before a game against the Washington Nationals on Friday. “It has to make sense. I think, from my standpoint, I am going to be more judicious; we win seven in a row on this homestand, I might feel differently.
“But given our current circumstances, I think I’m going to be a little judicious and careful about what talent is walking out the door.”
As the post-All-Star-break portion of their season began Friday, the Phillies stood as the National League’s second wild-card team. That was close enough for MacPhail to smear praise over his coaching staff and players and to couch the Phillies as anything but sellers. But he was frank enough to concede the Phils were not in a position to do any panic buying and were unlikely to be involved in a major in-season trade.
“I’d say the biggest factor of how active you’re going to be at the deadline, the group that influences that the most, are the players on the field,”’ MacPhail said. “‘If you think that you are close to the ultimate prize and you’re one piece away, then your appetite for giving up something big to acquire that piece is pretty substantial.
“‘If you’re a team like we are now, we’re in the postseason if the season ended today. But what if we’re in a one-game playoff? From my perspective, you have to be a bit more judicious with your playing talent if you think you have a longer haul to get to the postseason.’’
Considering the aggressiveness with which the Phillies attacked the offseason, with Middleton agreeing to be a little “stupid” about spending and investing $330,000,000 for 13 years’ worth of Bryce Harper, that was a mild walk-back of expectations.
“‘What we had last year were performances from month-tomonth that were wildly varied,” he said. “This year, we’re uneven. We play real good against a good opponent one day and not so good the next. I don’t know that that’s a complete surprise when you consider that the roster has been overhauled. You have so many players who haven’t played together. It takes a little while for that to jell, so I’m not as vexed as I was at the end of the year last year.
“But I acknowledge that we are uneven. Our starters will give us two good starts and look like they’re getting over the hump, and the next thing they’re out of there in the fourth inning. That’s uneven to me as opposed to the wild swings we had among everybody last year.”
Yet even with the wobbly play, MacPhail expressed strong and borderline defiant support for his manager and coaching staff.
“To me, honestly, I hate to even dignify that question with an answer,” MacPhail said, when asked to evaluate Kapler and his coaches. “‘We’re in the postseason today, if the season was over. When this group came over, most of them, we won 66 games the year before. Our goal as a franchise was that we wanted to have the quickest turnaround from a rebuild under a new regime to a postseason. That’s four years. If the season ended today, we would’ve had our goal. We would be in the postseason in our fourth year. If we don’t, we don’t. But we still go for the ultimate goal, which is winning a world championship.
“To suggest for a second that there’s something lacking at the leadership level, coaching level, I just don’t believe that.”
MacPhail did concede that there should be some pitching upgrades.
“We’ve got to keep the ball in the ballpark,” he said. “Right now, we’re 29th out of 30 teams in giving up home runs. You can’t win that way. That obviously has to change.”
Along with general manager Matt Klentak, he intends to change that the simple way: With cash.
“It’s hard for us to make the judgment now that we’re one trade away from the World Series,” MacPhail said. “We don’t believe that. I don’t believe that. So, as a result, you’re going to have to be more judicious with your playing talent. It doesn’t mean you can’t make a different type of deal. It doesn’t mean you can’t make a deal where a component is taking on somebody’s salary.”
Yet since he cannot make a case that the Phillies are World Series-ready, he would not make a case for disrupting the organization’s minor-league pipeline.
“You have other means to acquire players, taking on salaries or whatever,” he said. “But I think you start to be protective of your crown jewels in the system.”