Phillies eager to get on field
The Phillies will open their season Thursday in Atlanta, stronger than they were last season, fresher, more alert.
They will take any bad swings, not in Game 1, not in Game 162, not in any game in between.
They will know what pitches to throw and when. They will fly around the bases, and with precision.
“Razor turns around the bases,” Gabe Kapler said. Sharp. Pointed.
They will be fit. They will maintain winning diets. They will run out ground balls and grind out victories. They will be what a baseball team is supposed to be, every night, and every day after a night game. Watch them? “When the ball enters the hitting zone, we’re going to be in powerful and athletic positions,” Kapler said. “Before the game begins, we’re going to prepare, prepare, prepare so that we thought out everything and make strong decisions. We’re going to hunt for value at the margins. We’re not going to leave any stone unturned to find our competitive advantages.”
They lost 96 games last season. They’ll need some. But that’s Kapler, and he’s the new manager, and that’s the new
way the Phillies are going to play, even if it is kind of the old way, too. “Like Chase Utley,” Kapler said. That way. As if by baseball law, Opening Day requires optimism. And if the Phillies dragged anything through the offseason, into Clearwater, and into the regular season, it was a different attitude. Bold, is what Kapler has called it. Sounds good. But will it all work?
“He’s a progressive thinker,” said general manager Matt Klentak. “Much has been made about this. Look at the teams that competed in last year’s World Series. These are among the most progressive organizations in baseball. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that those are the four teams that have played Aaron Nola gets the ball for the Phillies on Thursday in their season opener against the Braves.
in the World Series the last two years.
“That’s where the Phillies need to head and Gabe Kapler is going to be a huge asset to us as we try to progress to the future.”
Kapler is 42, so he will have time to build something. But the front office
was quick to provide some new tools. Some came from the farm system, which had been given since 2013 to yield the next, great organization nucleus. Some came from John Middleton’s wallet, out of which $59 million came flying for free-agent, on-base savant Carlos Santana, and another $115 million was invested in righthanded pitcher Jake Arrieta.
That injection of accomplishment had a dual effect. It showed that the front office was willing to go along with Kapler’s plea to, “be bold.” And it provided enough of a veteran foundation to support a relatively young, yet ready to achieve nucleus. That includes Rhys Hoskins, whose 18 home runs in his first 34 games last season rattled baseball history, former All-Star Odubel Herrera, and Maikel Franco, who has shown the skill to be special. To start, veteran Cesar Hernandez will be at second, at least until it is rookie Scott Kingery’s time. And that should be enough to support the growth of young shortstop J.P. Crawford, catcher Jorge Alfaro and either Aaron Altherr or Nick Williams in right.
“We’re ready to win right now,” Franco told reporters in spring training. “We have a lot of talent here. We’re on the same page.”
The question is whether they will finish on a newspaper’s front page, photographed brandishing champagne bottles, or somewhere stuffed in the back, with the more sorry stories. That, the pitching will decide.
By the end of last season, Aaron Nola, the seventh overall pick in the 2014 draft, had begun to show No. 1 starter traits. In 16 June-July-August starts, he failed only once to last at least six innings. The right-hander, a touch injury prone earlier in his career, had a 3.18 ERA after May. Just the same, the Phillies supplemented Nola with Arrieta, who won the Cy Young Award in 2015 and who flashed some of those traits late last season with the Cubs. Slow to sign and late to spring training, Arrieta will not make his Phillies’ debut until April 8.
With Nola and Arrieta at the top, Kapler needs only to fill three spots in the rotation, and if the Phillies did nothing else as they rebuilt since 2012, they accumulated candidates. With both Jerad Eickhoff and Mark Leiter disabled at least into May, Kapler likely will turn to Nick Pivetta, Vince Velasquez and Ben Lively. To make that more likely to function, however, Klentak improved his bullpen, bringing back 2017 AllStar Pat Neshek and adding veteran Tommy Hunter, who injured a hamstring and will begin the season on the disabled list. Eventually, though, that will be the bridge to Luis Garcia and closer Hector Neris.
The Phillies are not deep in achievement, and that will limit Kapler’s options. He has promised, though, to manage freely, often changing batting orders, even hinting that he might occasionally hit a pitcher in the eight-spot. He may need every managerial trick possible to move the Phillies from last place and into a playoff hunt.
“I’m ultra-competitive,” Kapler said. “I love to win. This is a place where I can lead from the dugout. And certainly one of the things I’m especially capable of is building environments for players to be the strongest versions of themselves.”
That’s the plan, sharp as a razor, with the potential for pain, with the potential, too, to go smoothly.