Manuel as hitting coach a low-risk retro bet
PHILADELPHIA >> So what do the Phillies gain out of firing hitting coach John Mallee and replacing him with forever popular organizational elder Charlie Manuel?
Well, a whole lot of public relations buzz for one.
Don’t mistake that for lack of importance. The Phillies have been so bad over the past two months, falling into the fifth wild card spot in the National League while essentially falling out of the National League divisional race, that anything ranking as popular with the fans can serve to take the heat off the players and manager Gabe Kapler.
By the numbers, which is what Matt Klentak’s club will say it’s all about, it was easy to point a finger at an area that needed remedy. Or at least more fixing up than the other areas of need.
The Phillies spent the offseason bringing in offensive stars of the past and supposedly present. They added onetime Pittsburgh star Andrew McCutchen. They made room for the offensive stylings of shortstop Jean Segura. They traded for a guy who was supposedly developing into the best catcher in the game in J.T. Realmuto. And as a capper, they wagered a $330,000,000 no-brainer on Bryce Harper.
And there the Phillies were heading into Tuesday night’s game against the Cubs, with an offense not only easily overshadowed by much of the com
petition this year, but in some areas outdone by the 2018 version of the Phillies.
You know owner John Middleton’s nearly halfbillion-dollar outlay in total contract commitments didn’t jibe easily with an offense that was ranked 19th in the major leagues in runs scored (557) through 118 games. That it’s the highest ranking the Phillies had out of several major team offense categories is what really was ringing alarm bells.
These Phils went to bat against the Cubs ranked 24th out of 30 MLB teams in team batting average (.245), 22nd in OPS (.738), 22nd in hits (991) and considering the size of Citizens Bank Park, an abysmal 23rd in home runs (149).
Such numbers didn’t bode well for Mallee, who was the Cubs’ hitting coach in 2016 when they marched to a World Series title, and yet was gone from there just a year later.
“It’s also about results, you know?” Klentak said Tuesday. “If you score a lot of runs, you can make a hitting coach look pretty good, and that’s what we haven’t been doing. We just haven’t seen the results lately. It doesn’t necessarily mean John Mallee won’t be a good hitting coach again. I actually suspect
he will be, because I think he has a lot of the qualities that (Kapler) talked about. But when you have playoff aspirations as a team and you’re not scoring runs, results matter.”
Manuel, considered past his prime as a motivator and perhaps even as a batting guru when he took over the managerial duties in 2004, now is back 15 years later in a job that might not be as visible, but is certainly every bit as challenging and just as vital.
At least it is with this swing-challenged team.
At 75, Manuel might seem like the nice old guy who often tries to match his World Series ring with his Hawaiian shirt, but he’s also a hitting coach of renown who almost informally has spent much of this year offering tips at spring training and frequently studying the Phillies from behind a pregame batting cage.
His words are golden. His baseball eye unmarred by time.
Of course he can help, but at this late date clearing the hurdle of having high-paid veterans like Harper or Rhys Hoskins seriously put a Manuel advisement plan into action seems a bit of a stretch.
Not that it can’t hurt trying.
You think the Phillies have hitting problems? The Cubs’ starter Tuesday night was Jose Quintana, who would be lifted for a pinchhitter in the seventh inning
with the game tied at 2-2. He left having allowed just five hits and one earned run. Quintana, 30, in his eighth full season in Chicago (with both the White Sox and Cubs), also left with 14 strikeouts, a career high.
Cue the Kapler... “John Mallee was really appreciated by our players, really appreciated by me personally, definitely appreciated by Matt,” Kapler said. “This is much more about the fact that we were just struggling mightily to score runs. Matt’s point is that we needed to make a change, and when that happens, we look ahead and think about what kind of impact Charlie might be able to make for us.”
For his first day on the new job Wednesday, Manuel can make an impact if the Phillies don’t strike out 14 times or more against Cole Hamels. You get he idea if ol’ Chuck sees his new Phillies watch a bunch of called third strikes as they did Tuesday, he might show his old batting swing right there in the dugout.
One thing Manuel might not do is have his laptop spit out formulas for the Phillies’ offensive math students to study up on. Rather, he’ll grab a bat, grab a player in the cage and show him how it should be done. Retro-like.
You just don’t know how much that’s going to help in real terms. Klentak, at the press conference
Manuel couldn’t attend Tuesday, confirmed that he can’t see a scenario where Manuel works past this season, no matter how many miracles he might churn out. So outside of the fact that a little PR can’t hurt a team that hasn’t hit much all season ... what’s the point?
Oh yeah, those other numbers. The standings kind?
“The reason we did this and the reason we did this today is with 44 games remaining, we are two games out of the playoffs,” Klentak said, referring to a wild-card “race.”
“I know a lot of people are burying us and saying we have no chance and haven’t played well and part of that is correct,” Klentak said. “We have not played well. We have not hit well, especially since the All-Star break. But we are not buried and we are not out. In my judgement, with 44 games remaining, it makes sense for us to try something different rather than continuing to do the same things we’ve been doing.”
They have tried getting different players, they have tried Mallee trying fruitlessly to get the core players to hit half their weight. Now they’ll try tried and true Charlie Manuel.
What can that hurt?