Kapler has to snap team out of slump or risk missing playoffs
WASHINGTON » The Phillies’ season was three March games long when Matt Klentak requested the most reasonable of baseball accommodations. Give it some time, he asked
Let it breathe, he recommended.
Trust the manager, he suggested. Relax.
The Phillies’ general manager was onto something in early April when he surrounded himself in baseball writers and unloaded the earliest vote of confidence for a manager in baseball history. The Phillies would recover from that 1-2 start. They would entertain. They would contend. And when it mattered, Klentak would do his part, too, adding star-level players for a would-be pennant race.
Baseball is good that way. But even the sport with no clock will hit a manager with a margin call. And that’s where Kapler was as he entered Nationals Park Wednesday and tried to gently explain an interesting lineup card.
There was Roman Quinn in center field, not Odubel Herrera.
There was Justin Bour at first, not Carlos Santana.
And there was the most tangible recognition from the manager yet that the Phils have two potential problem points … and at least some solutions.
Kapler insisted his batting order was but an analyticsbased hedge against Stephen Strasburg. Bour had a career home run off the Nationals’ starter. And Herrera too often had been handcuffed by the gifted right-hander. In addition, the Phils were starting Zach Eflin, a fly ball pitcher, and would seem to benefit from the added speed of Quinn in center.
“It’s tough because obviously we want Santana in the lineup every single day,” Kapler said. “But with Aaron Nola and Jake Arrieta coming in the rotation, we also need Santana on defense for us as well. So it’s tricky. We have Bour and we have Quinn and we have Scott Kingery, and one of the exercises we do is which is the best day to get those guys in the lineup?
“And today seemed like the best day to get Bour and Quinn in there.”
How about the next day? And the day after that? And any one of the few, few days remaining in a season that had been bending the wrong way for a team that had lost its last three, four of its last six and control of the N.L. East?
Herrera, once an early leader for a batting crown, has been less than a .300 hitter since June and had not hit a home run since July 27. Not that he has been out of rhythm at the plate or anything, but in the last homestand he struck out swinging at a pitch that crashed into his back foot.
Where once a Dallas Green could bench Bob Boone, Garry Maddox and Greg Luzinski in September and growl that it was their own fault, Kapler has to realize it is 2018, not 1980. So even when he uses the lineup that he knows he must use, he has to be careful not to challenge anyone to a fist fight if they disagree. Still, a continuing vigil for Herrera to regain his 2016 All-Star form has a risk. He is talented enough to homer in five consecutive games, as he did in June. But he is streaky enough to slump for another month … a month that the Phillies can no longer consider a luxury.
Quinn is anything but a novelty talent. He was right in the mix of farm products expected to form the Phillies next great home-grown nucleus, along with Rhys Hoskins, J.P. Crawford, Dylan Cozens and Maikel Franco. He was developed to be a majorleague factor; he’s not some minor-league call-up with the potential to have a good week or two. His problem is that he has never been healthy. But he is healthy. And he can help.
“Roman Quinn has the physical capability to be so good that you can’t take him out of the lineup,” Kapler said. “That’s true for all of our guys. It really is. Odubel, as you’ve seen, is talented enough that you can’t replace him with Quinn for even one day. That’s how good he’s been in stretches, that you can’t take him out of the lineup because it would not be the best thing for the Philadelphia Phillies. Quinn has that same capability. So does Carlos Santana. So does Justin Bour. All those guys are physically capable of being that good.”
Kapler, then, must be the arbiter. Santana is a valuable defender. And even though he is hitting .220, he had 18 home runs and 70 RBIs, often walks and is not prone to Herreraline prolonged slumps. Kapler dabbled with him at third base Sunday in Williamsport. And Bour has been caught dabbling in left field before games. Maybe Kapler can hack his way through the crowd that way.
“I just take it day to day,” Bour said. “Whenever he calls my name, I’ll be ready. It’s not really about me, it’s about the team, whatever the team needs. The goal is to make the playoffs. So I’m not concerned about numbers. I’m not concerned about any of that stuff. I am only concerned with what I can do on the field every day to help the team win.”
That’s Kapler’s job. And he does it his way, one numbersbased lineup at a time.
“The way for us to figure it out is every single night to examine our lineup and our defense and everything in aggregate and say, ‘Are we giving ourselves the best chance for the Phillies to win tonight?’” Kapler said before the game Wednesday. “And the lineup we are putting out there tonight is exactly that. Tonight’s lineup is the lineup that we think gives the Philadelphia Phillies the best chance to win tonight, given all the factors.”
That went for the players in the lineup.
Even more, it went for some who were not.