Are Phils NL East kings?
A fast start quickly put the Phillies into first place in a highly anticipated season. But are they built to last the rigors of it?
When reporters arrived in the Phillies’ Citizens Bank Park clubhouse on opening day, Gabe Kapler was standing in the hallway waiting to welcome them in.
And why not?
In Kapler’s first season as manager, the 2018 Phillies had started surprisingly strong but faded surprisingly fast. But the 80 wins were the most for any Phillies team since 2012, when Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels headed the pitching staff and Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins were together in the middle of the infield.
The years in between were difficult, but the 64-49 record through last Aug. 7 was surely a sign things were about to get better.
There were more signs to come — or should that be signings, because the Phillies went to the free agency market for outfielder Andrew McCutchen, late-innings reliever David Robertson and eventually Bryce Harper.
There were trades, too, for catcher J.T. Realmuto and shortstop Jean Segura.
There was every reason to believe this is a franchise that is again on the rise.
The changeover was dramatic enough that the players batting sixth, seventh and eighth in Kapler’s opening-day lineup — Odubel Herrera, Cesar Hernandez and Maikel Franco — could easily have been the top three in the order last year.
Fans were rushing to buy tickets, and they were buying Harper jerseys and T-shirts to wear to the ballpark. When the Phillies responded by sweeping their opening series from a Braves team that won the National League East last year, it was easy to believe this was the start of something big.
It still might be, but by the end of April there had also been a 2-5 road trip that included injuries and issues, with starting pitcher Jake Arrieta complaining one night that his teammates weren’t ready to play in a rain-delayed loss to the Mets.
By the first weekend in May, the Phillies were back in first place, believing this season can be special while also understanding they have much work to do to make sure it is.
“It’s not going to be sunshine and rainbows every day,” Arrieta said. “Only the first couple of pages of the story have been written. It’s going to be exciting to see when we get all three facets of the game firing at once. We have a special team.”
They have some special players, for sure, starting with Harper, whose 13-year, $330 million contract was the biggest ever given to a free agent. Like Harper, McCutchen is a former National League MVP. Realmuto is one of the best all-around catchers in the game. Rhys Hoskins is a promising young power hitter.
Arrieta has won a Cy Young Award. Aaron Nola finished third in the NL Cy Young voting a year ago.
It’s fair to ask if the rotation has enough depth, especially after Nick Pivetta was so bad the Phillies sent him to Class AAA Lehigh Valley (Pennsylvania) with an 8.35 ERA after four starts. It’s fair to ask whether the bullpen will be good enough, especially after Robertson struggled early and then landed on the injured list. But as aggressive as the Phillies have already been, it’s also fair to think principal owner John Middleton will authorize more spending if general manager Matt Klentak can put together a midseason trade or two.
It’s unlikely they’ll be able to count on the rest of the division playing around .500 ball (or worse), as was true in early May. They’ll need to be able to count on Harper, who at that same point was batting .108 over his last 11 games and was booed at Citizens Bank Park.
But even the fact those boos could be heard stands as a reminder things are different in Philadelphia in 2019. The Phillies sold out four of their first 11 home games, as many sellouts as they had all season in 2018. Their April attendance was up more than 11,000 fans a game compared to April 2018.
“What a fan base! What a crowd!” Harper had said on opening day.
There’s history, of course, to suggest the fans will keep showing up if the team wins. From July 2009 until August 2012, the Phillies sold out every game, putting together a 257-game streak that is the longest in National League history.
But after averaging more than 40,000 fans a game from 2008 to 2012, the Phillies fell so far that they averaged only around half that from 2015 to 2017. The attendance recovered a little last year and much more through the first month this season.
The addition of known stars helped, and it also changed the way Kapler constructed his lineup. He made regular changes in 2018, never using any combination more than five times. Contrast that with his strategy this April, when he had already used his most-favored alignment 12 times in the first 33 games of the season.
“Last year, we really had to look at every strategic advantage, and so with the lineup we often factored that in,” Kapler explained back on opening day. “This year, because our lineup is going to be very good naturally and because there’s going to be some consistency to it, we’re thinking about how can we make our guys most comfortable. I know Bryce likes hitting in the 3-4 area. I know Rhys likes hitting in the 3-4 area. I know McCutchen is very comfortable in the 1 spot.
“If these guys are comfortable, my inclination is that they’re going to perform better.”
The Phillies clubhouse has been fairly comfortable so far, even with the rough stretch that had Arrieta questioning preparedness to play (and a Harper ejection) that night in New York.
For all of the improvement, the money spent and the extra attention, though, the Phillies had a 19-14 record through 33 games, one win better than they were a year ago.
The sunshine and rainbows have been there, but with a few gray clouds mixed in. And with the chance of something special still very much alive.