Put McCutchen at top of offensive issues lineup
The Phillies lost for the fourth time in six games early Tuesday evening, took a half-hour off, and tried to salvage a late split at Citi Field.
That 30-minute pause was sufficient for any uniform change, perhaps a quick snack and for a final glance or two at the clubhouse video display likely to be featuring all the charms of Marcus Stroman, the Mets’ Game 2 starter.
It was 29 minutes and 59 seconds longer than Joe Girardi should have required to do what he did with his lineup-writing pen, using somebody other than Andrew McCutchen in left field and in the leadoff spot, and to stop waiting for Roman Quinn to produce.
So Matt Joyce would start in left. Adam Haseley would start in right. And the Phillies would try to start a winning streak.
Girardi almost certainly would have made those moves anyway. He has been effectively using a centerfield platoon, so he would challenge the class right-hander Stroman with the left-handed-hitting Haseley in Game 2. McCutchen is 34 years old and has had a late-career fight to recover fully from complicated knee surgery. He didn’t need to stand in left field for six hours. But for what they represented, and given the greater Phillies situation, it was right to interpret the moves as at least a faint wail for outfield hitting help.
A day earlier, before a rainout, Girardi was pressed on the idea of re-committing to $24 million former franchise project Scott Kingery as his centerfielder. The thinking was that Kingery could at least match what Quinn and Haseley had provided, while also resurfacing as the utility infielder. That would render barely active Ronald Torreyes superfluous, opening a roster spot for another right-handed hitter. Girardi was not having that. At all. “Scotty went down to get right,” he said. “And we don’t feel Scotty is ready to come back right now. So our roster is what it is.”
Not including the pitching, which needed and received substantial upgrades, that apparently was the Phillies’ position since they fumbled away a playoff spot in the 2020 miniseason. They made zero changes to an everyday lineup that was decent yet hardly legendary. Nor was there a reason to disrupt superstar Bryce Harper or prized rookie Alec Bohm, All-Star J.T. Realmuto or dangerous Didi Gregorius, settling Rhys Hoskins or clutch-hitting Jean Segura.
But the organization’s continued trust in Quinn, Haseley and McCutchen was a little curious. Haseley had just played a season, short as it was, without supplying a home run. Quinn, ever challenged to remain healthy, had proven only that he had value for his speed and arm.
Then there was McCutchen.
How many years?
How long are the Phillies supposed to wait for a former superstar to recover the form that made him the NL MVP eight years ago?
In a 4-3 Game 1 loss Tuesday, McCutchen went 0-for-4, striking out three times. Through 10 games, he was hitting .156, with one triple, no doubles and a home run. He had struck out 10 times, walked seven times, and barely showed that he continued to possess more than warning-track power.
“I’ve seen him hit some balls hard,” Girardi said before the series. “He hit a home run the other night. He hit a couple balls hard Sunday. I think he is closer. I think it’s just a little bit of timing for him. I do think he is closer than where he was.”
Closer to what, exactly?
Closer to the .253 hitter he was last season? Closer to the .256 blast of offense he provided the year before? Closer to the .255 hitter he was in 2018 for the Giants and Yankees?
Basically, McCutchen is about where he should be at this point in his career. He’s just OK. He would be perfect as the kind of right-handed-hitting bench player the Phils should be trying to acquire, anyway. But as an everyday leadoff hitter, he doesn’t satisfy the job-title requirement: A hitter, he’s not.
The Phillies will pay McCutchen $20 million this year, then surely buy him out for $3 million in October. So they are right to try to realize some value on the investment. He is a clubhouse asset with a respected
competitive streak. He fields his position without showing his age. He might even work as a bottom-of-the-order presence with a good eye and professional base-running skills. But the Phillies will have trouble contending with Harper as their only regular outfielder able to hit a baseball consistently.
The NL East will be a scramble this season. Wasting leads in extra innings, as the Phils did early Tuesday, is not going to work. Nor, though, will teaming .059-hitting Quinn or .211-hitting Haseley with the .179-hitting McCutchen into the left side of the outfield on any regular basis.
Joe Girardi’s Game 2 lineup, predetermined or not, made that clear.