Moniak’s start fractured, Vierling gets full-time call
PHILADELPHIA » The Phillies were precisely zero days into the 2022 season before a lineup pivot was required, courtesy of a fastball into the right hand of Mickey Moniak.
Out goes the planned platoon with Matt Vierling. On to the injured list goes a second center fielder.
Up to the big leagues comes a player who has played just 12 games above Class A.
A doleful Joe Girardi was left to bemoan the best laid plans Friday of Moniak, who was coming off a sensational spring.
“I feel terrible for him,” Girardi said before a 9-5 Opening Day win over Oakland. “…I’m heartbroken for him because he’s done everything he needed to do to really get to this point, how hard he worked in the winter and the impact that he was making.”
Moniak, the first overall pick in the 2016 Draft, finally had the spring the organization has been expecting for far too long. He hit .378 with six home runs and a stratospheric OPS of 1.351 in Grapefruit League play. After Vierling finished last year so strongly, Girardi was figuring on a platoon in center, in between the club’s high-priced corner outfielders.
With Odubel Herrera (oblique) on the IL,
Moniak’s hot spring took on added significance. He was in line to start Friday, Girardi divulged, until his final at-bat of the spring ended in disaster. Moniak still got a warm reception from a sellout Citizens Bank Park crowd when announced with the roster.
That left Vierling to get his first Opening Day start and to shoulder most of the center field load in April, trying to bring stability to a position that has been a mess. Vierling was the only Phillie not to get a hit, though he missed an opposite-field grand slam by eight feet in the sixth inning, settling for a sac fly and an RBI in four plate appearances.
Considering the bats ahead of him, the pressure isn’t exactly on in the nine-hole.
“He saw pitches today,” Girardi said. “He hit the ball hard three times and only had the sac fly to show for it, but his at-bats were really good. I think it’s a product of, our lineup is dangerous, pitchers are going to be careful.”
If there’s a bright side on Moniak, Girardi said, it’s that he doesn’t need surgery and isn’t in a permanent cast. They’re looking at a four-to-six-week timeline.
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Herrera is not far from a return, Girardi indicating he’ll play in a game Saturday. But the veteran didn’t play at all in the spring, so he’s starting from scratch.
“You’ve got to give him some time, a couple weeks at least, because he hasn’t built up,” Girardi said.
Which means, welcome to the show Simon Muzziotti. You know, the Venezuelan native, veteran of 1,140 minor league games, just 13 above Single A? The 23-year-old who played 20 games across five levels in 2021? Nope, nothing?
Well, as the next center fielder on the 40man roster, you’d better get used to him, because he’s going to play.
“He’s going to have to,” Girardi said. “The thing about Simon is he’s been here. He’s comfortable with the guys in the room. He’s comfortable with our staff. We think he’s a really good-looking player and prospect. I thought he had a good spring training. But when you play 23 out of 24 days, you can’t run one guy out there the whole time where he’s going to break.”
Muzziotti went 3-for-8 with a double and three RBIs in five spring games.
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Seranthony Dominguez may have pitched one inning in 2021, but that didn’t stop the one-time closer’s first appearance of 2022 from feeling like his true return from a multiyear Tommy John ordeal.
Dominguez hadn’t pitched in Philadelphia since May 28, 2019. He was shut down that year as the team hoped to avoid ligament repair surgery. By the time they decided on surgery, the COVID-19 pandemic had descended, pushing non-essential procedures back. He didn’t go under the knife until July 2020.
Friday, he needed seven pitches to induce two groundouts and a feeble popout in the eighth.
“It was great to see for Seranthony,” Girardi said. “He’s been through a lot and to come out and get us three big outs like that was very impressive.”
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NOTES » Bryce Harper became the 14th player with 1,000 plate appearances at Citizens Bank Park. The .999 OPS he entered with is the highest of that group, eclipsing the .915 posted by Jayson Werth. He also has a 37-game streak of reaching base here, second only to Jimmy Rollins’ 44 games from 2004-05. … Public address announcer Dan Baker threw out the first pitch. It’s the first game of Baker’s 50th season on the mic (1972-2022, with a hiatus for 2020). He’s just the third PA announcer in Major League history to work 50 or more seasons, joining former Yankees announcer Bob Sheppard (57 years) and former Cubs announcer Pat Pieper (59 years).