Kingery getting an overdue second chance
PHILADELPHIA » Joe Girardi will have three years to demonstrate what he can mean to the Phillies, more if his contract is extended. He’ll win, he’ll lose, he’ll be criticized and celebrated. Ultimately, his record will be the judge.
Until then, there will be the clues.
As the Phillies opened their season Friday, there was a significant one: Joe Girardi knows a developing star when he sees one, and he will not complicate the process.
Not that it was news breaking, for the new Phillies manager made his plan clear early in the summer portion of training camp. But as the felt-tipped ink was drying on his first lineup card, there was finally something permanent about a move that for too long was delayed.
There at the No. 8 spot, right
between Roman Quinn at No. 9 and designated hitter Jay Bruce at No. 7, was the first real proof that Girardi is not Gabe Kapler.
Scott Kingery, second base.
That’s what it said. Not third. Not shortstop. Not outfield. Not, and don’t laugh given the history, pitcher.
Second. Base. About time. “Talking with our organization, our front office, and looking at all the metrics, talking to my coaching staff, talking to Larry Bowa,” Girardi said, “they really believe he can be a Gold Glove second baseman. And from what I’ve seen, I totally agree.”
Managing the Yankees at the time, Girardi had other things to worry about when that notion was becoming clear. But as Kingery stepped along the Phillies’ minor-league trail after being a secondround draft pick out of the University of Arizona in 2015, that was the popular opinion. He was a second baseman, the successor to Chase Utley, one baseball generation removed. A natural. A farm system gem.
Yet when Kingery made it to the Phillies at the age of 24 in 2018, Gabe Kapler somehow found that scouting report an inconvenience. There were reasons, some good, some the kind that eventually cost Kapler his job. One was that J.P. Crawford, who was to be the other half of that middle infield set to carry the Phillies to their third era of extended greatness, was injured. That opened some time for Kingery at shortstop, where, by season’s end, he was a plus defender. Another
was that Kapler was convinced there would be no successful major-league team in the third decade of the 21st century without a super-utility player, an athlete capable of excelling at multiple spots. Kingery proved to be a fine outfielder.
But the one impediment to Kingery’s natural ascension to second base, the one that was forever puzzling, was Kapler’s oddly firm commitment to Cesar Hernandez, a talented but flawed player who never found a place on a baseball field where he couldn’t make a mistake. And no matter how much the critics howled that Kingery needed to play second, to develop into an All-Star, to allow the Phillies’ developmental process to breathe, the more Kapler resisted.
Four times, four, did Kingery play second base as a rookie. In his second season, he was used there 10 times. That’s 14 secondbase opportunities for a player developed to play the position and, as Girardi let it spill again Friday, had reliable organizational voices saying he belonged.
It took Girardi one offseason, albeit the longest one in history, to come to the same realization.
“I’ve been so impressed by his play at second base,” Girardi said. “That’s really kind of why I’ve left him there. He’s a differencemaker there, the way he turns the double play, his range, his arm strength, all the things that he can do.”
Kingery, who singled in his first at-bat Friday against the Marlins, always mildly hinted that he would be most happy at second. Yet he never created a stir.
“For me, as long as I can get in the lineup, I am happy to play wherever,” he said last year, when Kapler moved him from short to third. “Obviously, I have the most experience at second base. But I played games at third base last year at the end of the season, so I have a little more experience there than at shortstop.”
It was a theme he would repeat whenever the subject arose … and it arose often.
In the earlier hours of the Clearwater portion of training camp, Girardi was not ready to commit to Kingery at second. The addition of shortstop Didi Gregorius meant that Jean Segura would have to be relocated. There was some consideration to keeping Kingery at third and using Segura at second. But by the time the Phillies hit Citizens Bank Park for the second chunk of training, Girardi had made his choice. Segura would go to third and Kingery, once he’d recovered from the coronavirus and completed a mandatory quarantine, would be where he belonged all along.
Ordinarily, a player with Kingery’s versatility could have a certain extra value in a long season. Injuries happen, players need rest, backup infielders deserve the occasional start. But this is a season when the Phillies will play just 60 games, meaning the manager doesn’t have the time to play games of any other kind.
“It’s really just been conversations that we’ve had,” Girardi said. “And we just kind of left him there.”
It was one decision on one night at the beginning of a new manager’s threeyear commitment.
It was one decision that shouted that the commitment will be much longer.