Competition in center field remains wide open
After a week of Grapefruit League games, manager Joe Girardi deemed the Phillies’ center-field competition “up for grabs.”
“I didn’t expect anyone to take it over in a week because the season’s more than a week,” Girardi said. “It has to be consistent play throughout.
“I don’t think anyone’s done anything to say, ‘That’s going to be our guy.’ We’ll continue to evaluate.”
With Adam Haseley expected to miss four weeks due to a strained groin, it appears the starting center fielder for
the April 1 season opener will be Roman Quinn, Mickey Moniak, Scott Kingery or Odubel Herrera. Moniak and Herrera are lefthanded batters, while Kingery is right-handed and Quinn is a switch hitter.
Quinn, Moniak and Herrera would appear to be the early leaders based on their performances so far. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 major-league draft, Moniak is batting .500 heading into Thursday’s game against the New York Yankees.
“He’s a talented, young kid,” said Girardi after Moniak hit two homers in a win over the Yankees last week. “I’ve said all along he’s really interesting.”
Herrera is off to a good start, hitting .333.
Kingery, who can play multiple infield and outfield positions, is hitting .143.
“We’re looking for Scotty Kingery to make a huge impact all around the diamond,” Girardi said.
The speedy Quinn is batting .417 after going 2-for-3 in Wednesday’s 6-4 win over the Detroit Tigers in Clearwater. Quinn struck out 39 times in 108 official at-bats last season, which is way too high for somebody who had just two home runs.
With his speed, he has to make contact more often because a ground ball to the shortstop could be an infield single.
“When he gets on the bases, it’s a problem for the other team,” Girardi said. “Putting the ball in play and finding a way to get on base is probably the most important thing for Roman. … Cutting down on his swing a little bit [would help].”
The 29-year-old Herrera is a former All-Star and the most experienced of the four, but he hasn’t played a regular-season game since being arrested for allegedly striking his girlfriend in May 2019. He was charged with simple assault and knowingly causing body injury, only for his girlfriend to drop the charges.
Major League Baseball suspended Herrera for the remainder of the 2019 season, then the Phillies left him off of the 60-man roster for the abbreviated 60-game campaign a year ago.
The Phillies, who are paying Herrera $10 million this season, brought him to camp in Clearwater, Florida, as a non-roster invitee and seem to be giving him a second chance.
“I want to play baseball and help the team win,” said Herrera, who apologized to his teammates last week
“Let’s not forget this guy put up some pretty good numbers a couple of years,” Girardi said. “There is some talent there.”
Herrera’s teammates have essentially said the same thing when asked about his domestic incident: that they don’t condone what he did, but it’s not up to them to pass judgment.
“It’s something that just can’t happen,” said star right fielder Bryce Harper. “You don’t do that kind of thing in this world or this life. … I’m not a person that can make the decision of forgiving him or not forgiving him. I’m not God. I’m going to let Odubel do his thing and be him and that’s about it.”
Girardi made it sound like the Phillies, who are 4-5 after Wednesday’s win over the Tigers, would be willing to give Herrera the job if he shows he’s most deserving based on what he does on the field this spring.
“We’re not allowed to punish anyone more than what MLB did,” said Girardi on Saturday. “If Odubel doesn’t make the team, it would be what we consider a lack of performance or if we feel more comfortable with him getting more at bats. He’s in the running just like a lot of other people.”
Waiving, demoting or trading Herrera are other possibilities.
It would be interesting to see how Phillies fans would react if Herrera is the Opening Day center fielder. We could find out, though I have a feeling it won’t happen.