Scott Kingery’s time to shine is now
One growing year later, it’s falling into place for Kingery
PHILADELPHIA >> The timetable was loose and the circumstances were ever changing when Scott Kingery had a spring training for the ages in 2018.
Still destined to become the Phillies’ second baseman sometime around 2019, the 24-year-old with 63 games of Class AAA experience would hit .411 with five home runs in 22 Grapefruit League games. With that, the rush was on. First, there would be an offer of a six-year, $24 million contract, an enormous investment in a player never having played a big-league regular season game. And with that, there would be the heightened obligation to force him on the Opening Day roster, even if he was blocked by Cesar Hernandez at second base. And with that, there was a disconcerting scramble to find him a position, any position. Outfield. Infield. Third. Anywhere but second.
Finally, there was an injury to J.P. Crawford, regular opportunities at shortstop, and the obligation to learn a newer position while simultaneously trying to keep an overachieving team in a pennant race.
“It was challenging,” Kingery said Tuesday, before a game
against the New York Mets.
It was challenging. It may or may not have been helpful. All that was certain was that the frenzied rush to force him into the major leagues a year ahead of schedule and his resulting .226 rookie season batting average did little to boost Kingery’s image as a Phillies farmsystem prize.
But what if it all had played out as originally scheduled? What if this season, not last, was Kingery’s rookie year? Wouldn’t he be considered at least a strong candidate in the Rookie of the Year race, the one that is the Mets’ Pete Alonso’s to lose? And wouldn’t the narrative have changed? Wouldn’t Kingery, with the .333 batting average he brought into play Tuesday, be considered an exciting, talented, All-Star of the future? Wouldn’t the legend of Scotty Jet Packs have been arousing a fan base?
“Hard to say,” Gabe Kapler said. “The one thing I’d say is we don’t have the alternate universe thing where he develops in Triple-A and comes to the big leagues this year. We don’t know if his success this year is a result of the hardships he endured last year or if they’re just a result of natural development that would have occurred either way. We just don’t know.
“You do the best job you can. I’m a big believer in adversity and challenges. They make you tougher. They make you stronger. And when faced with adversity, players who crack and can’t recover generally, in my opinion, are not going to have a whole lot of success anyhow, because eventually they’re going to encounter that difficult stretch.”
Kingery acknowledges his rookie season was a challenge, as he’d slipped from a build-around potential star to a player required to prove that $24 million was not just more of John Middleton’s stupid money. But he never slowed down, not on the basepaths, not in his pursuit of excellence.
“I knew what happened last year wasn’t going to last,” he said. “A lot of factors went into last year, a lot of stuff that I was trying to figure out. So I just went into the offseason with a chance to step back, breathe a little bit and kind of figure out what happened. It was good for me. And it just gave me a whole different feel coming into the second year.”
Kingery played six positions as a rookie, including arm-saving, blowout-loss relief pitcher. By season’s end, he was a splendid defensive shortstop. But he was demonstrating none of the offensive potential that had enriched him after that outburst in Clearwater. Was he ready?
Or was he rushed? “Honestly, I think I was ready,” he said. “If you look at my track record from each level, every time I moved up a level there were some struggles as soon as I got there. Then, either in the second half of a season or the second time through, I took off.
“I think there’s just a learning curve anywhere you go. Obviously, this last jump is the biggest. There is a lot more to figure out here and a lot more stuff to deal with. It was just a learning curve. And it takes time to move into that zone.”
A year later, he is in that zone, homering again on Tuesday night to help the Phillies take a late lead over the Mets.
Though second base rarely has opened for him, Kingery has become a super utility man. He has played some third and center. The other night, he played left for the first time, led off, and went 3-for-6.
“Dating back to last year, we talked about how tough he was and how when he’s right it doesn’t matter if he’s playing left field or center field or third base or first base or shortstop or second base,” Kapler said. “It doesn’t matter if he’s hitting in the three hole, the five hole or the seven hole or the one hole. He’s good enough and athletic enough and mentally tough enough to handle those transitions.
“He’s just a good baseball player. I think we recognized that last year. We just didn’t see it all come together like it seems to be coming together now.”
A year later, and just a little behind schedule, Scott Kingery is one of the best young players in baseball.