Amid the criticism, plenty to appreciate
The complaints were valid, the yelling loud, the buzz persistent: Those Phillies … they have major issues.
They began a few weeks ago. They didn’t stop. And the All-Star break would only provide an echo chamber.
“I might be wrong,” said Jay Bruce, after hitting two home runs Sunday. “But our record would put us in the wild-card game, right?”
He wasn’t being a wise guy. He hardly was projecting satisfaction. He was legitimately wondering about the particulars of the wild-card race, crowded and rough. He would go on to outline what had to improve over the season’s traditional second half. Yet his point was as valid as every one of those wails that had been haunting the Phillies for weeks. Simply, it was this: They Phillies are not that bad.
So maybe that doesn’t work as a marketing punchline. Maybe it doesn’t make sense for a teeshirt. It definitely would be wrong for Matt Klentak or Gabe Kapler or John Middleton to
say. It would be wrong for Andy MacPhail to say, too, except that he never says anything.
But taken as it is, not how it was mildly oversold, the Phillies’ season has been far less of a catastrophe than it has been popularly projected. For an organization that has not been heard from in any second October week in eight years, owning a line in the All-Star break bracketology is a legitimate achievement.
Is it enough?
“No, of course not,” Bruce said. “I think we want to win the division. We’re not playing for a wild card. But it’s a situation that the past is the past and we just have to continue to play good baseball. We have to play better than we did in the first half.
“I think we all know that we underachieved in the first half and we expect to play better. I think our team is better than what we’ve played. What’s done is done, and I look forward to the second half and seeing what’s going to happen.”
The Phillies should have been better than 4743 at the break. For that, there would be a necessary spray of blame. Klentak was short-sighted to trust the very starting rotation that began to disintegrate late last season. Kapler was too slow to demand consistent, aggressive play, choosing not to lop playing time from players showing marginal hustle. The leadership in the room was never evident and there rarely was an air of disgust after tough losses. The coaching staff, including a 38-year-old pitching counselor, was not generating optimum results. From the top, MacPhail sat silent. From the bottom, the scouting department wasn’t supplying enough minor-league depth to provide Kapler with a responsible bench.
Yet there were explanations, which differ from excuses, for why the Phillies were six-and-a-half behind the Braves during the bye week. One was that the too-familiar rotation was supposed to be braced by a pricey bullpen. But Tommy Hunter, David Robertson, Pat Neshek and Seranthony Dominguez, four of the top five projected relief pitchers, all missed significant time with injury. Jake Arrieta had a bone spur. Odubel Herrera was suspended for the season. Andrew McCutchen, vital in so many ways to what the Phils had planned, lasted only 59 games before ripping his knee.
“That’s a player that’s very difficult to replace,” Kapler said. “He never stops being aggressive. So if you throw a pitch in the zone and he is leading off the game, he can hit a home run, he can hit a double, he can hit a linedrive single. But he’s also going to spit on a pitch that is just off the plate away or just out of the zone up and make it very uncomfortable for the opposing starter. He’s going to come back in the dugout. He’s going to share what he learned.
“And he had a little swagger, a little style. He led off the game with a little bit of a spark. So, yeah, we think we knew it was going to be really difficult to replace him. I don’t think we have another profile like Andrew McCutchen.”
They don’t. But the Phillies are not the only team with a littered casualty list. Now what?
Klentak will add something, most likely a veteran pitcher and another bat, before the July 31 trade deadline. Robertson will return by the end of the month. And the Phillies will remain in contention.
They have been less than great. But Bryce Harper has been remarkable, slashing doubles, getting on base, justifying his $330,000,000 contract. Bruce has been putting up Ryan Howard-like numbers at similar points in their careers. Rhys Hoskins had 20 home runs at the beak. As advertised, All-Star J.T. Realmuto was the best overall catcher in the game. Scott Kingery emerged as a developing star. And Aaron Nola began to sneak back into the Cy Young race.
“It’s been up and down,” Nola said. “It’s been good for the most part. We were in first for a little while. I feel like the Braves got hot at the right time. We still have a lot of ball left. I think we just need to stay consistent and come back from the All-Star break.
“It’s not going to be an easy road until the end. Every game matters.”
That’s not exactly where the Phillies planned to be in early July. But while they were being ridiculed for underachieving, and in many cases fairly, they did hit the All-Star break with a playoff spot to lose and with meaningful baseball to play. That’s OK to shout about, too.