GM Ruben Amaro’s recent declaration that Chase Utley might not be the Phillies’ everyday second baseman when he returns from injury is a tough one for fans to take, David Murphy of the Daily News writes. For those unfamiliar with Amaro’s comments, FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal provided a good summary earlier this week. “Cesar Hernandez is our best second baseman,” Amaro told reporters, including CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury. “I would assume that Cesar would be our second baseman.” After getting off to a poor start this season, Utley is currently on the DL with ankle inflammation, and Hernandez has performed well in his absence, but Amaro’s remarks understandably haven’t sat well with Phillies fans, who don’t want to see a franchise icon pushed off the stage. The core of the problem, as Murphy sees it, is that Phillies fans have to endure the marginalizations or departures of players who were key to the Phillies’ run of successful seasons several years back, while the team’s front office can continue to use that same run of successful seasons to justify its own continued employment. Rosenthal, meanwhile, wonders whether Amaro — who had already appeared to be a lame duck — might be hastening his departure with his tone deaf comments. Here’s more from the NL East.
- The Nationals have placed outfielder Denard Span on the disabled list, Mark Zuckerman of Nats Insider writes. Span, who had not played since Sunday, has been dealing with back tightness. The injury means the Nationals are down yet another position player. They currently also have Anthony Rendon, Jayson Werth and Ryan Zimmerman on the DL.
- The Giants have had at least a bit of interest in acquiring Michael Morse from the Marlins, but the Giants would need to take on a significant portion of the approximately $11MM remaining on Morse’s contract for the Marlins to consider the deal, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald writes (scroll down). The Marlins would seem to have somewhat less use for the right-handed Morse with today’s addition of fellow righty corner infielder Casey McGehee, and Justin Bour has taken over the bulk of the Marlins’ playing time at first base anyway. The Giants surely have fond memories of Morse from his solid performance with their 2014 World Series team, but Morse has hit a disastrous .210/.273/.304 with his usual poor defense in 2015, so it’s doubtful the Giants would be willing to take on much salary to acquire him. Morse would serve as a right-handed bench option in San Francisco.
- The Marlins have also received “several” calls regarding starting pitcher Mat Latos, Jackson writes. That’s not surprising — Latos is a free agent at the end of the season, and as MLBTR’s Steve Adams recently noted, Latos’ velocity has returned lately, seemingly making him a more attractive trade candidate than his overall numbers suggest he should be.
What Phillies fans? They are down like 6000 a game in attendance.
So, which of the ones that are left are concerned? I mean seriously.
If anything maybe a change a of scenery would be good for him.
They are the worst team in the League and just got shut out twice by the Dodgers.
As for Latos, the Orioles need to jump all over that, if Duquette is serious about improving the Pitching and then go out and get ( you fill in the blank).
The Orioles with exception to Jones, all their outfielders are 4th outfielders.
That’s not good. Duquette needs to take care of things a little better.
Come on Duquette lets get this done!
The bandwagon, mutual fans that don’t know a ton about the business side. The business said says forcing Utley to sit until his option is unreachable is a good deal, and Cesar Hernandez has been a good hitter this year. A scenery change isn’t going to help Utley much. Hes on his last legs, and has been since the AS break last year.
the reality is Utley hasn’t had a great season for six years now. He’s long past his prime. Last year, he was OK…..but there’s no logical reason the Phils should let him get enough time to pay him $15 mil for next year!
even though 30 games under .500 – Phillies fans still average 25,055 per game. Baltimore averages 28,210 – just 3,165 more per game. So before bashing the Phillies fans, get your facts straight… Its SAD that a WINNING club like the Orioles can only manage 3,000 more per game.
Offense is miserable yes, but let’s not act like they got shut out by two average pitchers. Greinke and Kershaw are two of the games best pitchers.
Fans are frustrated and aren’t going to games because of lack of direction and the poor product on the field. This happens to every team outside of Cardinals really. In fact, a study this showed the Orioles have the second most bandwagon fans in MLB (behind the Phillies).
Since when is Latos a difference maker? The Orioles have Jimenez, Gausman, Chen, Gonzalez and Tillman all doing just as well as Latos this year. Orioles need an “Ace” – not another #3
I don’t watch Phillies games, but has Utley really been that bad? Traditional stats say he has, but his BABIP is .198 (career mark of .299) and he was pretty good last year. Has he been injured all year? Has he fallen off that much?
He had an MRI done in January and supposedly never revealed it to Sandberg, which showed he’s been playing hurt all year (ankles) – so yes, that would explain his rapid decline. I appraise his courage playing hurt, but not the fact that he hid the injury – that never helps a team.
Good info. Thanks, man.
As much as I’d love to see Morse back in San Francisco, $11M is a lot for a bench player.
Firstly, Amaro is an incompetent dope. If ANYONE thinks for a second he’s wrong saying Hernandez is the best 2nd baseman on the team, THEY ARE DOPES TOO
In 2008 Utley was a Jeter type player for the Phillies,and was the big reason they won the world series along with Hamels. When they got Lee and Halliday it looked like a dynasty which never developed. Amaro should have had more repect for what Utley did for the Phillies.
Amaro is clueless, but in this case he’s right. Hernandez is clearly better than Utley. It has nothing to do with being all Jeter like sentimental. Plus why would you want to pick up $15M at age 37 for him if he reached 500 PAs?
Amaro should keep his mouth shut, and keep things said behind closed doors.. Utley deserved better respect than hearing what Amaro said from reporters.
Utley’s 2008 was better than any year Jeter ever had. People forget how good Chase was from 2005-2009.
I don’t know that Amaro doesn’t “respect” what Utley did for the Phils. But he’s not doing anything right now except drawing a huge paycheck. To give him that same salary next year would be stupid.
It’s not what Amaro said, it’s how he said it and the setting/timing of when he said it. He should have been more respectful of Utley and what he has meant to this franchise. Something like “Hernandez has played really well at second base, but we will find ABs for both Hernandez and Utley once we get him back.”
I struggle to understand how Morse with a 1.000 fielding % in almost 300 innings at 1B this season can be categorized as “usual poor defense”. By no means is he a great fielder, but wtf. Zero errors is pretty solid no matter what your new age metrics tell you.
Because fielding % only tracks balls that you actually get to. Morse makes plays on balls that come to him. That’s good! But there are tons of balls he doesn’t get to that don’t get called errors, that an average 1B would have made plays on. There have been 43 balls hit into his 1B zone this year, and he’s made plays on 34 of them. That’s not the worst in MLB, but making plays on 74% of balls in your area isn’t good for a 1B. He also only has made plays on 2 balls outside of his 1B zone. That’s the least amount of any 1B in MLB. Compare that to someone like Brandon Belt (who he’d take playing time away from in SF) who’s made plays on 84% of balls in his zone, and has already made 19 plays OOZ this season. Fielding % just doesn’t tell anywhere close to the full story of a fielder.
How did this man Amaro , get to be a Major League GM, he’s just Terrible ! Or worst yet, how does he STILL have a Job ?
He has a lot of history with the Phillies. He was the teams bat boy from 1980-1983. He also played for them. After he retired he went to work in the Phillies front office. He’s kept his job this long because he is good friends with Dave Montgomery who was the Phillies president before McPhail took the job. Montgomery also has a history of being to loyal to his employees.
In other words a Company Man !
I never thought I would say this, but I agree with Amaro. I for one, am not offended by his statement. Hernandez is clearly better of the two right now.