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Lefty_Orioles_Fan
MacPhail also said the Phillies aren’t likely to spend on top-tier free agents this winter, though he didn’t completely shut the door.
That’s my Andy! The thing is though, the Phillies are not just one player away.
So, maybe he is right.
They need to rebuild that rotation and they need to figure out where the can strengthen their weaknesses on the field and more than anything get Franco healthy and ready for the 2016. He is one player on the Phillies that has perennial ‘all-star’ written all over him.
NotCanon
A number of the current positional weaknesses of the Phillies actually have relatively near-to-the-bigs replacements. The heir-apparent to Rollins, JP Crawford (a current top-10 prospect), just spent most of the year in AA at age 20. Odubel Herrera appears to be the CF of the foreseeable future, with Aaron Altherr (who’s come on amazingly strong in both MiLB and MLB stints over the past 2 years) also capable of playing there. Other potential nearby outfield options include Roman Quinn (who’d come back strong after injury, only to get nailed with another one), the recently-acquired Nick Williams, and Kelly Dugan, who’s hit his first significant challenge in AAA at age 24.
Franco’s injury is just a relatively simple bone break, so he should be back just fine next year. Angelo Mora surprised everyone by thoroughly handling AA pitching in his first time facing it, though he’s likely destined for LF or 1B, despite currently playing 2B. Brock Stassi’s bat has come on incredibly strong in his second year at AA, but even if he never does well enough at the MLB level to play 1B regularly, Rhys Hoskins is showing a ton of potential at A+.
On the catching front, Cameron Rupp looks surprisingly capable this year, but sitting in the minors is the ridiculous-hitting Andrew Knapp (sporting an OPS over 1.000 in his first partial season in AA) and even your old friend Gabriel I-was-traded-for-Jim-Thome Lino has been showing promise in AA and AAA at age 22.
Pitching, especially starting pitching, is definitely their primary need right now. They’ve got a ton of mid-rotation prospects, but at the moment only one kid down in A- who looks to have “Ace potential” (Kilome).
Tl;DR: While it’s true they’re more than just one piece away, they’ve got a lot of prospect options to fill many of their positional holes in the next 1-2 years, and look likely to have the #1 pick next year (and therefore also the largest international bonus pool), which is more than can be said for their pitching prospects. Signing David Price, for instance, doesn’t put them over the top in 2016, but it gives them a shot in 2017, and there’s no way they can build a successful rotation entirely internally before 2020 (waiting for which would be just silly). The Phillies also have one of the lowest salary obligations in MLB come 2017, while having the spending power of one of the highest-payroll teams.
Johnny Shoe
Mackanin decision was a good one. The players enjoy playing for him, he reminds me of Madden from the Tampa Bay days.
edcl51
if you’re going to pull a 76ers season, don’t be a pathetic ownership and then charge full ticket prices like the morons who own the 76ers did
NotCanon
The 76ers don’t have a $65MM/year TV contract.