Phillies manager Pete Mackanin told reporters after last night’s game that Aaron Altherr will eventually move into center field this year, prompting CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury to explore the possibility of an offseason trade of Odubel Herrera. While Herrera was one of the Phillies’ best players in the season’s first half, he’s hitting just .235/.289/.394 since July 1, and his glovework has taken a step back this season (hence the decision to look at Altherr in center field). Moreover, Salisbury writes that Mackanin has been frustrated recently by some decline in Herrera’s early-season plate discipline and a lack of focus. Philadelphia has outfield alternatives, Salisbury notes, listing both Roman Quinn and Nick Williams, and the team did show it was willing to trade controllable assets last winter by moving Ken Giles.
More on the Phillies…
- Philadelphia placed rookie right-hander Zach Eflin on the disabled list yesterday due to patellar tendinopathy in both of his knees, per a club announcement. The Phillies aren’t sure if Eflin will pitch again in 2016, as MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki writes. Eflin said he’s had issues with his knees throughout his entire career but this season has been the worst in terms of discomfort. Eflin, who will meet with specialists in Philadelphia before the team determines his next course of action, said the condition has always been “tolerable” and “maintainable.” The 22-year-old tossed a complete game shutout against the Pirates back on July 22 to lower his ERA to 3.40, but he’s been torched for 20 runs in 13 innings since that time.
- With Eflin joining Aaron Nola and veteran Charlie Morton on the disabled list and the Phils watching the workloads of young arms like Jake Thompson and Vince Velasquez, the club could turn to left-hander Adam Morgan and right-hander David Buchanan for starts down the stretch. Matt Gelb of the Philly Inquirer writes that prospect Ben Lively could get a look as well despite not being on the 40-man roster, as he’ll need to be added this winter anyhow to protect him from the Rule 5 Draft. Salisbury tweets a reminder that suspended right-hander Alec Asher can be reinstated on Sept. 15 and could provide the Phillies with a much-needed fresh arm in the final weeks of the season. Former Rangers right-hander Phil Klein, who was claimed off waivers earlier this season, represents another 40-man option for the Phillies to make some spot starts through the end of the year, as can be seen on the club’s depth chart.
It makes more sense to try putting him back at 2nd base than to trade him because the Phillies have other outfield options.
Herrera was a disaster at 2B while in the minors. Its not an option at all. He has a .965 fielding percentage as a 2B in the minors, making 66 errors in 405 games started at 2B.
They better not trade Odubel– He’s a core piece for the future that isn’t as replaceable as Ken Giles and has tons of control left. He will be on our next world series team, and likely will play a major part on it.
Next World Series as the 1st base coach right?
Wow a comedian.
calm down there Danny
Couldn’t agree more…..wow what is going on with OH? He has gone from maybe the greatest Rule 5 selection ever and Phillies star of the future to trade bait!
you’re overrating Herrera. he is replaceable. and has probably performed over his head at times for the Phillies
Actually – The Phillies have a lot of good OF’s in their ML system, And while it would be sad to see him traded, I would have to think the haul we get back would be worth it. His demand would be very high as the FA market is so weak this off-season.
We can put Altherr in CF right now and then Roman Quinn come Sept.
2017 would have Williams in LF / Quinn in CF / Altherr in RF.
Knocking on the door is Cozens, and Pullin.
in 2 years, will have the likes of Pujols, Moniak, Randolph, Tocci, and Tromp.
The Phillies will get there very soon if not next year . I’m a die hard Cub fan and I see more than we had before the last 2years
Nats are far superior, a healthy Mets team is much better, and the Braves have done a better job with their rebuild.
I’m not familiar with the Braves success to date rebuild, as I’ve read the opposite of your assertion. please share the Braves rebuilding success that the experts missed. thanks in advance.
The braves need swanson and albies to succeed or their sunk for the near term. None of their young pitchers have shown to be more than middle rotation starters at this point, many dealing with command issues. The rest of their team is devoid of talent minus Freddie Freeman who continues to get older and Teheran if he can keep his crazy fip beating up.
Take into account the Phillies superior ability to spend money and the talent they have on or close to MLB level and I think the Phillies are closer to being good than the braves. Braves may have a better long term outlook though.
The mets aren’t good. They can’t hit or field anything. And the Braves didn’t rebuild better than the Phillies.
The Nats bought their way to success, but even that has been limited. They choked in the playoffs and will see Harper walk in 2018.
Mets are a mess. Cespedes will walk out as well.
The Phillies farm still ranks higher than the Braves.
And when it comes down to all teams, the Phillies not only have the youngest team in MLB right now, they get even younger next year with Howard and Ruiz gone. Payroll in 2017 is just 27 Million and in 2018, Just 2 Million.
This is a team that can go right to the top in the next 2 years.
That may require the Phillies getting as lucky as the cubs. Arriettas don’t happen out of no where and Hendricks has been very good. The Phillies also do not have a KB in their system or an Anthony Rizzo on their team. On top of these things, the next couple free agent classes are less than stellar for them to supplement their ML roster with.
Arrieta took 5 years before becoming good.at age 28. He’s now 30. The Cubs have good young position players, but their Pitching is older.
Franco is our KB and those two are not that far off. Phils have a 23 year old kid named Hoskins in AA that has hit 35 HR w/ 103 RBI in 110 games so far. Don’t underestimated who we have there now, Tommy Joseph has a combined 21 HR’s and is batting .280 this year and is only 25 years old.
Cubs are on limited time with Lester, Arrieta, Lackey, Zobrist are not young.
Chapman will walk after this season.
Fowler walks too.
I like the Cubs – they just haven’t proved that they can win yet. (I would LOVE to see a Cubs vs Indians WS this year though – or even a Cubs vs Rangers)
Looking more and mlre like preller sold high on guys from the previous regime. When healthy eflin hasnt done much in 11 starts posting an xfip of 5.33 to go along with 4.41 k/9
Joe Ross is the next young arm victim of dusty baker and wisler hasnt done much for atlanta posting 5.10 xfip last year and 4.85 xfip this year with sub 7 k/9
Sold low on Grandal
Ah yes, an 11 game sample size is a fantastic base to make a claim like that. I notice that you also fail to mention Trea Turner, who was a bigger part of that trade than Joe Ross was..
Ah yes, notice how i said “looks like he sold high on guys from the previous regime”
Not which guys specifically, but there have been plenty that arent doing much for their new team, even in minors, and dont look like anything more than replacement level at best.
Also, if Joe Ross indeeds succumbs for the dusty baker curse then its a 1-1 swap of trea turner for wil myers LOL. Considering the way myers has looked past 2 years when healthy hes offered more value than turner has and probably continue to do so if the padres sign him to a reasonable extension.
Also, yeah 11 game sample size isnt much, yet somehow you overlooked eflin not being a hard thrower- sits around 92-93 on average oh and he doesnt strike guys out much. 4.41 k/9.
But youre right. 11 games isnt much to go off of. Hes clearly going to start hitting 95-96 on the gun routinely instead of his averages being 92.7 and 91.7 and amp that k rate up for 9 k/9 LOL.
You’re not wrong about the velocity and K rate, but I don’t think anyone is under the illusion that he’ll be more than a middle rotation guy. He’s very much a pitch to contact type pitcher who will rely on command. Still I think you are too low on him, I would encourage you to look at his game logs and you’ll see that his numbers are weighed down by 4 horrible starts where his command was off…the other 7 were great (including two complete games) and shows he has potential to be a solid MLB regular.
Hes a 4-5 back end of the rotation guy. While still valuable to a club hes a former high draft choice the padres sold high on. How many 1st round picks are pegged to be 4-5 back end guys?
Him and wisler were rated very highly but look to be nothing more than 4-5 back end guys. Which, if they arent innings eaters while giving you around a 4.5 xfip theyre essentialy as wash as a 4-5 slot guy.
Itd be one thing for eflin and wisler to have horrendous xfip but solid k rates. They dont have the k rates to suggest improvement on the horizon.
Padres dealing Trea Turner was a huge mistake by Preller and will bite them in the rear end the next 15 years. No Sir they did not sell high on Turner they sold low real low real dumb move
Alec Asher- the mediocre PED user. oh boy! they should be stoked to get that guy back!
Phils have two young second basemen in minors. Not sure whether I want Herrera or Hernandez at second until one of the youngsters is ready in couple of years. They do have a nice problem in the outfield – a log jam.
I’d put Galvis at 2B and play JP Crawford at SS.
Galvis has 11 HR / 45 RBI / 12 SB in 113 games so far, Yes he needs to work on that .231 average, but other than that, his numbers are impressive.
Projected 2017 Line-up (as of today)
1) R. Quinn (cf)
2) JP Crawford (ss)
3) M. Franco (3b)
4) T. Joseph (1b)
5) C. Rupp (c)
6) N. Williams (lf)
7) A. Altherr (rf)
8) F. Galvis (2b)
9) Pitcher – (Nola / Valasquez / Thompson /
Eickhoff / Eflin / Morgan / Lively)
Odubel Herrera is the Phillies leading Offensive AND Defensive player the past two seasons. He is leading the NL in CF assists. He is leading the NL in double plays turned as CF, total zone runs as CF, range factor per nine innings as CF, and a host of other defensive factors. He leads the Phillies in OBA and is second only to Cameron Rupp in OPS plus at 110. His slash line is .364 OBA/.416 SA/.780 OPS and he made the All Star team. For a guy about to get the Gold Glove, or who should get the Gold Glove, that is tremendous. So why put Aaron Altherr into CF? Well, that is a head scratcher. Herrera leads the Phils in WAR, just like he did in 2015. Altherr got hurt last year, and got hurt this spring. He looks promising, but he seems injury prone. Herrera on the other hand leads the NL in games played in CF two years in a row. The guy is durable. Pencil him in, he plays. The right thing to do here is put Altherr in Left Field, where the stats show Altherr to be a superior defender, and let Altherr’s slugging potential mature. The Phillies have two horrible corner outfielders who cannot hit at all. The last thing they need to change is the Centerfielder, who also is a proven leadoff hitter. That would reduce their problems for next year to Right Field only. And, remember that there is zero evidence Altherr can play a full 162 game season. None at all. Herrerra is 24 years old. Altherr is actually OLDER than Herrerra but has played less time in the bigs. Everything suggests that Herrera is due for at least three bigger years, and that his speed will not decline for 4 more years, plus the Phils have control of Herrera for a long while yet. There is absolutely no reason to trade Herrera whatsoever. Benching him and not playing him in favor of awful players in the corner OF positions like Tyler Goedel and Peter Bourjos makes even less sense. Those guys are hitting 37 and 82 OPS + respectively. And Goedel is a butcher in left field. He can’t hit or field. He is the worst ballplayer I have ever seen in my life. He’s not good enought for AAA ball. Herrera made the All-Star Game, hustles, and is a great player. Keep him. Because every team in the majors needs a great centerfielder. and that is what Herrera is.
It would be a terrible idea for the Phillies to trade Herrera, he is the core of the team right now. The Phillies have gotten so much better as a team with him.