As of July 31st, the Phillies were sitting comfortably in first place in the National League’s eastern division. That lead, and the talent that backed up the position in the standings, was enough to prompt ownership and management to make a few upgrades prior to the July 31st non-waiver trade deadline. Indeed, the club continued to make moves afterwards, including the acquisitions of Justin Bour and Jose Bautista.
Sadly for Phillies fans, however, that hasn’t lasted down the stretch. The club sits 6.5 games back of the Braves in the division race, and 5.5 contests behind the Dodgers and Rockies in competition for the second Wild Card spot. The offense, rotation and bullpen have all suffered setbacks at key moments, which has resulted in the team losing major ground in the playoff hunt.
MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki wonders whether the Phillies regressed, or simply returned to reality after an unsustainable good start. Despite the club’s performance down the stretch, general manager Matt Klentak has taken an optimistic take on their analytical and managerial approach to gameplay.
“When I was brought in here three years ago I wasn’t brought in here to do things the way they’d always been done,” Klentak said. “You guys remember that there was a narrative surrounding the Phillies that they were slow to adjust. So, that is our job, to move the needle, to stay current and win baseball games.” Klentak further explained that the Phillies are “not doing things so radically different that this has never been seen in baseball before” – even if some of those changes might be new to the organization.
“Candidly, this was an excellent season to try new things with a young roster and with relatively modest expectations and we did,” the Phillies’ general manager added. “Some of them worked and we’ll continue to use them, some of them didn’t and we won’t use them anymore. But we’ll continue pressing forward because that is our job.”
Klentak was also asked whether post-deadline roster chemistry might have had an impact on the club’s team-wide slump beginning in August. The manager assessed the situation and concluded that no one element was at fault for the collapse, or else they’d have been quick to identify it and make that adjustment. “We have theories about different things that may have contributed. It’s probably some kind of combination of a lot of things. I will not sit here and tell you the chemistry changed in such a way that that is the reason we struggled. I don’t believe that.”
Of course, it’s feasible to wonder whether the Phillies overachieved in the season’s first four months and simply regressed after the end of July. Klentak acknowledged that the team considered that possibility as the deadline approached, but felt compelled to go for it and acquire Wilson Ramos, Asdrubal Cabrera and Aaron Loup. Klentak decided to further “double down” in August by adding Bour, Bautista, and Luis Avilan.
Though the playoffs are now a long shot for a Phillies club sitting 5.5 games back in the wild card with 14 left to play, the club is well-positioned to make a run at big names such as Bryce Harper and Manny Machado in free agency. The club has six players under contract for about $70MM in 2019, plus a full slate of arbitration eligible players. For a club that ran payrolls in the range of $140-175MM not long ago, just about anything will be on the table when the bidding begins.
This is very confusing. Kapler wasn’t here 3 years ago, and the quotes seem to switch back and forth from Klentak to Kapler mistakenly? Maybe I’m reading wrong and I’m the dummy
I was so confused too
I don’t mind a lot of what Klentak has done and built, but maybe having an entire 25 man roster made out of first basemen wasn’t the best form of action to take.
You would think this was an exaggeration but its not. Highlighted by the biggest waste of a signing Carlos Santana
Loooools.
The Santana signing was always curious, but you yield to the knowledge and expertise of the front office with regard to the ability of Hoskins to play a passable left field. Hoskins went on to rate as one of the worst defensive outfielders in baseball this season – i.e. a failed Klentak experiment. That Santana proceeded to have a down year by his standards only amplifies what was an unusual and questionable addition from the onset.
Disappointing to see such an elementary error quoting Klentak as Kapler.
Hi everyone. This post had a couple of key errors that have now been corrected, as well as editorializing that I found to be out of place. I’ve made edits and I apologize for the mistakes.
Its obvious your adds and interview process not working well as this isn’t the 1st time that posters pointed out errors. Time to hire that person that doesnt fit your module.
Time to stop complaining about the content on a website that charges you zero dollars to read it yet makes an earnest effort to address mistakes and interact with readers
Ironic that your grammar is not much better. If you don’t like the site, don’t read it. But the content on here is top notch for free.
If they get Bryce they gotta move one of the outfielders.
or Santana.
I think it’s gonna be a really big offseason for them. I’m sure John Middleton is chomping at the bit after their first half success. I think there’s a number of players that will be moved from the current roster (Herrera, Hernandez, Potentially Williams, Knapp and Franco) to bring in other talent like a starter. Ideally you’d love to sign Machado, but I think he’s destined for NY. Much more realistic shot at Harper. I wouldn’t rule out an Arrenado trade. If you could bring those two in then you can afford to go with Kingery at 2B and Crawford at SS to see what you have in them.
Don’t know what the hitting coaches are teaching, but either it ain’t working or the hitters we have aren’t capable of implementing it. As for hitting prowess, I prefer Yogi Berra’s method, “See the ball, hit the ball!”.
Being in a pennant race was fun while it lasted, but anyone who has watched this team all year knows it was a mirage. Way too many pimples exist that I hope Klentak will address in the off-season.. Note to Klentak: We have enough first basemen!
All they need to do is sign Machado and another bat. Trade whatever you have to for legit pitching. Keeping Dylan Bundy and letting Machado leave via trade will get someone fired in Balt.
Are u talking about BAL or PHl
Phillies are sitting pretty and will be a team to be reckoned with moving forward as they have the cash to make a splash in free agency and supplement what they have going.
Frankly, Matt Klentak should be fired as he overlooked the major problems facing the Phillies. Zach Efflin, Nick Pivetta and Vince Vasquez have been inconsistent since late June and he could have replaced two of the above with Cole Hamels and Jay Happ for very little cost. Add to the fact that he hired a non experienced manager (Gabe Kapler) who burned out our bullpen and has lost many games through his mismanagement. Between Klentak who was totally embarrassed by the Braves and Cubs GM and Mr. Kapler’s hiring it was only Aaron Nola who kept us above water this year. A good GM would have taken advantage of this opportunity to win the NL East division this year.
I think it’s far too early to make this kind of decision on Klentak’s body of work. If they fail to contend next year, okay, but no one expected them to contend this year
Phillies plans seem to be all contingent on signing Harper or machado or both but what happens if they get neither?
They could get neither or both but there are too many other problems with the rotation for them to be contenders. No reinforcements in the minors either.
Looking at it realistically, this team is still a huge improvement over the last few years. I mean, I sat through Aaron Harang, Sean O’Sullivan and Jerome Williams. I’ll take Pivetta over that nonsense any day.
Whether or not Kap is a good manager, whether or not Klentak screwed up, I did NOT expect to still be as high in the records as we are, so yes – I think this season was a positive.
I know some will scoff at this, but it’s the truth.