Phillies appear to subtract Odubel Herrera as they add cheap lefty power plant Jay Bruce | Marcus Hayes
It looks more and more like the Phillies will look elsewhere for outfield production as Herrera awaits his court date.
The Phillies have 20 home runs when batting lefthanded, and that includes switch-hitters. That’s tied for 22nd in the majors. All together, the team’s three full-time lefties -- Bryce Harper, Odubel Herrera, and Nick Williams -- have 13 homers.
So does Jay Bruce.
Harper has 11 homers.
The other two players have one each.
Welcome, Jay Bruce.
Herrera hit 22 homers last season. This season he has the one, and he’s hitting .222, playing his usual brand of undisciplined baseball and, on Memorial Day, was arrested by police after an alleged domestic violence incident involving a 20-year-old woman in an Atlantic City casino hotel. Herrera remains on paid administrative leave. Atlantic city police and Major League Baseball are investigating the matter. He has a court date June 17.
Welcome, Jay Bruce.
Desperate for left-handed power, convinced they have a chance to win it all this season, and obviously exasperated by Herrera’s inconsistent play and what seem to be his mounting character issues, the first-place Phillies on Sunday traded with the Mariners for Bruce, a 32-year-old former All Star. He arrives with a reputation for professionalism ... and an unsightly .212 batting average, an abysmal .283 on-base percentage, and 53 strikeouts in 165 at-bats.
But they also got his 14 home runs in 47 games, already nine more than he had in twice as many games last season. And they got his .816 OPS, which is actually one tick higher than his .815 OPS logged in 2016, when he hit .250 and cranked 33 homers for the Reds and Mets.
The Phillies scored just six runs as the Dodgers swept their three-game series this weekend.
Bruce will collect all but $2.75 million of the more than $23 million that remains on his contract through next season from the Mariners and the Mets.
Welcome, indeed, Jay Bruce.
Bruce won’t just help the lefties. Despite playing in one of the most hitter-friendly ballparks in baseball, the Phillies have hit just 68 homers, 23rd in baseball. Herrera has generally batted sixth or seventh this season. The Phillies need a better lefty bat in those spots. They need to score more runs.
Their pitching staff is in tatters. Six key relievers and one key starter are on the injured list. If they want to stay in first place in the National League East, they’re going have to go deep more often. Sunday, they got some of what they needed.
They didn’t expect to need this.
The Phillies expected to get their thump from Herrera. This move indicates that the Phillies expect little participation from Herrera the rest of this season, with a suspension and jail time possibly in his future.
This move also likely indicates a return to triple A for Nick Williams. He began the season with the major-league team but was demoted on May 19 after hitting .180, with that single home run, in 38 games, eight of them starts. Williams was recalled last week after Herrera was arrested but in five games he went went 0-for-8 with six strikeouts.
Bruce won’t pitch middle relief, and he can’t be a fifth starter, and he can’t play center field, but he can jack it from the home dugout side. Jim Thome opened Citizens Bank Park, and he quickly gave way to Ryan Howard and Chase Utley, who combined for 327 of their 641 career homers at the Bank. But lefty prospects Dom Brown and Dylan Cozens didn’t pan out.
The absence of legitimate lefty thump has haunted the Phillies for years. It is one of the main reasons they signed Harper to a 13-year, $330 million contract this offseason.
Bruce cost them Jake Scheiner, a 23-year-old corner infield and outfield prospect drafted in the fourth round in 2017, who is batting .256 with two home runs at single-A Clearwater this season. It cost them little else.
The Phillies are playing coy about Bruce’s role, but it would be hard to envision 14 home runs sitting on the bench against right-handed starters. With Herrera in limbo and with Williams in the doldrums, you can expect Bruce to start in left field against right-handers, which would move Andrew McCutchen to center field. That, in turn, could push Scott Kingery to third base on a more permanent basis. Regular third baseman Maikel Franco is hitting .164 in his last 32 games.
General manager Matt Klentak told reporters Sunday that, for the moment, Bruce’s role is undetermined. But then, Klentak had little choice. He couldn’t dismiss Herrera.
“Our outfield depth has been compromised in the first couple months of the year, and we think it’s important for us to address that,” Klentak said. “Sometimes it’s just as important to solidify your bench and to build depth and make sure that when the inevitable happens — you don’t know what it’s going to be or who it’s going to be or how it’s going to happen — you try to protect yourself as well as you can.”
Jay Bruce is welcome protection.
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