J.T. Realmuto’s return strengthens Phillies defense, which is a huge team weakness | Bob Brookover

The Phillies’ pandemic-shortened 2020 season had only been over for a few minutes and Joe Girardi was asked to analyze why it had gone so wrong and what needed to improve to make sure the team’s abject failure was not repeated in 2021.

“There are things we definitely have to get better at,” the manager said.

Predictably, Girardi pinned a good portion of the blame on his historically bad bullpen, an acorn that could have been uncovered by every blind squirrel on the planet. But, perhaps out of the goodness of his heart, he did not mention his beleaguered relief corps first.

Instead, he took a swipe at his team’s defensive inefficiencies without much of an explanation.

“I think defensively we need to improve,” Girardi said.

He was right and it was a subject that did not receive nearly enough attention during the season. The Phillies, according to FanGraphs.com, ranked 24th overall in team defensive WAR last season and they had the second worst UZR (Ultimate Zone Rating) in baseball ahead of only the Washington Nationals. The UZR grades a defense based on the number of runs it saves by measuring the strength of outfield arms, a team’s ability to turn double plays, the fielding range of a team’s defensive players, and the number of errors a team commits.

Fielding range was a particular problem for the Phillies. They ranked No. 28 in that skill. The good news for them is that the two teams behind them were the New York Mets and the Nationals.

One way, of course, to get better is to acquire top defensive players at as many positions as possible and the Phillies did that at catcher when they re-signed J.T. Realmuto to a five-year deal worth $115.5 million last week. He was the Gold Glove winner in 2019 and probably would have been again last season if a hip injury had not limited him to 35 starts behind the plate.

“I would say from a catching standpoint, J.T. is a little bit of a freak of nature because he’s such a great athlete and you don’t necessarily see such great athletes there,” Girardi said. “He’s a special commodity that we have and I just look forward to watching him work the next five years because it’s fun to watch.”

Realmuto said he has fully recovered from his hip injury and he expects to be the same workhorse in 2021 as he was in his first season with the Phillies when he led the majors with 133 starts behind the plate.

“I think the greatest compliment you can give a player from a managerial standpoint is I can pencil J.T. in and never worry about him,” Girardi said.

Thanks to the re-signing of shortstop Didi Gregorius over the weekend, most of Girardi’s lineup is set and it figures to be very similar to the one he sent out a year ago. Offensively, that’s good news because the lineup with Andrew McCutchen, Rhys Hoskins, Bryce Harper, Realmuto, Gregorius, and Jean Segura in the top six spots was terrific at scoring runs.

Even with uncertainty lingering about whether the National League will use a designated hitter this season, team president Dave Dombrowski said he is comfortable with the team’s offense.

“Do you wish you knew exactly how the rules would be? Sure,” Dombrowski said. “But right now we’re proceeding as if we’re not going to have a DH in the National League and if they tell you that we will … we have a lot of good hitters. We have a good offensive team. That’s how I look at it.”

Defensively, on the other hand, the Phillies should have some concerns. McCutchen started 36 games in left field and five other players combined to start the other 24 games. According to FanGraphs, no team in baseball was worse than the Phillies at that position. Perhaps McCutchen will be better in his second year back from ACL surgery, but it’s also possible that the man who once won a Gold Glove as a center fielder has permanently lost his elite ability to move at the age of 34. It happens.

FanGraphs also ranked the Phillies among the bottom half in baseball in right field (27th) and at shortstop (21st) and third base (16th). These things can change from year to year at some positions. Harper obviously is the right fielder and two seasons ago the Phillies were ranked as the best defensive team in baseball at that position. The year before that the Nationals ranked 24th with Harper in right field.

Gregorius still has the ability to be among the top 10 defensive shortstops in the game and there’s also plenty of upside at third base for Alec Bohm. With Segura and Scott Kingery combining for 55 of the team’s 60 starts at second base, the Phillies graded out well at the position, finishing eighth in the FanGraph.com rankings. The center-field combination of Roman Quinn, Adam Haseley, and Kingery also did surprisingly well, ranking sixth and at first base, with Rhys Hoskins making 40 starts, the Phillies ranked a respectable 12th.

Maybe, just maybe, the Phillies can become a better defensive team in 2021. It will certainly be addressed by the manager in spring training.

“Every player that is out there, you look at where they have strengths and where they have weaknesses and we’ll attack their weaknesses,” Girardi said. “I know for me, I could block to my right better than I could block to my left, so I used to attack it every spring training and work very hard during the season. We will do those things. Hopefully we’ll be able to consistently put people in the same position when we start spring training … so we’re not moving guys around and trying to figure it out and they’ll get comfortable and make vast improvements.”

They will be needed if the Phillies’ nine-year playoff drought is going to end.