Mandate for Phillies GM Matt Klentak: Add a rotation arm before the trade deadline | Bob Brookover
Manager Gabe Kapler and his players believe they can win a wild-card spot. They are right only if Klentak adds a starting pitcher by Wednesday.
All right, so things did not go exactly as planned for the Phillies over the weekend. The best-case scenario of a three-game sweep was wiped away by an ugly Friday night loss at Citizens Bank Park and the hey-they-still-won-the-series scenario was buried by a 15-run outburst from the Atlanta Braves on Saturday.
The truth about the Phillies after they salvaged the final game of the series with a 9-4 win Sunday was that nothing really changed. This team, at best, looked like a contender for one of the National League’s two wild-card spots before Friday and that is what the Phillies still looked like as the first-place Braves left town.
The Phillies are 55-50 and flawed in so many ways, the most obvious of which is the starting rotation. They had to capitalize on Sunday’s outing by ace Aaron Nola because, let’s face it, after that there’s little reason to believe in anyone else. Nola, despite a shaky seventh inning that ultimately left him unhappy with his own performance, still posted six scoreless innings while the Phillies’ offense put up six runs against an opposing starter (Kevin Gausman) with an ERA at right about 6.00.
The bulk of the Phillies’ runs came via the long ball. Bryce Harper got the team on the board with a solo shot in the first and Adam Haseley tacked on a run with a solo shot in the third, but it was J.T. Realmuto and Rhys Hoskins who delivered the most crushing blows to the Braves’ hopes for a sweep.
Even though the Phillies led 2-0 in the fifth, the ballpark appeared to be at a boiling point in the bottom of the inning. The Phillies loaded the bases with nobody out but were in danger of not scoring when Harper struck out on three pitches and Hoskins popped out on a 3-0 pitch. You could feel the tension building in a crowd that was already displeased with the way the Phillies had played in the first two games of the series.
Realmuto worked the count to 3-0, looked at a called strike and fouled off the fifth pitch of the at-bat before driving his third career grand slam into the left-field seats.
After the Braves got four back in the seventh against Nola on back-to-back home runs by Ender Inciarte and Johan Camargo, Hoskins restored some level of comfort in the bottom of the inning with a two-run homer.
It was the seventh time this season, but the first time in more than a month, that the Phillies hit four home runs in a game in this The Year of the Long Ball. The Phillies, especially with the addition of Harper, were expected to be part of the juiced-ball revolution, but they went into play Sunday ranked 24th in home runs per game.
That’s disappointing, but not the problem that needs to be fixed the most if the Phillies hope to secure a wild-card playoff berth for the first time in franchise history. Manager Gabe Kapler would not say it and neither would any of his players, but this team is toast if general manager Matt Klentak does not add a quality starting pitcher before Wednesday’s 4 p.m. trade deadline.
What Kapler and the players did say is that they think they are good enough to be a wild-card team, which no doubt means they’d welcome some help from the front office.
“I’d say we’re a talented club that has yet to come together all at once,” Kapler said. “We’ve seen stretches of good play and I believe we have a strong run in us in the second half of the season. I think we’re positioned well. I don’t think the clubs that are battling for those positions are better than us. I think we have the capability with the talent in the room to be much better in the second half than we were in the first.”
The Phillies are positioned well enough to be considered a postseason contender, and it’s not a stretch to think that Harper, Hoskins, and Realmuto will hit home runs at a better pace over the final 57 games. It is, however, difficult to imagine them getting to the postseason with the rotation in its current configuration of Nola, an ailing Jake Arrieta, a struggling Zach Elfin, an inconsistent Vince Velasquez, and newcomer Drew Smyly.
Overall the pitching staff is 12th among 15 National League teams in earned run average at 4.64 and 11th in rotation ERA at 4.59. The bullpen, with the addition of Nick Pivetta and the fine work of their lefties, is trending upward even though there’s no sense that David Robertson is returning any time soon or at all this season.
Still, the Phillies are in contention and a rotation addition should be the mandate for Klentak.
“Any time you get a guy to come in, if it’s the right guy, your team gets a little lift and you kind of take that deep breath and say, ‘Here we go,’ ” Harper said. “But it’s got to work on both sides. You have to understand that we have prospects in the minor leagues that we need.”
We’ve been told by Klentak that the Phillies have what it takes to get a deal done. We’ve been told by the manager and the players that the Phillies are in a position to earn a playoff spot.
The time has come for action.
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