Philadelphia Phillies 2016 Grades: Infielders

When the 2016 season opened there were many question marks across the infield, with 3rd baseman Maikel Franco the only player who seemed a reliable source of production.

But as the season unfolded, the infielders mostly answered those questions in a positive fashion. 

In fact, Franco may have been the most disappointing player among the regular performers.

Back in spring training there was hope that a platoon of veteran Ryan Howard and perennially underachieving Darin Ruf would provide combined solid production.

In the middle infield, no one knew what to expect out of 2nd baseman Cesar Hernandez besides perhaps a 20+ stolen base year, and Freddy Galvis was just keeping shortstop warm until the arrival of top prospect J.P. Crawford.

In the middle, both Hernandez and Galvis upped their offensive games, though Hernandez often was as maddening on base paths as he was dangerous to the opposition.As it turned out, there was a very productive 1st base platoon. 

But it was the pleasant surprise of Tommy Joseph, called up in May after a hot start with the AAA Lehigh Valley IronPigs, who produced from the right side of that platoon with Howard.

Those five players received the overwhelming majority of the playing time in the infield. Only one backup player, Andres Blanco, received enough time to warrant a final grade here.

So let’s take a look at the 2016 grades for Howard, Joseph, Hernandez, Galvis, Franco, and Blanco.

I am guessing that it will be the last Phillies grade that I ever bestow on “The Big Piece”, who is going to be leaving as a free agent. Because of his place in club history, I will grade him last.

READ ORIGINAL article at That Ball's Outta Here for full grading.

Phillies 2015 Report Cards: Infielders

Based on plate appearances, the regular starting infield for the 2015 Philadelphia Phillies was made up of first baseman Ryan Howard, second baseman Cesar Hernandez, shortstop Freddy Galvis, and third baseman Maikel Franco.

Others receiving significant playing time in the Phillies infield this past season were Chase Utley, Andres Blanco, Cody Asche, and Darin Ruf. 

Those eight players received the overwhelming majority of the playing time in the infield for a team that finished with the worst overall record in Major League Baseball.

In applying a letter grade to performances for seven of the eight (since one will be evaluated as an outfielder), there was no consideration for things like "potential" or "experience", and instead the players are simply graded on their actual production and performance.

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Ryan Howard - 'D': the veteran played the entire season at age 35, and is quite obviously a shell of the slugger who terrorized pitchers from 2005-11. 

He played in 129 games, and was third on the team with 503 plate appearances, before finishing the season on the sidelines for the final three weeks after suffering a left knee injury. 

'The Big Piece' produced a team-leading 23 homers and 77 RBI, tied for the team lead with 207 total bases, and his 29 doubles were second on the club. But that is all that the $25 million contract gets the Phillies these days, occasional power. 

His .229/.277/.443 slash line is atrocious, his -1.4 WAR figure is troubling, and he led the team with 138 strikeouts. 

His defense remained sub par, though never in his career has he been a threat to win a Gold Glove. He looked in great shape as far as physical conditioning, which appeared to help him make some plays that he wouldn't have come close to making in previous years. 

Howard isn't necessarily washed up, he just isn't an everyday player anymore, as his numbers when facing left-handed pitching are much worse than his overall numbers. 

He's not likely to be traded without the Phils eating his entire contract at this point, and he could be released outright. 

However, the most likely scenario is that he returns for one more go-around in 2016, possibly as part of a straight first base platoon with the righty hitting Ruf.

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Cesar Hernandez - 'C': in his first season as a full-time starter, Hernandez turned 25 years old at the end of May. 

He had some moments and solid stretches of play, but overall was inconsistent. and he does not appear to be a longterm solution at the Keystone position for the Phillies. 

Hernandez was second on the team with 19 steals, and he had respectable batting average (.277) and on-base percentage (.339) figures. 

He has no power, finishing with one homer, 35 RBI, and 20 doubles, but did finish slightly on the positive side with a 0.9 WAR figure. 

He showed some defensive versatility, starting 75 games at second, but also nine games each at shortstop and third base. 

Hernandez finished the season on the DL with a thumb injury, lost at about the same time as Howard, with roughly three weeks remaining. 

The new Phillies management will face a difficult decision in deciding how to proceed with Hernandez, at least for 2016. 

Is he the presumptive incumbent at second base? Does the team return Odubel Herrera there? Does Darnell Sweeney get a chance to challenge for the starting role? Hernandez will likely go to spring training having to fight for the starting nod.

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Freddy Galvis - 'D': inheriting the shortstop position from the traded Jimmy Rollins, Galvis got off to a strong start. But over the course of the season, his offensive production seriously declined. 

He finished with a .263 average and just a .302 on-base percentage. He had little power, hitting just 7 homers and 20 doubles over a team-high 603 plate appearances. 

Galvis has a little more pop, a little less speed, than Hernandez, but otherwise is not very much different as far as value. 

He was advertised as a strong defensive shortstop, but was as inconsistent with the glove as he was with a bat in his hands. 

Galvis finished with a .973 fielding percentage that was basically league-average, and he made 17 errors. To give that figure some context, Rollins never made more than 14 in any Phillies season, and made fewer than 10 errors in five of his final seven seasons in red pinstripes. 

Galvis is clearly only a placeholder until the team's top prospect, shortstop J.P. Crawford, is ready to take over the position. 

That should happen no later than September of 2016, which means Galvis is likely to get one more shot as a regular starter.

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Maikel Franco - 'A': this grade is about performance, and when in the lineup, Franco performed. 

His rookie season began late thanks to receiving about six final weeks of seasoning at AAA in April and into early May, before Franco was finally called up on May 15th. 

Then his season was marred by a fractured wrist that cost him most of the final two months. 

All together, Franco was able to put together 80 games and 335 plate appearances at the big league level, and in that half-season of work showed that he belongs. 

Franco hit for a .280/.343/.497 slash line with 14 homers, 50 RBI, 22 doubles, and 45 runs scored. 

Double those numbers to get his likely full season performance, and you can see why both the Phillies organization and the fan base are excited about his future. 

Defensively, Franco had a below-average .944 fielding percentage thanks to his committing 10 errors. 

If he wants to remain at the hot corner, and he certainly has the talent to stay there, he is going to need to demonstrate improvement over the next couple of seasons. 

Even if he eventually has to move over to first base, his bat should continue to improve enough that he would retain his value. 

The Phillies have to hope that his 1.7 WAR season was just a jumping off point, and he appears capable of multiple seasons that are twice that figure.

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Darin Ruf - 'D': Ruf is to the Phillies 2015 first base play from a right-handed batter perspective as Howard was to the position from the lefty side of things. 

Howard started 112 games there, while Ruf started 43 and appeared in 66 games at first base. He also started 22 games in left field. 

As a first baseman, and as an outfielder for that matter, Ruf doesn't have that much range. But he did manage a .993 fielding percentage at first base, pretty much exactly league average. 

At the plate, Ruf is again a mirror of Howard. He cannot hit righthanders to save his life, but he absolutely punishes lefties. 

In 114 plate appearances against lefthanders, Ruf hit for a .371/.447/.660 slash line with eight homers and 22 RBI. 

I'll leave it at that, because to present his numbers against righties might cause nightmares for some young readers. 

With not many other options, a straight Howard-Ruf platoon might not be such a bad idea for one 2016 season.

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Chase Utley - 'D': it's genuinely hard to give players like Howard and Utley, who meant so much to this team in the previous decade, this type of low grade. 

But this is not about the 2005-10 Howard and Utley, it's about 2015. 

Before being dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers at the trade deadline, Utley was having a terrible final season with the Phillies. 

He hit for just a .217/.284/.333 slash line with 5 homers, 30 RBI, and 23 runs scored in 282 plate appearances. 

He started 62 games at second base in this last hurrah, and fashioned a below average .976 fielding percentage. 

"The Man" remains, and likely will always remain, beloved to the Phillies fan base for his heart and hustle during the championship glory years. 

He and Rollins are in all likelihood receiving their final shot together to relive a bit of that old postseason glory with the Dodgers this October. 

For decades to come, the pair should receive numerous ovations as they are feted in various reunions at Citizens Bank Park. But the 2015 season was nothing to celebrate for Utley.

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Andres Blanco - 'B': the switch-hitting Blanco received a lot of playing time at third base during the two months that Franco was injured from early August until the season's final weekend. 

He showed his versatility by starting at every infield position: (1) first base, (7) second base, (14) shortstop, and (26) third base. 

At the hot corner, Blanco played well, fashioning a .958 fielding percentage that was slightly above league average.

 In his 261 plate appearances, Blanco produced a .292/.360/.502 slash line that was better than any of the regular starters. 

He drove 7 homers and 22 doubles, knocked in 25 runs, and scored another 32 himself. 

Blanco will turn 32 years old early in the 2016 season, so is certainly not going to be a piece to the future Phillies puzzle. 

But he absolutely showed that he can be a valuable and versatile player off the bench for the club, and should return to that infield utility role next season.

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OTHERS: Asche started 51 games at 3rd base. However, he also started 61 and played in 63 overall games in left field. So we're goint to evaluate Asche as an outfielder in the coming days. 

Sweeney didn't make his MLB debut until late August, and appeared in just 9 games at second base and one at third base, so we certainly cannot give him any kind of fair grade based on such limited play. 

Ditto for Chase d'Arnaud, who appeared in just three late-season games at shortstop and one at third base.

Phillies manager Pete Mackanin experimented with a number of lineup combinations and positional roles during the final few weeks of the 2015 season, trying to get a handle of where players such as Galvis and Blanco might be able to best fit in 2016. 

In a September 21st game against the Atlanta Braves, Mackanin started Galvis at second base and Blanco at shortstop.

"It's not going to hurt [Galvis] to move around a little bit. Just keeping him versatile," Mackanin said before the game, per Philly.com's Jake Kaplan. "We've seen him there before, and he's been really good over there. There's no ulterior motive to it other than just maybe change the scenery for everybody."

The Phillies should soon be starting an infield that features Crawford at shortstop and Franco at third base. 

The hope is that combination will spend years together on that left side and near the top of the team batting order, and that the club can find productive pieces for the right side. 

For Phillies fans who have quickly grown weary of the "temporary" infield that was on display in 2015, those days cannot come quickly enough.

Final Phillies 2015 Opening Day Roster Fights

Weather permitting, at 3:05pm on Monday, April 6th, the Philadelphia Phillies will take the field to open the 2015 MLB regular season with an Interleague game against the Boston Red Sox.

The spring training process of workouts and Grapefruit League games is beginning to sort out the players as the coaching staff and management will cut down to a final 25-man roster for the Opening Day ball club.

Over the past week, the Phils shipped out a number of players to minor league camp, allowing those players to get in more regular playing appearances and more focused instruction from the minor league coaching staff as they continue to develop.

The reassignment of those players has begun the focus at the major league level on the final makeup of that 25-man roster. 

A number of the roster places are, health-permitting, already determined. But a handful remain up for grabs as the team enters it's final two weeks in Clearwater.

The 15 players who have roster spots sewn up include 7 position players and 8 pitchers: Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Freddy Galvis, Cody Asche, Carlos Ruiz, Ben Revere, Grady Sizemore, Cole Hamels, Aaron Harang, Jerome Williams, David Buchanan, Jonathan Papelbon, Ken Giles, Jake Diekman, and Justin De Fratus.

Feb 27, 2015; Clearwater, FL, USA; Oliver (52) pitches during spring training workouts following photo day at Bright House Field. (Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports)

In addition to those, the following four (4) players would appear to have the team made, barring some unforeseen developments: Cesar Hernandez, Cameron Rupp, and Rule 5 picks Odubel Herrera and Andy Oliver.

That would leave a half-dozen spots up for grabs over these last two weeks. 

Some of those spots will be determined by injuries. In fact, some of the roster decisions being assumed here already include injuries built into them.

For instance, everyone knows that Cliff Lee is done, and that Chad Billingsley will not be ready and will begin on the DL. 

Also, outfielder Domonic Brown is injured, and this evaluation assumes he will begin the season on the DL. With those situations factored into the roster equation, here is how I see the final battles shaping up.

PITCHING

The Phillies are likely to keep 2-3 more arms at the majors level to start the season. If there is another starter needed due to injury, or if the Phils simply decide to keep him as a long or alternate option, then veteran righty Kevin Slowey has a good shot. The other possibility for that role would be Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez.

Feb 27, 2015; Clearwater, FL, USA; Aumont (48) throws a pitch during spring training workouts following photo day at Bright House Field. (Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports)

Frankly, Slowey has outpitched MAG, and deserves the spot on merit. Merit doesn't always win out, as the Phils have a larger financial investment in the Cuban. 

Unless there are a couple of rotation injuries before the opener, only one of these two may make the cut.

A trio of pitchers may be battling for a shot in the major league bullpen: Jeanmar Gomez, Luis Garcia and Phillippe Aumont. 

The 28-year old Garcia has done nothing to lose a spot. He has pitched seven innings across seven games, has three Saves, and has allowed just three hits, with a 7/1 K:BB ratio.

The 27-year old Gomez is the most experienced of the group, with parts of the last five seasons spent in the big leagues with Cleveland and Pittsburgh, including 46 starts and 74 relief appearances. He has a 1.35 ERA this spring, but has allowed eight hits across six innings.

Aumont is out of minor league options, meaning that he would have to clear waivers in order to be sent to the minor leagues. He carries a hefty 4.50 ERA, but has pitched well in general. In six innings across five games, Aumont has allowed eight hits with a 7/1 K:BB ratio. His problem? Three longballs given up.

If the nine pitchers identified as having Opening Day roster spots hold up as healthy, and assuming no trades (Hamels/Papelbon), then it's likely just two of the five from among Gonzalez, Slowey, Gomez, Aumont, and Garcia make the team.

POSITION PLAYERS

With Hernandez out of minor league options and a good fielder, he would appear to have a spot sewn up. Still, the Phils are going to need another backup infielder, preferably one that can play several positions if needed. 

Soon-to-be 31-year old Andres Blanco has received a lot of playing time this spring, but he has not produced the most.

Mar 14, 2015; Lakeland, FL, USA; Bogusevic (17) hits a long fly ball during the sixth inning of a spring training baseball game against the Detroit Tigers at Joker Marchant Stadium. (Reinhold Matay-USA TODAY Sports)

To this point, the Phils have gotten more out of 28-year old Cord Phelps, who has played in parts of the last four MLB seasons with Cleveland and Baltimore. 

Phelps has been excellent this spring, hitting .345 with a .472 on-base percentage. Phelps has played 2nd, 3rd and shortstop in the majors.

In the outfield, assuming Brown starts on the DL, and assuming the Phils do keep Rule 5 pick Herrera, a no-brainer at this point, we could see 3 of the 4 players from among Darin Ruf, Jeff Francoeur, Brian Bogusevic, and Jordan Danks make the team.

If all the players mentioned here do hold up as healthy, and none are traded, a final actual decision may come down to whether or not to keep one of the outfielders or one of the pitchers.

Do the Phillies go with 14 position players and 11 arms, or 13 and 12, to open the season? Just one of many questions that will be answered in less than two weeks.