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| Phillies president Andy MacPhail (Photo: Keith Allison) |
The Phillies brain trust has been making the rounds over the last few days trying to defend the 2018 rise and collapse, and handle media and fan questions regarding their plans to better the team for the 2019 season.
On Tuesday it was Andy MacPhail’s turn in front of the cameras and microphones. One comment made by the team president is really sticking in my craw and is likely doing the same with most Phillies fans who picked up on the it.
Tim Kelly here at Phillies Nation highlighted that comment in his own piece on MacPhail’s presser just yesterday:
“This isn’t the last year that major league baseball is ever going to be played. So you’re not going to throw every resource you have at this year because there’s the following year as well.”
For me, that attitude is problematic. First, if this season demonstrated anything it was that the Phillies are now walking a very fine line. They finished just below the .500 mark at 80-82 and were exactly middle of the pack in the National League East Division in third place.
Over the season’s first four months they were a tease, somehow finding a way to overcome glaring shortcomings in the most fundamental aspects of the game to actually contend. Over the final two months, those glaring shortcomings finally caught up to them, and the predictable collapse occurred.
But was it inevitable, or was the team simply unwilling to pay the price it would take to inject some real life, and real talent, into a lineup that was desperate for both? And is that unwillingness a sign that the current management team is incapable of pulling the trigger and actually going for it?
Manny Machado was there for the taking at the trade deadline when the Phillies were still contending as far as the standings were concerned. And yet in a piece for Phillies Nation back in mid-July, I quoted Jon Heyman at Fancred Sports who commented that Phillies management was suffering from “too much timidity” in their pursuit of the superstar.
The Baltimore Orioles ended up dealing him to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a package led by outfield prospect Yusniel Diaz. Frankly, the other four prospects are likely to prove insignificant over the long run. None was ranked highly within the Dodgers minor league system.
Diaz is not going to be a superstar. He will likely be a big-leaguer, and probably a starting outfielder. The Orioles at least got something of long-term value for a superstar who they were going to inevitably lose. But could they have gotten a bit more?
The Phillies were not going to, nor should they have, traded either Sixto Sanchez or Scott Kingery in what was potentially a rental-only Machado trade. However, would a package led by J.P. Crawford and Adonis Medina have gotten it done? Would the Orioles have taken those two at the front along with a couple of lesser prospects over Diaz? How about Crawford and Zach Eflin or Nick Pivetta?
We’re probably never going to know just how hard the Phillies actually pushed in the Machado talks with Baltimore. But we do know that they didn’t get it done, that the offensive attack continued to sputter, that the shortstop position continued to be manned by a rookie seeing his first-ever significant professional time at the position, and that the team collapsed.
A month from now the World Series will have ended, and Major League Baseball’s “Hot Stove” season will begin. Dozens of players of varying levels of value will become available on the free agent market. The Phillies have the resources to bring in significant talent for the 2019 campaign.
It should be obvious to the Phillies brain trust of MacPhail, controlling owner John Middleton, and general manager Matt Klentak that the Atlanta Braves have passed them in present talent. Also, both the Washington Nationals and New York Mets within the division are right now in at least as good a position, possibly better.
