If the Phillies want to contend in 2019 then improvements to their bench will be needed

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Nick Williams and the Phillies 2019 bench have not produced early

This is no “woe is us” tale, nor will it be a “the sky is falling” story about how it is all going to come crashing down on the National League East Division-leading Philadelphia Phillies.

But as I pointed out in my Monday piece on three looming lineup and roster issues, the team’s bench players have not been producing to this point.

Over the first nine games, manager Gabe Kapler has used the exact same starting lineup of position players seven times. He gave catcher J.T. Realmuto a rest last Saturday with Andrew Knapp getting the start behind the plate. Then in Monday’s series opener against the Nationals, Kapler started Scott Kingery over Cesar Hernandez at second base.

Nick Williams has been the primary left-handed bat off the bench. He has appeared in eight of the nine games, all as a pinch-hitter. Williams is just 1-8 with the lone hit an RBI single during last Wednesday’s loss in Washington.

Aaron Altherr has appeared in six games, with all of his appearances also as a pinch-hitter. Altherr is off to a 1-6 start and contributed an RBI single during last Friday’s victory over Minnesota.

Kingery registered his first two hits of the season in Monday’s starting opportunity. Prior to that he was 1-4 while coming off the bench with a walk and a run scored. Three of his four previous appearances had come as a pinch-hitter. He also came in as part of a double-switch, replacing Hernandez during the loss in D.C. last week.

Andrew Knapp received one start behind the plate and is going to be counted on to spell J.T. Realmuto a couple of dozen times.

Knapp was just 0-2 in a pair of pinch-hitting appearances prior to his lone start in which he went 1-2 this past weekend. In that game, Realmuto came on as a pinch-hitter and stayed in to catch, going 0-2. Hernandez did not see action in Monday’s game.

So with the single starts for both Kingery and Knapp out of the equation and Realmuto’s relief effort factored in, the Phillies bench has been a collective 3-22 for a collective .136 batting average, two RBI, and one run scored. They have no extra-base hits to this point.

There is hope that the dynamic Roman Quinn will be able to return from his latest injury in the coming days. But even with his addition the bench may require some upgrading if the Phillies truly hope to extend their hot start over a full season of contention.

Phillies Fall Classics IX: 2008 World Series Game One

The 2008 Philadelphia Phillies were an explosive offensive juggernaut that had been playing together for a few years, with most of their key players just entering the prime of their careers.

The previous season of 2007, the club had gotten over a bit of a hump when they ran down the New York Mets in September to take the franchise’ first NL East crown in almost a decade and a half.

For the previous half-dozen seasons, stretching back to the dying days of Veteran’s Stadium and moving on through the 2004 christening of Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies had been consistent winners. 

However, prior to that ’07 squad, which team leader and shortstop Jimmy Rollins had declared in the beginning were “the team to beat” in the division, the Phils had kept falling a few games short of a postseason berth.

‘J-Roll’ had been around since the turn of the century. He, left fielder Pat Burrell, known since his college days as ‘Pat the Bat’, and pitcher Brett Myers were the lineup’s still-young senior citizens and cornerstones.

A trio of even younger players had come along over the previous 2-3 years, and were beginning to emerge as superstars in their own right. Together they would help supply much of the final push towards an actual world championship.