Charlie Manuel fine for now, but Phillies need higher-level change to win longer term

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Former manager Charlie Manuel will be back behind the Phillies batting cage

The struggling Philadelphia Phillies baseball club stunned the fan base on Tuesday with the announcement that hitting coach John Mallee had been released, and that he would be replaced by popular former manager Charlie Manuel.

The stunning part wasn't that Mallee was let go. The Phillies offense has struggled to find any consistency in parts of two seasons with the team since his hiring in November 2017.

Offensively, the Phillies rank just 19th among the 30 teams in Major League Baseball in runs scored per game this year. They are only 22nd in hits and OPS, 23rd in home runs, 17th in stolen bases.

After changing half the starting lineup from a year ago, bringing in stars like Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Andrew McCutchen and Jean Segura, it was expected that the offense would be the least worrisome part of the 2019 team.

More surprising was that the 75-year-old Manuel would be taking his place, albeit on what is likely to be an interim basis. Phillies general manager Matt Klentak said that this was a move which was not likely to extend beyond the balance of the 2019 campaign.

The move is certainly one that was, at least in some measure, calculated to inject enthusiasm into a fan base that was beginning to turn on the team. The Phillies have gone just 28-36 since their season high-water mark at 11 games over .500 on May 29. They had lost seven of their last 10 prior to Tuesday night.

With the Philadelphia Eagles preseason now underway and the NFL season set to begin in just three weeks, the Phillies were in danger of completely losing a large portion of their fans attention.

Pivotal day in Phillies off-season as club officials meet with Bryce Harper

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Harper with a 'Key to the City' from his hometown of Las Vegas

A front office and coaching contingent from the Philadelphia Phillies will meet today with outfielder Bryce Harper in his hometown of Las Vegas, Nevada.

In what may prove to be the pivotal moment for the franchise for the next decade, the young superstar and his wife Kayla will be joined by super-agent Scott Boras.

The Phillies will be led by owner John Middleton. He will be joined by the club’s President of Baseball Operations Andy MacPhail, General Manager Matt Klentak, Manager Gabe Kapler, Bench Coach Rob Thomson, and Hitting Coach John Mallee.

During the meeting there will certainly be lengthy discussion about the team and its direction. They will talk about the ballpark and the fans. There will be discussions about the Philadelphia region and some of its attractions and offerings.

The Phillies group is surely going to try to sell Harper on being the face of the franchise. However, they will let him know that he is not going to be alone, that they fully intend to maintain a championship-caliber roster during the life of his deal.

Middleton’s presence in Las Vegas can mean only two things. One is that he intends to let the Harper’s and Boras know that the Phillies will not be financially outbid and are ready to get a deal done right now.

The second possibility is that the Phillies are still really more interested in the other major young free agent superstar on the market, Manny Machado, and today’s Vegas meeting is all just a major ploy, one that itself has a two-fold purpose.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic posited the following on Thursday:

“If the Phillies’ preference is Machado, as some in the industry believe, then the meeting from their perspective might simply be a ploy to drive up the price for the Nationals, a division rival. Harper and Boras, in fact, might be proceeding with the same motivation.”

So, the Phillies may be trying to drive up the cost for their NL East rivals to bring back Harper. That could conceivably tie the Nats hands on other moves over the longer term.

Secondly in that alternate scenario, the Phillies could be pushing Machado to make a quicker decision. If Machado and his agent, Dan Lozano of MVP Sports, feels that the Phillies and Harper are close to a deal, it might force the infielder’s hands in beating the outfielder to take a big payday from the team.

Philadelphia Phillies 2019 coaching staff has been finalized

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Rick Kranitz let go after serving as Phillies pitching coach this past season

The Philadelphia Phillies announced moves over the last few days aimed at finalizing their coaching staff for the 2019 Major League Baseball season.

The biggest moves came with the big-league pitching staff. As our Tim Kelly here at Phillies Nation reported just two days ago, the Phillies let former pitching coach Rick Kranitz go, replacing him with the previous assistant pitching coach, Chris Young.

Kranitz had served on the big-league staff over the past three seasons as the bullpen (2016) and assistant pitching (2017) coach prior to taking on the primary pitching coach role this past season.

Prior to joining the Phillies, Kranitz served as pitching coach with the Florida Marlins, Baltimore Orioles, and Milwaukee Brewers.

Today the Phillies announced that Dave Lundquist, who has served as the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs pitching coach for the last three seasons and has been coaching in the Phillies organization for the last 11 years, will move up to take the position as the new assistant pitching coach to Lundquist in Philadelphia.

Returning to the staff for next season are manager Gabe Kapler, his bench coach Rob Thomson, and both hitting coach John Mallee and his assistant, Pedro Guerrero. Also coming back are first base coach Jose Flores and third base coach Dusty Wathan.

Others making a return to the staff for the 2019 campaign will be bullpen coach Jim Gott, bullpen catcher and catching coach Bob Stumpo, and Craig Driver, who also serves as a bullpen catcher with duties as a receiving coach.

The removal of Kranitz from the pitching coach position was somewhat surprising. There are four legs to any successful baseball team: pitching, hitting, defense, and coaching. It can be argued that the pitching staff was the one competitive leg that the Phillies could rely on for much of the 2018 season.

Todd Zolecki at MLB.com quoted Phillies reliever Pat Neshek on the loss of Kranitz through a text from the veteran:

“Best pitching coach I EVER had. He was a huge influence on me during my time in Philly and I think with the entire pitching staff. You’ll never hear one pitcher say anything bad about him. He had an excellent attitude every day that the players respected. Decisions happen in baseball all the time. Kranny will be tough to replace.”

However, according to MLB insider Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, a number of teams were after Young to fill their primary pitching coach position. The Phillies simply felt he was too valuable to lose. Evidently, more valuable than Kranitz, who the club will allow to interview with other organizations even though he remains under contract.