Phillies need to play Nick Williams regularly or send him to the minors

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Nick Williams has been wasting away on the Phillies bench

The Philadelphia Phillies did much over the last off-season to upgrade their starting lineup and overall roster. All of the free agent signings and trades have been covered here many times. But a pair of moves and the way in which the club has chosen to handle their fallout seems highly questionable.

On December 12, 2018 the Phillies signed free agent outfielder Andrew McCutchen with the stated purpose of playing him every day as the starting left fielder. The 32-year-old McCutchen is a former National League Most Valuable Player and perennial All-Star who was given a three-year deal taking him through the 2021 season with a team option for the 2022 campaign.

Then on March 2, 2019 the Phillies made the big move which was anticipated for the entire off-season when they signed 26-year-old Bryce Harper to a free agent contract. The massive 13-year deal made another former National League Most Valuable Player and perennial All-Star the everyday right fielder for the foreseeable future.

The bottom-line result of these two signings is that, given health, the corner outfield positions are locked up in the Phillies lineup for the next three seasons, possibly more. Primarily affected by the moves were the present and future of incumbent outfielders Nick Williams and Aaron Altherr.

The signings are not as damaging to Altherr for a few reasons. The two biggest are that his upside potential is not as great as Williams. And he also has the athletic ability and experience to play center field, meaning Altherr provides some value to the Phillies on the bench as a player who can cover the entire outfield as a defensive substitute.

For the 25-year-old Williams, however, the signings of the two veterans clearly threw up a roadblock to his playing time with the Phillies. The club was faced with a choice as the 2019 season opened: keep Williams for their bench at the big-league level or send him to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to play every day.

The Phillies brain trust made the decision to keep Williams. It was the wrong choice. To this point in the season, a player who still has the potential to become a starter in Major League Baseball is wasting away.

Williams has received just 21 plate appearances scattered across 20 games. He has not started a single game and has appeared in the field just twice. The second of those came in Tuesday night’s 9-0 drubbing at the hands of the New York Mets.

Phillies have used 11 center fielders in this Graperfuit League season

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Adam Haseley has seen center field action this spring

The announced starting lineup for the Philadelphia Phillies for the Saturday afternoon March 16 game at Spectrum Field in Clearwater, Florida against the visiting Houston Astros included 24-year-old Dylan Cozens in center field.

The start for Cozens is his second of spring training in center field, the last coming back on March 6 in Dunedin against the host Toronto Blue Jays.

For these tune-up games down in Florida the Phillies have utilized 11 different players at the crucial center field position. None of them has been named Odubel Herrera. The starter at the position for the last four years has been sidelined by injury. He will make his first start today, serving as the Designated Hitter.

Herrera had entered the spring in a head-to-head competition for the starting center field job with 25-year-old Roman Quinn. However, the speedy Quinn suffered yet another in a series of injuries which have repeatedly set his career back. He got to make just one start, in the Grapefruit League opener against the Tampa Bay Rays.

With both Herrera and Quinn out of commission the Phillies have leaned heavily on three players. Aaron Altherr has received nine starts in center and is the only player to start out there on back-to-back days, having done so on both February 27th and 28th.

The other two players who have seen stead action in center field are a pair of prospects. 22-year-old Adam Haseley has made four starts and come on as a substitute in three others. 20-year-old Mickey Moniak made one start and came on as a sub a half-dozen times.

Haseley is one of just two who have played a full game in center field all spring. He did so for the split-squad game on the road against the Detroit Tigers on March 7.

The other player to go a full game in center was Lane Adams. The 29-year-old who has three years of big-league experience is here as a non-roster invitee. He also played a full split-squad road game, that one on March 14 against the Pittsburgh Pirates. That was Adams lone start. He has also appeared in three more games out in center as a substitute.

The Phillies lose Roman Quinn to injury once again

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Perennially injured outfielder Roman Quinn goes down again

This is not a repeat. Roman Quinn is injured. The Phillies outfielder has suffered what has been called a mild right oblique strain, will have an MRI on Thursday, and will miss an undetermined amount of time.

An oblique injury is potentially debilitating for a baseball player as this core muscle is activated during both hitting and throwing. Should the MRI reveal a mild strain, Quinn could return to action after the weekend. If severe, we could be talking about months.

“He’s very disappointed, and I’m disappointed for him,” said Phillies manager Gabe Kapler per Meghan Montemurro of The Athletic.

Kapler and Quinn are not the only two individuals now disappointed with this latest development. All of Phillies Nation is rightfully disappointed. The 25-year-old had a real opportunity with fellow outfielder Odubel Herrera also lost to injury to take a clear lead in the battle for the 2019 Phillies starting center field job.

Drafted in the second round of the 2011 MLB Amateur Draft by the Phillies out of a Florida high school as the 66th player chosen overall, Quinn was ranked by MLB Pipeline as a Top 10 Phillies prospect every year from 2013-16.

Over parts of seven minor league seasons, Quinn hit .278 with a .353 on-base percentage and 183 stolen bases over 429 games. He has appeared in 65 games with the Phillies split between the 2016 and 2018 seasons, hitting .266 with a .340 OBP, 15 steals and 23 runs scored.

Quinn’s dynamic impact at the top of the Phillies lineup when healthy has been undeniable. It was just last August in an interview with the local Philly SportsRadio 94 WIP morning showthat Kapler said that Quinn was “as talented and physically gifted as anyone on our roster.”

But that entire “when healthy” part has become the more relevant when evaluating his potential contributions. The fact is that the team simply cannot rely on Quinn remaining healthy for any length of time. Certainly not enough to depend on him as a starting option.

Meghan Montemurro

✔@M_Montemurro

Quinn said he was actually getting the MRI at 12:30 today. "I’ve lost the words. ... I do pretty much everything that I possibly can to play this game and go out there and play. I keep having setback after setback after setback. It’s frustrating, man. It’s really frustrating."

Meghan Montemurro

✔@M_Montemurro

Roman Quinn has a mild right oblique strain. MRI tomorrow. He hurt it yesterday taking BP in the cage in Tampa. Hopeful that it’s not serious but will know more after the scan. Kapler: “He’s very disappointed, and I’m disappointed for him.” #Phillies

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12:49 PM - Feb 27, 2019

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Trio of anonymous players get the start in Phillies 2019 spring opener

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Austin Listi won the 2018 Paul Owens Award

It happens every year at this time. Major League Baseball teams open spring training camps and there are a number of players on hand about whom many fans have never heard.

The Philadelphia Phillies are no exception. So when the club announced the starting lineup for Friday afternoon’s first game of the 2019 Grapefruit League schedule, it was really no surprise to find that it contained a trio of such names.

The players trotting out onto the field at Charlotte Sports Park for the 1:30pm opener against the host Tampa Bay Rays will include first baseman Austin Listi, second baseman Andrew Romine and right fielder Shane Robinson.

Listi was the 2018 Paul Owens Award winner as the Phillies top performing minor league position player. The 25-year-old Texas native was the club’s 17th round choice in the 2017 MLB Amateur Draft out of Dallas Baptist University.

Splitting last season almost evenly between High-A Clearwater and Double-A Reading, Listi slashed .312/.412/.502 with 18 home runs, 84 RBI and a .915 OPS. He appeared in 34 games at first base and 31 games as a corner outfielder combined at the two levels, and even saw three games at third base with Reading. Listi went on to play in the Arizona Fall League where he slashed just .250/.321/.303 with Scottsdale.

Romine is a 33-year-old who has managed to appear in parts of nine big-league seasons despite just a .235/.291/.301 career slash line across 1,323 plate appearances.

The brother of New York Yankees backup catcher Austin Romine, Andrew has built his career on defensive versatility. He has appeared at every position on the diamond in Major League Baseball, including one game behind the plate and seven appearances on the mound.

Sean Rodriguez signs with Phillies and could bring veteran versatility to club

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The Phillies signed Sean Rodriguez and invited him to spring training

The Philadelphia Phillies announced the signing of another free agent on Friday morning. Unfortunately, he once again is not the name that fans are hoping to hear.

Sean Rodriguez is a 33-year-old (turns 34 in late April) multi-positional player with 11 years of big-league experience. The Miami, Florida native was originally drafted by the Anaheim (now Los Angeles) Angels in the third round of the 2003 MLB Amateur Draft out of a Miami high school.

Rodriguez rose through the Angels minor league system before finally making his Major League Baseball debut during the 2008 campaign. After appearing in 71 games for the Angels over the 2008-09 seasons he was dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays in December 2009 as the player-to-be-named-later in a trade in August of that year in which the Angels had landed pitcher Scott Kazmir.

Rodriguez would play five seasons with Tampa Bay, becoming a versatile piece for manager Joe Maddon, who used Rodriguez at every position other than pitcher or catcher during that time. He also appeared in a dozen postseason games with the Rays between 2010-13, with seven of those coming as a starter.

In December 2014, Tampa Bay shipped Rodriguez to the Pittsburgh Pirates where he would help the Bucs reach their third consecutive NL Wildcard Game. After two years in the Steel City, Rodriguez signed with the Atlanta Braves as a free agent. The Braves dealt him back to the Pirates in August 2017, and Rodriguez again played last season in Pittsburgh.

Over his 11-year career, Rodriguez has slashed .226/.300/.380 with 77 home runs and 119 doubles over 2,761 plate appearances. His best season came in 2016 with Pittsburgh when he produced career highs of 18 homers and 56 RBI, slashing .270/.349/.510 over 140 games.