Philadelphia Phillies: Tomorrow Behind the Plate
By Tal Venada
Planning for July, general manager Matt Klentak of the Philadelphia Phillies navigates the tricky waters toward success, but this is only the beginning.
The Wild Cards:
For the view and jubilation at the mountaintop, the adventurer escapes the norm.
Long before president Andy MacPhail hired a GM for wheeling and dealing, catching was a priority for the previous front office. Carlos Ruiz was approaching the end of his career, and the Philadelphia Phillies didn’t have an in-house successor for this vital position. Simultaneously, the organization could not re-sign Hunter Pence or Shane Victorino without exceeding the competitive-balance threshold of $178 million for 2013. So, management was able to acquire Tommy Joseph from the San Francisco Giants for Pence because Buster Posey was blocking the young receiver on the depth chart.
In this new age of sports medicine and stratospheric costs, Klentak occasionally has contagious optimism, and one case last season was Joseph’s health and minor league progress. Klentak discussed Joseph with MacPhail in an early May meeting. And as the GM stated, Joseph proved he could be injury-free and is forcing us to call him up. If he hits, he fits.
"IN OTHER WORDS: “A catcher and his body are like the outlaw and his horse. He’s got to ride that nag till it drops.” – Johnny Bench"
When 2015 began, backstop Andrew Knapp went from averaging .262 for the Single-A Advanced Clearwater Threshers to .360 for the Double-A Reading Fightin Phils. And Klentak promoted him to the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs, where he produced a .266 mark. But the GM sent acquired catcher Jorge Alfaro to Reading in April due to his 2015-ending ankle injury at Double-A. Yet, even thought he averaged .285 with 15 homers and 67 RBIs, the September call-up saw limited action because he struck out eight times in 17 plate appearances.