The Phillies promotion of Mitch Walding could be a sign of the need for more offense in Philly
When Philadelphia Phillies utilityman Pedro Florimon bounced a foul off his right foot May 29 in Los Angeles, an interesting chain of events commenced for a team overcoming shortcomings so far on a path to relevance. One of the events in that chain was the promotion of six-year minor league veteran Mitch Walding to the Phillies.
Ho hum (yawn), right? A team has promoted a placeholder for a player with a broken foot, or possibly for J.P. Crawford, who is about to begin a rehab assignment after a month off (so far) with a strained pronator flexor in his throwing arm. This was supposedly a Grade 1 strain, but Crawford is another story. He could be ready to return in a week or – who knows? Jesmuel Valentin replaced him. Walding is replacing Florimon for the moment.
Again, big yawn. Two guys were hurt; two guys were promoted.
Besides Valentin’s promotion, the other result of Crawford’s injury has been time at shortstop for presumed rising star Scott Kingery. Florimon’s departure won’t slow that down although Walding could possibly play some short. He had been playing third at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. The point of all this is that the selection of Walding as an addition to the Phillies dance of the infielders is somewhat interesting.
Both Kingery and Crawford have been slightly disappointing after significant build-ups by the Phillies.
Kingery got a six-year contract before he ever played in a major league game. Before play May 30, his slash line was .222/.273/.340. He hit a grand slam over six weeks ago and has one other home run. He’s sort of settling in at shortstop.
Previously, Crawford was handed shortstop when the team traded away a Gold Glove-level shortstop to make room for him. His figures are .188/.246/.328, and he’s been available for only 64 at bats. Worse, he hasn’t played anywhere near as well as his predecessor defensively (five errors in 82 chances).
(In almost as many plate appearances as Crawford, Florimon’s numbers are .268/.328/.500.)
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What if the veteran Walding does better than the two “stars of the future,” assuming he gets the chance to try once Crawford has healed? Valentin’s numbers certainly don’t say he should stay.
Interestingly, Mitch Walding was arguably having the best season of his minor league career at the highest level. His slash line as he was promoted was .272/.383/.483. His previous performance with numbers like that (.280/.372/.440) was at the High-A level in 2016 before a fall off when he was sent to Double-A Reading for the end of the season. However, the following year at Reading, Walding showed he has some pop at the plate. He hit 25 home runs in 99 games, and in June of ’17, hit .337 with 13 of those homers.
Could it be Phillies manager Gabe Kapler is looking for some power in his middle infield not being provided by his highly touted youngsters? If he finds it in Walding, however, will he call into question Phillies decisions about two young players?
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For the record, Mitch Walding didn’t seem a threat to embarrass anybody in the front office May 30 in Los Angeles. He struck out four times. Coincidentally, the same night Kingery was 0 for 3. Carlos Santana had two hits to raise his average to .221, and Valentin had a pinch hit. The Phillies search for an infielder not named Maikel Franco who can hit .235 apparently continues.