Troubling MLB debut for Phillies’ Enyel De Los Santos

While the debut of a top Phillies prospect led to a 7-3 victory on Tuesday night, there were some concerning moves in the game.

The Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 win over the New York Mets July 10 was one of those games masking some flaws Philly has yet to address. This game also marked the MLB debuts of both the Phillies and Mets starters, Enyel De Los Santos and Drew Gagnon, respectively.

De Los Santos fared better because of the roughly once-a-week outburst by the Phillies offense. Maikel Franco hit a three-run homer early. Nick Williams had a 3-for-5 evening, including a two-run single, and between them Rhys Hoskins and Odubel Herrera were 5-for-10 and scored three times. For once, runs didn’t dribble across the plate for the team.

Coupled with an Atlanta Braves loss, the win put the Phillies in first place in the NL East alone for the first time since May 26. God’s in his heaven; all’s right with the world, right?

Let’s back up a bit.

De Los Santos did pitch pretty well, displaying an upper 90s fastball, and some subtle movement on other pitches. After the game Hoskins said he was “most impressed by how he commanded his pitches and his offspeed stuff for strikes.” De Los Santos will represent the Phillies in the All-Star Futures game and has pitched extremely well at Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Nonetheless, he was sent back there after the win.

What was slightly concerning was the way Phillies skipper Gabe Kapler handled the right-hander in the inning he eventually pulled the 22-year-old, the seventh.

Lead-off hitter Jose Reyes, two dozen points below the Mendoza line, was walked. De Los Santos could have been pulled there.

Next, against banjo hitter Ty Kelly, De Los Santos wild-pitched Reyes to second. The pitcher could have been pulled then. Kapler stuck with him. Kelly grounded back to the box. De Los Santos could have been pulled there.

Next, Amed Rosario hit his second triple of the night off the Phillies pitcher, and what could have been a six or 6 1/3-inning game with one or two earned runs turned into three earned runs for De Los Santos after he was replaced.

Yes, I know it’s easy to second guess managers from afar, but this seems a particularly Kapler moment from a guy who constantly expresses confidence in all his players. Was he trying to build the rookie’s confidence by letting him face the guy who had tripled off him earlier? If so, he managed the kid’s first game numbers into something worse than they should have been.

De Los Santos is now 1-0 with a 4.26 ERA.

More from Call to the Pen

• Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
• Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
• Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
• Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
• 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals

And let’s return to the positive statements from Kapler about everybody, all the time. What might have an opportunity for Kapler to praise the sometimes problematic Franco seems to have been lost. The manager had “demoted” Franco to the eight-hole eight days ago; since then the third baseman has hit .440 with seven RBI and a 1.237 OPS, as Todd Zolecki points out. His numbers going back 17 games are almost as good. After the game Kapler said he wasn’t sure Franco would stay at third base.

Huh? Not even a few more days, Gabe?

Franco is a guy the team had seemingly given up on a month ago, and he might not even be playing, except as a pinch-hitter, were it not and injury to “high ceiling” rookie J.P. Crawford.

Next: Phillies - buy 1, promote 1

Gabe Kapler is doing almost everything right at this point. His Phillies team is in first place. He will have to continue to learn, however, moving forward. You can’t be relentlessly positive and create uncertainty for your hottest hitter at the same time.