Philadelphia Phillies: A caution about trading Adam Haseley

The Philadelphia Phillies may “need to” trade Adam Haseley in the next couple dozen hours. They should pause and reconsider.

In the last few days, Philly.com’s Bob Brookover took up the subject of two particular Phillies system players who might be traded before July 31 for some badly needed pitching for the South Philly Nine. His method was to talk to four NL scouts, and the results called to mind the obnoxious scout Billy Beane fires in the film Moneyball.

Oh, none of the scouts said anything that offensive, but their opinions about current Phillies outfielder Adam Haseley and Double-A outfielder Mickey Moniak just reinforced for me the wanting matter of scouts’ eye test evaluations.

This is because two of the scouts Brookover spoke to favored Haseley over Moniak, and two went exactly the opposite way.

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Well, you might say, “So what?” This is why these guys are employed – to debate such matters. My point is that, while Brookover is quite right to consider one (or both) of these players the most likely to be traded by the Phillies for quality pitching, what good is a tie among the evaluators?

Moreover, what good are borderline wrong opinions right out of the gate? One of the evaluators told Brookover that he didn’t see Haseley and Moniak ever playing in the same outfield in Philly because “I don’t think either one is capable of hitting 40 home runs,” which is what is needed in Citizens Bank Park in his view.

This remark seems to recognize that Bryce Harper has right field for a while with the Phillies and should hit 40 out of the Bank every year. It also suggests that Haseley can’t play center field. The other scout favoring Moniak said that explicitly.

However, as Brookover notes, Adam Haseley has already played games in center for the Phillies and played there more than anywhere else in the minors.

It’s true that Haseley, the number eight pick in 2017 out of the University of Virginia, is two years older than Moniak, the number one pick out of high school in 2016, and that except for Andrew McCutchen’s injury and Odubel Herrera’s suspension, Haseley would likely be at the Triple-A level right now.

But he isn’t, and among his admirers is Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt, who’s a part-time TV announcer now. Schmidt is pleased with Haseley’s resistance to the launch angle craze. During the NBC Sports Philly July 28 broadcast of the Phillies 9-4 win over Atlanta, Schmidt reiterated that praise.

Sure, that was self-aggrandizing to some extent. Schmidt swung down on the ball himself with an active upper hand and often produced impressive backspin on his balls hit in the air (548 of which left ballparks). However, Adam Haseley definitely hasn’t looked overmatched either at bat or in the field in Philadelphia.

Thus far, the left-handed thrower has two outfield assists, one from center field, where he has played in six games. He has made no errors in 28 chances (after play July 28).

And let’s revisit that notion that Haseley won’t hit 40 home runs. This is likely true since he’s not huge, at six-foot-one and 195 pounds, and both those figures may be a trifle exaggerated. But no one can say he won’t eventually be heavier and stronger than he is at 23 (now), and even if that doesn’t happen, let’s do a calculation related to that scout’s prediction, given this:

Right now Haseley has three home runs in 57 MLB plate appearances (with eight runs batted in over 16 games).

Let’s imagine that one day, somewhere, Haseley has 600 plate appearances in the majors. This isn’t an insane number. Three Phillies had that many last season, and a fourth had 597.

Project Adam Haseley’s home runs at the pace he’s established in his very first games.

[Jeopardy music.] What is 32, Alex?

Right. Not 40, but not a hideous number. Sure, it would be a much lower number if he hadn’t homered against Atlanta July 28, but it could be five home runs so far if he’d just hit a couple of other balls a bit better. Thirty-two is a quite decent number, especially if it’s 2022 and Harper’s over there in right dropping, say, 57 bombs on the fans.

It’s pretty likely that Adam Haseley will end up back in Triple-A once Jay Bruce returns from the injured list, but I’d keep him. The other guy, a number one, is still in Double-A, and although he’s packing on muscle, apparently, he’s hit seven homers in 92 games.

A decision may have to be made in the next two days about one of these people.