Philadelphia Phillies: Three players that need to disappear

As the Philadelphia Phillies try to figure out what they need to do to move on from a disappointing 2019 campaign, three familiar names need to disappear.

Following a season that resulted in their manager, hitting coach, and pitching coach all being shown the door, the Philadelphia Phillies need to seriously consider excising several players from their roster.

One of the following will likely have to be traded, and two will probably be released, but managing partner John Middleton did not commit nearly half a billion dollars to several players last winter to see his team go 81-81 or worse two years in a row. And whoever is hired to be the field manager could not guarantee that wouldn’t happen again without the following players being removed in favor of improved starting pitching.

Odubel Herrera

To paraphrase Oscar Hammerstein about the Phillies alleged center fielder, “How do you solve a problem like Odubel?” Perhaps, however, the very next line of the song applies better: “How do you catch a cloud and pin it down?” This is because no one can deny Herrera’s soaring ability, his athleticism.  Although named an All-Star in 2016, however, the player’s batting average has gone almost straight downhill from his rookie season’s .280 (2015), bottoming out at .222 for a partial year in ’19, and his OBP, peaking at .361 in ’16, was .288 this past summer.

And none of this is to mention Odubel Herrera’s arrest on domestic violence charges this spring (the charges were dropped) and his suspension for the remainder of the season. If there was ever a player whose uniform should read “CHANGE OF SCENERY,” it is Odubel. For more than two years, he has seemed, at best, distracted, and at worst, uninterested.

Here’s the problem:  Herrera is under contract through 2021, and will make between $17 and $18 million in those two years. Additionally, club options for the following two years seriously suggest he will be difficult to move, but if the team can minimize how much of this contract they’ll have to eat, the money saved could be used, again, for pitching. In Herrera’s case, a low-level minor leaguer with promise should be considered if the team he comes from is willing to take, say, two-thirds of the outfielder’s contract.

So, Herrera is number one with a bullet, as the phrase goes, to be sent a Philadelphia Phillies farewell card. Club officials went on the record in July saying they didn’t expect him to return to the club in 2020, but then issued a statement a couple of days later indicating what is commonly called a “walk back.” The Phillies should not be wishy-washy about this, however. They have Adam Haseley ready to take over center field.