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.

Three Philadelphia Phillies Players That Need to Disappear

Nick Pivetta

It might initially seem a difficult task to decide whether starter-reliever Nick Pivetta or starter-reliever-starter Vince Velasquez should be jettisoned first. Both have left 26 years of age in the rearview mirror, both have lifetime losing records, and neither has a lifetime nor yearly WHIP below 1.300 in the last three years.

Both pitchers suffer from pitch location issues. For those watching every day, it seems as though this translates often to Velasquez throwing too many pitches, but “surviving,” whereas Pivetta’s mistakes seem to end up in the seats. With a similar number of career innings thrown, allowing for the minor difference in MLB career length to date, the number that may well be a scale-tipper is home runs surrendered. Pivetta is giving up 23 per season, Velasquez 16.6 (in 166 and 161 innings on average, respectively).

Both pitchers throw peak fastballs over 96 mph, but another deciding factor may be that Velasquez shows flashes of what might be called ultra-brilliance. Early in his career he struck out 16 Padres in a game, and in June of 2018, he held the potent Rockies hitless for 6.1 innings.

If the “CHANGE OF SCENERY” jersey goes to Herrera, the one Pivetta truly seems to need should read “NEW PITCHING COACH.” Now, of course, it could be argued that the right-hander will be getting that in Philadelphia, but can that new Philadelphia Phillies hire guarantee he will teach Pivetta location focus?

In other words, when Pivetta misses, he misses by more than Velasquez does. In the modern game, “right down the middle” translates to a 19-degree launch angle and 430 feet.

Pivetta isn’t arbitration-eligible until 2021 but is not yet signed for 2020. Replace him with a left-handed pitcher, either a starter or reliever.