Phillies: Are there really any viable Plans B at this point?

The Phillies allowing a quite decent bench player to be signed by another team points to potential problems for a team that’s used up their money on Plan A.

Noting that the Philadelphia Phillies recently eschewed re-signing Corey Dickerson, an outfielder who played well for them last season, their fans should have had a question or two about the coming season for the club arise in their minds. One hopes these questions have already occurred to the Phillies front office.

Since the Fightin’s seem thoroughly spooked by a competitive balance tax, questions about Plan B – or more accurately, several Plans B – should be asked.

All of these questions fall into the What If category, and four immediately leap to mind, the first two having to do with the outfield, universally assumed to be Andrew McCutchen (returning from an ACL tear and repair), Adam Haseley (returning from a surprisingly good rookie year), and Bryce Harper (who has a mere 12 years remaining on his very costly contract).

Let’s get all of the questions out of the way first, though:

1. What if McCutchen is greatly diminished as a player after his surgery? After all, he is entering his 12th MLB and age-33 season.
2. What if Haseley has a sophomore slump? It’s been known to happen; it’s why we have the phrase.
3. What if the Three Failing Amigos – Zach Eflin, Vince Velasquez, and Nick Pivetta – continue to fail as starters? Well, one can, but no more.
4. What if Mr. Fastest Ever to – Um – 18 Homers, Rhys Hoskins, hits .226 again? Those quick 18 bombs seemed so important at the beginning of his career, all of two years ago.

The general point here is that if any one of these things happens, the Phillies may well have a significant problem on their hands that may not be solvable until the midseason trade deadline.

Let’s consider…

OK, Next Questions

Next, Phillies fans must consider their starting rotation. Most have extremely high confidence in Aaron Nola, but considerably less confidence in the repaired arm of overpriced Jake Arrieta (however gritty he is) and the new guy, Zack Wheeler (however hard he throws).

After them are Eflin, Velasquez, and Pivetta, who have records so impressive in their mediocrity that they, the players, should be really annoyed about them – motivated, to use another term, and frankly, thankful – specifically that the Phillies management has put up with them for so long – Eflin, the youngest, somewhat excepted.

However, if you’re really paying attention, it should be clear that before June 1st the Phillies could have four pitchers with losing records without even burping loudly. The guy with the winning record could be Nola, Arrieta, Wheeler, or Eflin, but only a fool would bet on two of them with positive won-lost postings.

So, what happens in the worst-case scenario for starters, then?

Who knows, barring late winter acquisitions? At the moment, there are two guys on the active roster named Garrett Cleavinger and Mauricio Llovera. It is unclear whether these guys could be MLB starters because…what the hell are they doing on the active roster?

Even in December.

Llovera has something of a starter’s career record and WHIP (1.18), but in the minors no higher than Double-A. And where is Spencer Howard?

OK, so this is a work in progress. Phillies management surely knows what it’s doing.

And you heard it here first. They will sign a now sub-par free agent before spring training – maybe Ivan Nova or Homer Bailey.

OK, then, good plan.

And, Finally…

Then, there’s the slugging first baseman, Hoskins, who is a Phillies building block (much like the recently departed third baseman, who is now with the Royals).

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Not so very long ago, a little more than two years ago, Hoskins turned Philly fans’ eyes into saucers with his early home run barrage. He suggested the Second Coming of Ryan Howard, but maybe with better judgment about pitches to swing at. It seemed that if he wasn’t dropping a long fly into the left field stands, he was trotting down to first base. Oh, sure, here and there he made an out. Technically.

After last spring and summer, however, Hoskins strikes some as perhaps more tentative than selective. It’s not a bad thing, of course, to tally 116 walks in a season in the middle of the lineup, as the first baseman did, but it’s not an especially good thing to drive in only 85 in that same middle of things.

And no matter how much one is inclined to discount batting average, .226 is not good. Hoskins’ BA has gone straight downhill from the .259 he posted in 2017 when he broke into MLB with a splash.

So, what’s Plan B here? This is a talented, strong hitter who seemingly needs to take some swings at strikes early in some counts. Perhaps the famously fiery new manager can inspire that.

That talk could start like this: “Rhys, you do know there’s no actual trophy for leading the league in pitches seen, right?” Maybe the volume on that sentence needs to be turned up a little.

But if that doesn’t work, what happens? Will Hoskins, that rare creature, a Phillies homegrown player, be shipped out at mid-season? Will Alec Bohm be brought up from Double-A Reading and made to switch out of his position as he enters MLB, like Scott Kingery?

It might be argued that if a very expensive team like the Phillies is properly assembled, then all the available money will be committed to Plan A, and Plan A must work. It’s hoped that none of the four worst individual potentials for Philadelphia comes to pass in 2020.