Phillies president highlights significant problem to solve

This winter the Philadelphia Phillies won’t exactly be “rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic,” as the old saying goes, but it became clear at the end of September (again), that some changes will need to be made.

Despite their first winning season in 10 years and postseason elimination only on the last day of September, the Fightin’s were not exactly up to the fight they were in at the end of the season. And with Ronald Acuna Jr. returning to Atlanta next season, Philly’s shortcomings at this point appear more – well – short, without changes.

Thus, team president Dave Dombrowski gave the first indication of the team’s thinking about changes Oct. 6 when he told the press that he was looking for a “middle of the lineup hitter” and that Didi Gregorius has been told he’s not guaranteed the starting shortstop slot come Opening Day, 2022. Inquirer.com writer Matt Breen put this news on Twitter at 2:45 p.m.

The Phillies president presented a problem Oct. 6 more easily identified than solved.

What a difference a year makes, right? While it may be a bit silly to talk about team MVPs for the 2020 MLB season, some felt Gregorius was, in fact, the Phillies most valuable piece during the masked-up, 60-game sprint late in the first COVID summer.

This season, to put it kindly, the veteran infielder fell off a cliff. Think Wile E. Coyote. His batting average fell 75 points to .209, and his fielding was a bit less than might be desired. His simple fielding percentage was 17 points below the league average.

Yes, there was a significant medical issue. In June Gregorius developed pseudogout, an arthritic swelling in his throwing arm, and later claimed the meds he was taking sapped his energy. After that, he opined that his COVID-19 vaccination probably caused the problem, which experts implied was not quite accurate. (It might have caused a brief inflammation if it were already present, according to actual doctors, but not the prolonged problem Gregorius had that ultimately caused him to miss the better part of 61 Phillies games.)

Be all that as it may be, the discussion cut into Gregorius’ image as one of the more responsible players in MLB since he played the ’20 season for the most part fully masked, both batting and in the field.

On the field in ’21, however, his performance was not good, although he did manage to drive 54 runs in 408 plate appearances. But his home run total was a disappointing 13, only three more than he had hit in 60 games in the previous, shortened season.

The problem with Dombrowski’s declaration on the 6th, however, is that Gregorius is owed $15.25 million in ’22, which would make him a very expensive bench player if he were not the starting shortstop.

Moreover, with talk of possible surgery on his problematic elbow, a trade seems unlikely. The Phillies, it seems, may well have an expensive, 32-year-old infielder coming off a bad year on their bench.

Maybe. Manager Joe Girardi is a Didi Gregorius fan. He stuck with him in the playoff run, such as it was, and was even rewarded a couple of times when his player had big hits.

However, common sense would seem to suggest something has to give here after the Phillies president made his first significant off-season pronouncement about a likeable guy who just didn’t produce.