Phillippe Aumont didn’t make it to July 10 on the Phillies roster.
The imposing righty, deemed the closer of the future, or the setup man of the future, or just some yet to be determined facet of the future, has choked on control issues for some time. In triple A, he was wild. In the Majors, he was wilder. He was able to summon a clutch K here and there, and his curveball could bend you over, but for the most part, Aumont’s tenure was marred by misfiring rockets.
In June, Aumont opened up to the media about his struggles, in the usually ill-advised format of “it’s everyone else’s fault.”
"“It’s very, very confusing. Baseball is a very confusing thing because you have so many people who have so many different perspectives on how to do things. At the major-league level, (bullpen coach) Rod [Nichols] is telling me something, then I come down here and can hear different stuff.”–Phillippe Aumont, via The Express-Times"
Apr 25, 2013; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Phillippe Aumont (48) walks to the bench after being relieved during the eighth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citizens Bank Park. The Pirates defeated the Phillies 6-4. Mandatory Credit: Howard Smith-USA TODAY Sports
So he wasn’t just one pitch away from it all clicking into place. His head was apparently spinning here, in Lehigh Valley, and everywhere in between. Since then, all we’ve seen in the form of updates are Aumont’s performances themselves. Which have not been great.
6.1 BB/9 is not a great indicator when you’ve only dropped into 22 games and 24.1 innings. Something’s a bit wonky in the French Canadian, and whatever it is, all the Rich Dubee insults in the world aren’t working it out.
Haven’t heard Dubee be this critical about a pitcher since Kendrick years ago. He implied Aumont isn’t listening.
— Matt Gelb (@MattGelb) July 9, 2013
Kyle Kendrick set the bar for Dubee’s open hostility, but even they wound up getting over the hump. The 24-year-old Aumont isn’t a lost cause, but he seems, apparently, unwilling or unable to be coached. As a young pitcher, that’s not great news.
Dubee sees Aumont as “comfortable,” and seemingly unwilling to break out of old patterns despite a lack of success. This, among other things, is what he’d like to see Aumont improve upon at triple A.
So, now we got Luis Garcia out there. That’ll be… different from before.