2015 Best/Worst Case: Freddy Galvis

With the season fast approaching, it’s time to start thinking about what kind of team the Phillies may have in 2015. This look at Freddy Galvis is the sixth in the series of articles speculating on a best and worst case scenario for each player that is likely to be on the 2015 Philadelphia Phillies squad.

Today’s Player: SS #13 Freddy Galvis

2015 will be Galvis’ first year as a starter for the Phillies’ squad. He has been in a tough position with the team for his three years in the majors, because both Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins have been long-term staples in the lineup.

He has been a utility player through three years, logging starts at second, third, short, and in the outfield. With Rollins gone, Galvis should be the starter at shortstop. If Utley goes too at some point, it would be interesting to see where Galvis ends up.

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Galvis has been a disappointment so far for the Phillies. He has only hit .218 in 550 career plate appearances, including just .176 last season. That is not an encouraging number from the guy who is probably your everyday starter at shortstop. In addition to his terrible career average, Galvis has only 55 RBI and a mere 2 stolen bases in his big league career.

Freddy, to his credit, has been a decent fielder. He has only committed five errors over parts of 3 seasons, and has a .992 fielding average. He should be able to handle himself at short, but his bat leaves a lot to be desired to this point.

Best Case Scenario: .255/ 13 homers/ 50 RBIs

It’s tough to project how Galvis performs when given an opportunity to play every day. Galvis hasn’t shown much, but often when someone is given increased opportunities they will respond and produce. Galvis record seems to show that he performs better when he starts rather than when he comes off the bench. We know that he performs best when playing shortstop. But with the small sample size, it is just too difficult to make an accurate projection.

These numbers represent what I think Galvis can possibly do in an everyday starting role. He didn’t have all that great a career in the minors when starting every day, but he did show flashes of very high skill. The homers and RBI numbers are just slightly above what you get if you doubled his career highs from 2013. That’s an ambitious mark to hit, considering last year was so bad that he was sent down to Lehigh Valley for part of the season.

If Galvis can achieve numbers close to his 2013 numbers, and continue his success in the field, then he will be a decent replacement for Jimmy Rollins. He won’t be able to match the production the Phillies got out of Rollins of the course of his career, but he could at least fill the role as an average everyday player.

Worst Case Scenario: .200/ 4 homers/ 38 RBIs 

Unfortunately I think this scenario is actually more likely. I don’t like writing a best/worst column where I actually think the worst-case scenario is more likely to happen, but out of all the players for the Phillies, I think that worst case is most likely to come true with Galvis.

Galvis had an awful year in 2014. He was sent down to Lehigh Valley in early May after being on the disabled list, and suffered a fractured clavicle a few days later. When he finally came back to the majors he was unable to perform to the caliber of a major league player.

The ideal development for Galvis would be to find that 2014 was simply a year we can write off due to injuries, and that he is going to be able to bounce back. The other scenario would be that Galvis just simply isn’t a very good player, and that 2014 actually did reflect his true self.

This worst case scenario represents what happens if Galvis doesn’t rebound. This is what happens if Galvis is truly a below-average bust. If it happens, then the Phillies simply don’t have a short-term replacement for JRoll as they await the long-term answer of J.P. Crawford. Considering the Phillies really only have Andres Blanco behind Galvis, that would be not only unfortunate, it would be disastrous.