Phillies Minor-League Philosophy: Hitting or Pitching?

With the Phillies finally among the best farm systems in the MLB, should they focus on acquiring and developing hitters or pitchers? Examples exist for both sides of the argument.

Following the Phillies farm system is borderline necessary nowadays. There has to be some form of silver lining to rest your laurels on, and for us Phillies fans, it’s the prospects littered throughout the minors.

The Phillies have done a great job acquiring talent, with MLB.com ranking their farm system No. 8 after the trade deadline. Now that they have the talent, it’s up to the club to decide where they will devote more resources. This creates a dilemma; should the Phillies be more concerned with developing talented hitters or effective pitchers?

The Chicago Cubs are a prime example of a club who used their minor-league resources to develop strong hitting. They rank among the top teams in every offensive category. The Cubs have produced the most fWAR of any team on offense this year and lead the National League in wRC+.

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This success comes thanks to several young players the Cubs developed. You can’t mention the Cubs’ success without bringing up their second-year third baseman Kris Bryant. He is one of the candidates for the NL MVP award and leads all NL hitters with 8.4 fWAR. The Cubs took advantage of their No. 2 overall pick in the 2013 draft, selecting Bryant and quickly turning him into a perennial All-Star.

Javier Baez, another product of the Cubs’ farm system, has also been a solid contributor for the team. They’ve used him all over the infield, contributing 2.1 dWAR and 1.8 oWAR according to Baseball Reference.

In addition, the Cubs also made it a point to acquire talented hitting prospects from other teams. The team struck gold when they picked up Anthony Rizzo from the Padres in the Andrew Cashner trade. Rizzo is now another NL MVP candidate, anchoring the middle of the order with Bryant. They also acquired a package of prospects from the Athletics in 2014 that included Addison Russell and Billy McKinney. Russell is now the team’s everyday shortstop and McKinney later became part of the package to acquire Aroldis Chapman from the Yankees.

The Cubs are a prime example of a team that developed around strong hitters to find success. They used their high draft picks and major-league talent to acquire hitting talent, which they could parlay into future trades. With numerous young, cheap hitters, they used that cap space to acquire veteran pitchers like Jon Lester, Jason Hammel, and John Lackey.

However, the Cubs have been very lucky in terms of injuries to pitchers.

However, the Cubs have been very lucky in terms of injuries to pitchers. They sustained no serious injuries to their Opening Day rotation, which will put them at a major advantage in the playoffs.

Meanwhile, another National League serves as the paradigm for focusing on pitching talent.

The Mets have been one of the unluckiest teams in regards to injuries this year. Seven different players are on their disabled list right now, and the amount of players who went on the DL at some point this year is staggering.

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The Mets made it to the World Series in 2015 thanks to their ridiculously talented and young rotation. Matt Harvey, Jacob deGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Steven Matz started in the World Series and were in the Opening Day rotation. Now, only Sydnergaard remains after Harvey and deGrom both underwent surgery and Matz battles shoulder tightness.

Despite the injuries, the Mets maintain a wild-card spot. Syndergaard and Bartolo Colon have carried the rotation, but rookies Robert Gsellman and Seth Lugo have been serviceable filling in. They both posses sub-three ERAs.

Gsellman and Lugo pale in comparison to the Mets rotation last year; so would 95% of the other pitchers in the MLB. Regardless, each team needs young, fill-in pitchers when the injuries pile up. Thanks to these pitchers, the Mets remain in the championship hunt.

John Stolnis of The Good Phight believes the Phillies would be wise to acquire as many young pitchers as possible considering the injuries the Mets have sustained:

"At the end of the day, no matter how strong your inventory of starting pitching looks, it isn’t that strong. A few elbow tweaks here and a few shoulder groans there is the difference between having the most dynamic starting rotation in baseball and heading into October with Seth Lugo starting Game 3 of a playoff game."

For the most part, the Phillies have opted for pitching since Andy McPhail and Matt Klentak took over the front office. The Cole Hamels, Ben Revere, and Jonathan Papelbon trades at the 2015 deadline returned numerous pitching prospects. When the offseason rolled around, the Ken Giles trade brought back five pitchers. All of tehse trades focused on stockpiling pitching talent.

However, after seeing the Cubs’ offensive success this year, the Phillies may be undergoing a shift in philosophy. Despite the presence of talented pitchers in the draft, they opted for outfielder Mickey Moniak with the No. 1 overall pick. In the first 20 rounds, they spent half those picks on hitters.

At the major-league level, the Phillies desperately need a change of pace. Their offense was downright terrible this season, producing the least runs in all of baseball. Manager Pete Mackanin wants the front office to bring in a talented hitter, preferably in the outfield, through free agency. This may also lead to the team prioritizing hitting in the minors as well.

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As of now, 14 of the Phillies’ top 30 prospects according to MLB.com are pitchers. Several pitchers graduated this year, and it will be up to the front office and player development team to determine where the team will go from here. They could either continue to follow the Mets model with strong pitching, or they could attempt to change course and follow what the Cubs are doing.

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