Phillies: Five players who disappointed this season
In a season full of surprises the Phillies have had plenty of disappointments
Few expected the Phillies to come anywhere close to competing for the National League East crown, let alone be seven games over .500 in September.
ESPN “experts” unanimously chose the Nationals to win the division back in March, though the Phillies were the only other team mentioned in the National League East blip.
Many players have played above expectations this year, namely Cy Young candidate Aaron Nola. Rhy Hoskins, Vince Velasquez, and Nick Williams have also taken steps forward and look like pieces of the major league club going forward.
Rookies Seranthony Dominguez and Roman Quinn have impressed in moderation, and Victor Arano has quietly been one of the better relievers in baseball. Dominguez was almost perfect to start his career, but after, arguably, being overworked his production has slipped.
Dominguez’s first 12 games were historic as he held batters to a 044 average and allowed zero earned runs. In the month of August his ERA was over seven, a sign that the former starter is struggling to sustain himself through a long major league season. Regardless, the Phillies look to have
However, a handful of players are responsible for this team not playing to it’s full potential. It’s unfair to pinpoint one player for a team’s lack of sustained success but the Phillies have several players not living up to expectations this year.
Honorable Mentions
Maikel Franco
Every year we wait to see Maikel Franco break out into the 30-home run third baseman this team has needed for decades. Every year we get a month or two of pure dominance from the kid, but the rest of the year he’s hitting .220 with one extra-base hit.
It’s maddening considering the amount of talent he obviously has, but the organization can’t trust him when he hits .330 in July and .244 in August.
Hector Neris (First-half)
Looked at as the closer of the future, Hector Neris was utterly abysmal in the first half of the season. After a relatively solid month of April with a 3.27 ERA, Neris’ era ballooned more than double in May. His season officially went off the tracks in June when he allowed seven home runs in 10 games with an 11.17 ERA.
After the Phillies sent him down for the majority of the summer the confidence and command has returned. In his last 11 games he hasn’t given up a home run and he’s struck out 21 batters in 9.2 innings. He was named the National League Reliever of the Month for August and could be a major piece in the playoff run.
Aaron Altherr
Similar to Franco, Altherr has all the talent needed to play in the big leagues without the consistency. Starting the year in right field over Nick Williams, Altherr hit .190 with 11 extra-base hits in his first 50 games. After losing the starting job to Nick Williams, Altherr went down to Lehigh Valley and returned as a September call-up. Since returning to the big leagues he’s 0-2 with a strikeout and his future with the organization is in doubt.
5. Odubel Herrera
Talk about inconsistency… Odubel Herrera is the post child for inconsistency after an MVP-caliber start to a season in which he’s fizzled out.
Herrera hit .343 in his first 27 games and .313 through the month of May, but since then he’s completely fallen off. Since June 1 Herrera is hitting .230 averaging nearly a strikeout per game. Never mind the countless miscues in center despite being a Gold Glove candidate last year and his brain farts running the bases.
Had Herrera continued to hit even .280 throughout the year we might not be talking about him as a disappointment. To see his batting average drop as drastically as it has deflates the hope that he was a piece of the future along with Aaron Nola and Rhys Hoskins.
The lack of doubles is troubling after he hit 42 last year and hasn’t reached 20 this year.
There is a power surge, but the Phillies would gladly give up some of Herrera’s 21 home runs for more doubles and runs batted in.
Herrera has simply been a shell of himself since his 45 game on-base streak to start the season. Whether he was drained after that streak or is trying too hard is something we will never know.
At the moment it looks like Roman Quinn is pushing for Herrera’s starting job in center, which could be a sign the organization is moving forward without El Torito. He’s under a guaranteed contract through 2021 with two years of team options after that, and the money isn’t crazy enough to scare teams with about $23 million guaranteed remaining before the option years.
With Mickey Moniak and Adam Haseley in the minors the Phillies could move Herrera and stick with Quinn for the near future with the hope that one of their two first round picks emerges as a star.
4. Jerad Eickhoff
Going into the 2018 season the Phillies thought they had a solid rotation led by Aaron Nola, Jake Arrieta, and Jerad Eickhoff. All three had a history of pitching consistently and Eickhoff’s cureveball was emerging as one of the best in baseball.
In 2016 batters hit just .158 off Eickhoff’s curveball, and his 81 strikeouts with the pitch were second-best in the National League behind Jose Fernandez.
Eickhoff’s entire 2018 season has essentially been lost after a lat strain suffered in spring training and tingling in his fingers kept him out for the first five months of the season. After rehabbing with Lehigh Valley Eickhoff has returned to the big leagues as a reliever, though he’s yet to make his season debut.
We looked at whether the Phillies could give Eickhoff a start or two down the stretch considering he has little to no load on his arm this year. It’ll be tough to sneak him in during a playoff run and with Aaron Nola pitching as well as he is.
Eickhoff’s injury might have cost him an opportunity to start long-term for the Phillies with the success pitchers in Lehigh Valley like Enyel De Los Santos and Cole Irvin have had all season. Multiple arms in the rotation are likely to end up in the bullpen or pitch elsewhere. Ben Lively was the first after being designated for assignment and picked up by Kansas City. What does that mean for Eickhoff being 2018?
3. Carlos Santana
Philadelphia gave Carlos Santana the sixth-biggest contract of the offseason behind Eric Hosmer, Yu Darvish, J.D Martinez, Lorenzo Cain, and Jake Arrieta. His $18.3 million salary this year was the fifth-highest among free agents and he’s the highest-paid position player on the Phillies.
Santana was thought to be a veteran bat in the middle of the lineup who’d hit .260 with 25 home runs and 100 walks. He’s contributed with 21 home runs and the fourth-most walks in baseball, but the consistency has not been there in his bat.
The 32-year-old is hitting just .227 this year and from June 1 to July 31 he hit .211 with 13 extra-base hits.
Pushing Rhys Hoskins into left field, Santana was also thought to have a Gold Glove caliber glove at first. He’s committed 10 errors at first base, by far the most he’s ever had in a season and the most in all of baseball.
While the 93 walks and just 84 strikeouts are impressive, it’s not enough to support what Santana hasn’t done at the plate.
Many fans are ready to move on from Santana, but given the money remaining on his deal the Phillies aren’t likely to admit a major free agent mistake so early. Santana has also swung the bat well in his last 25 games, hitting .258 and in September hitting over .350. A late season surge could convince the Phillies Santana is still capable of carrying a high batting average and force their hand into keeping him at least one more year.
2. J.P. Crawford
Once ranked among the top prospects in baseball, J.P. Crawford has produced at the level of an average utility man with a glove.
Crawford has historically declined at each level of baseball he’s reached but after a couple of months he’d eventually hit his way out of trouble. Unfortunately for him, he’s hasn’t been healthy enough to hit out of trouble.
Philadelphia had such high hopes for Crawford going into 2018 that they traded Freddy Galvis, a perennial Gold Glove candidate, to San Diego. That deal appears to have worked out on all front for Philadelphia with Galvis hitting .236 and the return, Enyel De Los Santos, pitching lights out in Lehigh Valley.
Philadelphia Phillies
Crawford had just one hit in his first 25 plate appearances and hit .188 over 21 games in April. A right forearm strain forced Crawford out of the lineup for the entirety of May, and he returned to find Scott Kingery handling shortstop.
After 13 games hitting .207 Crawford went back on the disabled list with a broken hand that’s kept him out of the Phillies lineup ever since.
He’s been heralded as one of the best prospects to come through the Phillies system in years, but the bat hasn’t matched the production of his glove.
The Phillies infield could be completely revamped this offseason with Manny Machado scheduled to hit free agency. Phillies shortstops have a combined -3.2 WAR, by far the worst in baseball, and hitting .233, the second-worst batting average in baseball.
With only 57 major league games under his belt Crawford certainly hasn’t proved himself to be a bust or anything more than rich-man’s Eric Bruntlett. His trade value any be anywhere near what it was even a year ago, meaning he’s likely back either as the starter or backup at short.
1. Scott Kingery
Phillies fans know the story of Scott Kingery, and they’ve read this book far too many times.
Rated as the top second base prospect in baseball, Kingery was signed to a six-year $24 million contract before he played a major league game. The organization’s plan was for him to play the role of Ben Zobrist, an everyday player who played every position.
The only problem? Zobrist is a 13-year veteran and Kingery never played more than six games off second base as a prospect.
Kingery came out of the gates hot hitting .280 in his first 13 games, but in the 13 games following that he hit just .154. He’s hitting just .230 on the season, and has hit no better than .250 in a single month.
Our Twitter followers agreed, by a slight margin, that Kingery has been the most disappointing player on the team this year.
Who has been the #Phillies most disappointing player this year?
— PHILLIES TBOH (@FS_TBOH) September 4, 2018
Perhaps the hype around Kingery was too much, but when you draw comparisons to Chase Utley from the front office and coaching staff in this town, expectations will be high.
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Gabe Kapler has said the team plans on keeping Kingery in the “super-utility role” that he’s played under all season, but the potential and investment are too high for the organization to bench him and move him across the diamond.
The organization appeared to have given a pass on playing defense this year, and having the top second base prospect in baseball play just three percent of his games this year at his natural position is not a formula for success.
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Hopefully the bumps and bruises will turn into lessons for Kingery to carry beyond this season and throughout a successful major league career.