Phillies need to focus on their young players with playoff hopes gone

With the playoffs out of reach for the Phillies, the last few weeks of the season should be focused on the young players.

The Phillies continued their downward slide Wednesday night as the Nationals completed a three-game sweep at Citizens Bank Park. It was their first time being swept at home all season. Their record now stands at 74-71, just three games above .500. They have not been at this point since June 15.

Thanks to Atlanta’s win Wednesday, Philadelphia is now 7.5 games back in the division. Even worse, the Nationals closed the gap between the two teams to just a half a game. There is a significant chance Philadelphia ends the season in third place after holding first for 32 days in a row until Aug. 12.

The team’s playoff odds coming into Wednesday’s game were 5.9% according to Fangraphs. Now, they are just 2.6%. Their odds were well over 50% after the trade deadline. Thanks to this collapse, their playoff chances are essentially gone.

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Considering the team is done playing meaningful baseball games in regards to the postseason, they should shift their focus to the younger players. They acquired several veterans midseason to boost the team towards the playoffs, namely Asdrubal Cabrera, Justin Bour, Wilson Ramos, and Jose Bautista. However, it is no guarantee any of them return next year, giving the club little reason to keep playing them every day.

Meanwhile, players like J.P. Crawford, Scott Kingery, Maikel Franco, and Nick Williams remain on the bench in favor of the aforementioned veterans. While not all of them have performed up to snuff and/or are dealing with injuries, they aren’t going to get any better by riding the bench.

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Crawford has been virtually nonexistent since being recalled. Wednesday was the first time he started and just the fourth time he has played this month. Meanwhile, Cabrera remains a lineup mainstay despite hitting just .234 and playing horrendous defense since being acquired. Crawford has only been able to play in 38 games all season long, so why not get him as much playing time as possible towards the end of the season.

Bautista has just five hits overall since being acquired from the Mets while Williams, who has been one of the team’s better hitters this season, is stuck on the bench. He has been dealing with some nagging injuries.

As long as Williams is able to play, there is no excuse for starting the 37-year-old pending free agent Bautista with a .196 average and .703 OPS over Williams, a building block for 2019 and beyond.

Cabrera, Bour, Ramos, Bautista, and the other veterans on this team were supposed to push this team towards the playoffs. The opposite has happened since their acquisition with the team threatening to finish the year below .500. Philadelphia’s record between now and the end of the season doesn’t matter with their playoff chances virtually erased. The focus should shift to their young players and getting them as much major-league experience as possible before the 2018 season comes to a disappointing end.