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Phillies 2019 season preview: Infielder Scott Kingery

By John Town

PORT CHARLOTTE, FL - FEBRUARY 22: Scott Kingery #4 of the Philadelphia Phillies on his toes in the infield during the Spring Training game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Charlotte Sports Park on February 22, 2019 in Port Charlotte, Florida. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images)
PORT CHARLOTTE, FL - FEBRUARY 22: Scott Kingery #4 of the Philadelphia Phillies on his toes in the infield during the Spring Training game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Charlotte Sports Park on February 22, 2019 in Port Charlotte, Florida. (Photo by Mike McGinnis/Getty Images) /
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Phillies
DENVER, CO – SEPTEMBER 27: Scott Kingery #4 of the Philadelphia Phillies plays shortstop during the game against the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on September 27, 2018 in Denver, Colorado. The Rockies defeated the Phillies 6-4. (Photo by Rob Leiter/MLB Photos via Getty Images) /

Projections for 2019

Projections for Kingery are understandably low. Baseball-Reference predicts Kingery will finish the year with .236/.290/.365 line, nine home runs, 38 runs batted in, and eight stolen bases in 442 plate appearances, similar to his numbers last year.

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ZiPS projects Kingery to finish the year with similar numbers to BRef along with a 76 wRC+ and 0.8 fWAR in 140 games. Steamer only projects Kingery to play 98 games (which makes sense for a utility player) with a wRC+ of 80 and 0.4 fWAR.

It’s hard to project the kind of season Kingery will have given how poor his first season went. Will he perform better now that he doesn’t have to learn shortstop on the fly? Or will his performance decay even further without consistent at-bats? It’s hard to imagine things getting much worse for him, but they certainly could.

The biggest key to Kingery finding success will be developing some semblance of plate discipline.

When you are facing an 0-2 count in nearly a third of your plate appearances, you are bound to fail. The deeper he can work into counts, the more likely he can get quality pitches to hit. That is the most obvious thing for him to improve on this year.

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Cesar Hernandez is still a Phillie through this year and next, so Kingery doesn’t need to show massive improvements right away. If he can show enough progress this year to warrant a potential starting spot, it may make Hernandez expendable after the year.

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