Phillies lacking accountability on the field, in the dugout

The Phillies are falling hard in the standings with no end in sight, and no one seems to be holding the team accountable in any fashion.

The Phillies are in free fall, and with the way the team is playing, there appears to be no end in sight. Since May 30, they are 6-11 and went from being up 3.5 games in the division to falling four games back of the Braves after Wednesday’s back-to-back losses.

What makes the recent string of losses even worse is just how unbalanced they have been. They have been outscored 108-70 in this 17-game span with every segment of the team collapsing at one point or another.

Since the first couple weeks of the season, Philadelphia has looked like an average team. Their season-long even run differential indicates that they should be a .500 team, which they may be by the end of this month.

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As the team falls further every day, there seems to be no accountability on the team. The first prime example of this is how manager Gabe Kapler has handled Jean Segura‘s recurring lack of hustle.

The first instance of Segura’s lack of hustle came June 3 when he didn’t run out of the box on an infield pop-up. This eventually led to Andrew McCutchen tearing his ACL when caught in a rundown, ending a promising season.

Kapler and Segura hashed out the issue behind closed doors after the game, and all seemed fine until Wednesday.

Segura led off the second game of the doubleheader failing to hustle out of the batter’s box yet again on a bloop single that easily could have been a double. Considering the team lost in a shutout, that extra base could have been a game-changer.

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Even though Kapler said that Segura’s actions were “unacceptable” he remained in the lineup for Thursday night’s game. While I’ve never been part of the “everyone must hustle 100% of the time,” the recurring nature of this is troubling. Segura’s hustle issues date back years, and even after watching a teammate have his season cut short because of his lack of hustle, it doesn’t appear they are going away.

Who knows if a benching would make a difference at this point, especially without a reliable backup to replace Segura for a game. Regardless, Kapler’s strong talking-to did not work the first time; will it the second?

Also, the offense is utterly underwhelming despite overhauling the lineup during the offseason. The team’s wRC+ of 91 is precisely the same as last year with only a slightly improved wOBA of .307 to .312. Bryce Harper and J.T. Realmuto are both experiencing significant offensive dropoffs despite moving to a hitter’s ballpark.

When the offensive struggles remain even as the pieces change, the hitting coach deserves a large portion of the blame. John Mallee has presided over a mediocre to bad offense over the last two seasons even with some of the top offensive players in the game now in red pinstripes. If the team’s offense still fails to produce as it has since Mallee was hired, he will not be long for Philadelphia.

The Phillies must find some way to hold both their players and coaches accountable, or things will get only worse as we approach the second half of the season.