Phillies: Checking in on the players who left this offseason
Early in the shortened season, we look at how some former Phillies are doing
Compared to the 2019 offseason, the Phillies were fairly quiet last December when it came to moving players.
They made no significant trades, made their big free agent slashes with Zack Wheeler and Didi Gregorius, and signed some low-risk veterans to minor league deals to compete for jobs in the spring.
A lot has certainly changed since then, and it’s easy to forget about some of the players who moved on from the Phillies organization, whether it was after a couple of months or several years developing in the minor league system.
During the offseason, 24 players departed the Phillies system. There are four former Phillies who gained notoriety from the fan base who have moved on for the 2020 season who we’re checking in on to see how they’ve started out in 2020.
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Phillies fans have no love lost for former utility man Sean Rodriguez
The journeyman Sean Rodriguez would certainly like to forget the part of his journey that went through Philadelphia.
After signing for the 2019 season, Rodriguez called Philadelphia fans “entitled” in August after they booed him after he hit a walk-off home run.
“Who is looking bad and feeling entitled when you hear stuff like that? I’m not the one booing. I’m not the one screaming. I’m not the one saying pretty disgusting things at times. That seems pretty entitled.”
After playing every position except catcher in 2019, Rodriguez signed with the Marlins in February. He was later cut in June and re-signed with Miami a couple of days later. He’s yet to play a regular season game despite the team losing almost its entire roster to COVID-19.
Phillies fans wanted the team to re-sign Corey Dickerson, but there wasn’t room
When the Phillies acquired Corey Dickerson from the Pittsburgh Pirates last summer, it was a bit of a surprise. The team needed help on offense, but Dickerson wasn’t the first guy who came to mind.
That’s not to says Dickerson wasn’t a productive player in Pittsburgh, Colorado, and Tampa Bay. From 2013-18 he was a career .284 hitter and had recently hit over .300 a couple of times in his career. He’d also been selected to an All-Star game in 2017 and won a Gold Glove the following season.
When the Phillies acquired Dickerson for international bonus slot money and player to be named, he was tasked with replacing another former Pirate, Andrew McCutchen, in left field after McCutchen tore his ACL. Jay Bruce had also been brought in, but he also dealt with injuries and wasn’t a natural left fielder.
Dickerson did his job at the plate when he was healthy, hitting eight home runs with a .293 batting average in 34 games down the stretch. There was a large contingent of Phillies fans who wanted the team to re-sign Dickerson to play left field in 2020, but there weren’t any spots for him with the DH not yet in the picture.
In January, Dickerson signed a two year, $17.5 million contract with Miami to be their everyday left fielder and a veteran on a very young team. In the opening series against his former team, Dickerson had four hits, including a double and home run, in three games. He was off to the same start that he had in Philadelphia.
After the Marlins returned from their COVID-19 shutdown, Dickerson has struggled both at the plate and in the field. He’s hit .171 with only one extra-base hit in 10 games, though he’s walked five times and struck out seven.
He also made a costly error against the Mets in left, dropping a ball on a sliding catch.
Dickerson is a good ballplayer and the sudden stop to Miami’s season didn’t do him any favors. He’s a good piece for the young Marlins team and could be trade bait next year if the Marlins aren’t in contention.
Cesar Hernandez was a point of agony for Phillies fans in recent years
For years, Cesar Hernandez was an average baseball player for the Phillies. There were times he was terrible, times he was great, and other times where he just did his job and filled a role.
Signed by the Phillies out of Venezuela in 2006, Hernandez came up through the organization’s minor league system to be one of their more accomplished international prospects in recent memory. He took over for the greatest second baseman in team history, Chase Utley, and was versatile enough to move across the diamond when needed.
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Hernandez put up back to back seasons hitting .294 in 2016-17 and led the league with 11 triples in 2016. His batting average dipped and his power went up, but he was a decent leadoff man with some speed and pop atop the lineup.
By the end of 2019, it was clear that Scott Kingery was set to take over the second base spot. Unable to trade Hernandez, the Phillies let him walk by non-tendering him in the offseason.
Twenty-seven days after becoming a free agent, Hernandez signed with the Cleveland Indians to be their starting second baseman.
Through his first 21 games, Hernandez is doing much of the same with the Indians, hitting .268 but with no triples or home runs this year. His 0.5 WAR is Cleveland’s second-best among hitters so far and he’s committed only two errors thus far.
Among starting second basemen in Phillies history, Hernandez is in the top-five in nearly every offensive category behind Utley, Juan Samuel, and Mickey Morandini.
Has there been a Phillies player anymore infuriating than Maikel Franco?
The Phillies had tremendous hope in Maikel Franco being their next great third baseman. After Scott Rolen left, the Phillies had seven different opening day third basemen from 2003-14. Franco would start four consecutive opening days at the hot corner with the team giving him every chance to succeed.
The 2015 season was Franco’s first chance to prove he was the next guy at third base, hitting 14 home runs in 80 games as a 22-year-old. The next year he set a career high with 25 home runs, but he struck out over 100 times and had his batting average drop 25 points to .255.
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Over the next three years Franco hit fewer and fewer home runs and twice his batting average was below .240, forcing the team to demote him to Lehigh Valley in 2019.
After a decade in the Phillies organization and parts of six seasons with the major league team, the Phillies non-tendered Franco and let him find a new home where he could hopefully find the swing that many thought, including Mike Schmidt, could turn him into an MVP candidate.
By the end of December, Franco signed a one year deal worth $2.95 million with the Kansas City Royals. It gave Franco a low-key environment where he could attempt to rebuild himself as a player and earn a bigger paycheck down the line.
Now almost 28 years old, Franco is doing much of the same in Kansas City, hitting .244 with a team-high five home runs in 22 games.
Power will keep players in the big leagues for a long time, but Franco might find himself bouncing around last place teams on one year deals at the rate he’s playing. If he wants that big paycheck and an opportunity to be part of a team’s future, he needs to get that batting average up and be a more consistent player.