Phillies: Five 2021 Opening Day roster takeaways

4. Scott Kingery rightfully goes to Triple-A, for now

If we thought last season was rock-bottom, it gets even worse for Scott Kingery. He now heads down to the minors and won’t even make the 26 man roster.

While we could go on and on about all the pros Kingery showed down in Clearwater, he just isn’t ready at this very moment. His swing has a clear hole in it and he continues to struggle with almost any fastball whatsoever — especially high in the zone.

Triple-A is where Kingery needs to be right now to fix his game and get himself back mentally. It is a shame, but this doesn’t have to be viewed as a negative. Kingery will eventually be back; maybe he just needed some time. When he is, it wouldn’t be the most shocking thing in the world. He was probably rushed up to the majors in the first place.

5. ‘Joe Girardi guys’ get the first chance on Phillies roster

It is not at all far-fetched to call David Hale and Ronald Torreyes “Girardi guys.” Torreyes was a member of the New York Yankees when Girardi managed there. While Hale wasn’t, he still donned the uniform a year after Girardi’s dismissal — and the organization clearly liked him.

These are two more obvious guys to point out, but we don’t have to stop there. Roman Quinn has always been a Girardi favorite on the Phillies, and veteran Matt Joyce is someone the skipper has seen a lot of when the outfielder was with the Tampa Bay Rays.

These are all one way or another some of the “Girardi guys” that will be on the Phillies bench this season. Yes, we can call Didi Gregorius a “Girardi guy,” but Didi is actually good and there’s no argument against him starting at shortstop.

Who knows if these are going to be the right decisions or not, but with Hale and Torreyes, there are certainly some massive questions to the roster selections.

Overall, the predictions a lot of us had “went down the drain” with some of these moves, but that doesn’t mean they won’t work out. Hopefully, everything is perfect and we get a great season of Phillies baseball in 2021.