Phillies ‘looking at all options’ to replace Kevin Frandsen in booth

The Phillies have more than just position player vacancies to fill this offseason.

Given the ongoing lockout, the most attention-grabbing Philadelphia Phillies headline in recent weeks does not involve a player, coach or manager, but rather, the team’s broadcast booth.

On Thursday, the Washington Nationals announced they have hired Kevin Frandsen to join their television broadcasts as a color commentator. Frandsen had been a member of the Phillies broadcast team since January 2018, and he grew in popularity for his work calling road games, as well as host of the Pine Tar for Breakfast podcast.

According to MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki, Frandsen leaving the Phillies for their division rival happened “relatively quickly.” The former Major League infielder interviewed just a week prior and got the job offer over the weekend, days later.

With the hope that the lockout ends, and spring training and the regular season start on time, the Phillies have less than 70 days to find Frandsen’s replacement come the March 31 opener against the Houston Astros.

Dave Buck, Phillies executive vice president, told the baseball scribe that the organization will “figure something out” and are “happy for Kevin.”

Buck added: “We’re looking at all of our options right now.”

World Series champion Shane Victorino caused some stir on social media when commenting on the Frandsen news, leaving some fans to think he might be interested in the position. Zolecki  outlined some other possible scenarios on how the Phillies could handle the sudden vacancy, including trying to hire fellow 2008 hero Brad Lidge away from his radio hosting position with Sirius XM.

The most probable scenarios Zolecki suggested are that the Phils could either ask Kevin Stocker — who previously lost out on the radio job to Frandsen — to come back, and/or rotate through some of their television broadcasters to assume radio duties.

Larry Andersen will continue to join Scott Franzke on the radio airwaves for home games at Citizens Bank Park.