The Philadelphia Phillies just can’t hit, and don't let Thursday and Friday fool you. The remarkable turnaround the team has engineered has been almost entirely due to incredible pitching performances, with Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper being the only functional hitters in the lineup.
Aging catcher J.T. Realmuto is a shell of his former self, and rostering two useless backups behind him is a complete waste. Unfortunately, that roster mismanagement is indicative of a larger problem with how the team is constructed.
The Phillies currently boast three backstops on their 26-man roster: Realmuto, Garrett Stubbs and Rafael Marchán. None of them have been remotely helpful at the plate, as Realmuto has limped to a .595 OPS while shouldering the bulk of the playing time, Stubbs has an equally putrid .569 mark over 10 games, and primary backup Marchán has an atrocious .275 across 21 contests.
Most teams only carry two catchers because that’s all they need. They’ll either have a regular and a seldom-used backup (like Stubbs was for many years), or a timeshare arrangement based on platoon splits or pitching staff preferences. A third catcher holds little value to a club, as he probably won’t be a good enough hitter to force his way into the lineup, and the team doesn’t need to cycle through a trio of guys at a singular position.
That’s what makes the Phillies’ current arrangement so perplexing, as Stubbs in particular hasn’t taken three at-bats since May 15. He’s made his way into two games since then as a pinch runner and a defensive replacement, but has had no impact on the team’s ability to win or lose games in weeks.
Phillies disastrous catching trio is the latest in a long line of Dave Dombrowski failures
Given how bad Marchán and Realmuto have been, it’s not the worst idea in the world to give Stubbs a bit more rope, but that still leaves the team with too many catchers and still not a single good one. So why are they in this predicament?
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has shown weaknesses in recent years due to his complete inability to assemble any sort of depth, having swung and missed on big name free agents like Taijuan Walker and Nick Castellanos, as well as stopgap “solutions” Max Kepler, Whit Merrifield, Adolis García, and others. These failed acquisitions have not just hurt the team on the field with their poor play, but the money that has continually been tied up in useless performers has stood in the way of improving a roster in desperate need of reinforcements.
Dombrowski did nothing to improve a dreadful offense this past offseason, pinning all of his hopes and dreams on a far-fetched García bounceback, and tying up too much money in the declining Realmuto to maintain the untenable catching status quo. That inaction has haunted the Phillies over the season’s first two months, as pitiful bench options Dylan Moore, Felix Reyes, Otto Kemp and Marchán have taken too many at-bats and done nothing with them.
The fact of the matter is that the Phillies have no one else worth stashing on their bench to push off one of the redundant catchers. There is no red-hot hitter in the minors who could come up and give the team a spark. With top prospect Aidan Miller seemingly moving backwards in his injury recovery, there is no highly-touted youngster pushing to make his debut.
The Lehigh Valley Ironpigs have little to offer the parent club, as Kemp and Reyes continually ride the shuttle between Triple-A and the big leagues, while other teams’ failed prospects Carter Kieboom, Bryan De La Cruz, Óscar Mercado and Dylan Carlson have done nothing to warrant another crack at the majors.
The Phillies have no good options at the moment and it’s no one’s fault but Dave Dombrowski’s. Over six years of his “leadership”, the Phillies have successfully developed exactly zero hitters, continually failed to acquire any modicum of upper-level minors position player depth, and thrown good money after bad chasing aging free agents to plug gaping holes on a roster that was supposed to compete for a World Series.
Marchán is clearly not a major league-caliber player. Despite his infectious positivity and positional versatility, Stubbs is largely in the same boat. Realmuto was once upon a time the best catcher in baseball, but has now become an overpaid defensive specialist who’ll be lucky if his OPS starts with a six at the end of the year.
Any other team would cut Marchán loose and fill his spot with another player who has even a tiny bit of upside. Unfortunately, the dumpster fire that is the Dombrowski's club doesn’t even have one player in the organization that fits that description.
The next time Realmuto, Marchán, or Stubbs goes up to the plate flailing, don’t blame them for their failures; blame Dombrowski for failing the team.
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