Today it’s time to preview the Philadelphia Phillies, who have had a great offseason just by bringing back two of the game’s best players, both in the first name initials club – we’re talking about J.T. Realmuto and D.D. Gregorious. They’re going to be joining a roster full of recognizable names including former All Stars, MVPs, Cy Young Candidates and just great players, although they’re not all in their prime. Nevertheless, this team undeniably has a lot of talent and shouldn’t be overlooked going into 2021. The question is can they win a division with teams like the Braves, Mets and Nationals? Oh – and the Marlins who made it to the NLDS in 2020? The East is going to be an incredibly competitive division, so let’s jump into this team and see what they’re made of as of now as we approach Spring Training 2021.
Additions
J.T. Realmuto
Didi Gregorious
Matt Moore
Ivan Nova
Archie Bradley
Mike Adams
Sam Coonrod
Jose Alvarado
Neftali Feliz
Before we dive into the starting lineup, here are just some of the additions the Phillies have made this offseason so far and you have to like it if you’re a Phillies fan. As mentioned, resigned on a 5 year $115 million dollar contract is their superstar catcher J.T. Realmuto. It is a massive record-breaking deal for a catcher who will be 30 on Opening Day, so it’s not without its risks but as Joe Girardi pointed out, Realmuto is a freak of nature and the Phillies expect him to be effective well into his thirties. Since coming to Phillies, he has tied for the National League in home runs among catchers. He has also led the league in throwing out runners over the past four seasons. Regarding a possible Decline, the catcher himself said
“Athletically, I’m a little more advanced than most catchers are. Not all, obviously. So I feel like that gives me an edge, to where even if I decline a little bit athletically, I’ll still be ahead of the game as far as most catchers are concerned.”
So, at least he’s keeping it “Realmuto.”
In my opinion, it’s one of the contracts where you intentionally overpay for some one you feel you need in order to make the ultimate goal and that of course is winning a world series. And if they accomplish that goal with Realmuto’s help, is it really overpaying? It reminds me of Barry Zito, formerly of the Giants, who signed a massive 7 year contract in 2007 that was almost immediately a total bust. It was certainly a terrible contract until 2012 when he went 15-8 in the regular season and then dominated the Cardinals and Tigers in the playoffs, helping the Giants win a World Series. All the sudden, the contract didn’t seem so bad at all. It’s funny how a ring can do that.
At the end of the day, the fact is J.T. Realmuto is back and for 2021 at least, that’s definitely a good thing for the Phillies. They also re-signed Didi Gregorious, who hit .284 in 2020, hitting home runs with a mask on, driving in 40 runs in 60 games and being an iron-man for the Phillies. D.D. is coming back to Phili on a 2-year, 28 million dollar deal. Former Giant Matt Moore has also signed with Philadelphia on a 3 million dollar deal after the lefty dominated the Japanese league in 2020 striking out 89 batters in 78 innings with a 2.65 ERA. It will be interesting to see what Moore can bring to the Phillies in 2021 after he was frankly terrible the last time I remember seeing him a Giants uniform. If he pitches well, he could be a strong lefty in that rotation or even an option for the bullpen, which will be needing a lot of help and speaking of that, the Phillies signed or traded for an array of pitchers to try and fix their bullpen woes. Names include Archie Bradley, the former D-Backs closer who has a 9.3 career strikeout per nine ratio and Sam Coonrod, who can touch 100 miles per hour and when he’s on can be filthy. Unfortunately, he can also be very unreliable and had an ERA of almost 10 in 2020. They traded for Jose Alvarado, who will be a huge help to the pen. The Phillies even signed the 2010 Rangers closer and Rookie of the Year Neftali Feliz on a minor league deal and he hasn’t pitched since 2017. Surprisingly, he’s only 32 years old and could provide some depth for the Phillies pen although I don’t expect much, you never know – I didn’t expect much from Trevor Rosenthal and Greg Holland in 2020 for the Royals and they both had career resurgences.
The Phillies are doing whatever they can to improve that pen including signing local talent like Mike Adams, who graduated High School in 2012 and was never drafted or signed by a big league team. Nevertheless, after toping out at 98 MPH at a local showcase, the Phillies decided to give this guy, who grew up a Phillies fan, a shot at the ultimate dream.
Lineup
1. Andrew McCutchen LF
2. Alec Bohm 3B
3. Bryce Harper RF
4. Rhys Hoskins 1B
5. J.T. Realmuto C
6. Didi Gregorious SS
7. Jean Segura 2B
8. Roman Quinn CF
Getting into the starting lineup, it kicks off with former MVP Andrew McCutchen who if he can stay healthy is still an extremely valuable asset good for at least 20 home runs and 80 RBI. Alec Bohm was 2nd in the Rookie of the Year voting in 2020 with a .400 on base percentage and .338 batting average. He hit over 20 home runs in the Minors in 2019 so he also has pop. Then you got the Beast from the East – well, actually he’s from Vegas – but Bryce Harper, not only a superstar with 35-40 home run talent, but he’s also an on-base machine who led the league with 49 walks. Still only 28 years old, Bryce will be looking to have a big season in 2021.
Rhys Hoskins had surgery last year so he might not be ready by Opening Day but his ability to get on base can’t be overstated – he walked 116 times in 2019, more than even Harper who walked 99 times that year. Oh, and he’s also good about 30 bombs. That is a ridiculously strong 3-4 punch when you have 2 guys with a ton of power and the ability to take a walk when the right pitch isn’t there. Only now we finally get to J.T. and Didi, who we talked about – both are going to be huge for the Phillies in ’21. At second base there’s still Scott Kingery, who had a rough 2020 but he did have a battle with Covid-19 so hopefully he’s 100% healthy in 2021. Kingery can also play some outfield as well. We’ll also probably see lots of Jean Segura at second base, a 2 time All Star with great defense, who had a .342 on base in 2020. The centerfield spot is the one shaky area of the lineup and it could go to Kingery, Roman Quinn, Adam Haseley or even Odubel Herrera, who is still in the organization after serving an 85 game suspension in 2019 for domestic violence. He has since apologized to the Phillies and fans and is being considered as a Spring Training invite. From a strictly baseball perspective, he is probably their best option for that final outfield spot.
All in all, this lineup is basically stacked. There is power, speed, on-base ability, experience and youth all throughout this lineup and although it may not be quite as scary as the Dodgers or Padres, I think it’s damn close. In fact, I’m going to give the Philadelphia Phillies staring lineup an A.
Rotation
1. Aaron Nola
2. Zack Wheeler
3. Zach Eflin
4. Vincent Velasquez
5. Spencer Howard
6. Matt Moore
7. Ivan Nova
Moving onto the rotation, Aaron Nola is the ace. He had a great 2020, giving up just 54 hits in 71 innings and striking out 96. He had 2 complete games and finished seventh in the Cy Young Award voting. He’s been consistent for a long time now and at just 27 years old, there’s no reason to think he won’t have another fantastic season in 2021. Then there’s Zack Wheeler, who also had a nice year for the Phils with a sub 3 ERA and the lowest HR per 9 ratio in the National League. After that is the solid Zach Eflin, who, in addition to throwing a shutout last year, had career highs in ERA, FIP and Strikeouts per nine. Vince Velasquez was tendered a contract despite a 5.56 ERA in 2020. He still has great strikeout stuff and is a candidate for the rotation in ’21 along with Spencer Howard, who wasn’t great in rookie campaign but will get another look after dominating the minors in 2019.
The rotation does feel like it needs not only better depth after the top 3 but also a left and there’s where Matt Moore comes into play and the Phillies will make every effort to give him a shot at making that rotation in 2021. In a perfect world, the top 3 would dominate as expected, Velasquez would be a long reliever, Spencer Howard would have a breakout year and Matt Moore would round out the rotation as a solid lefty who has a career resurgence. That’s a lot of ifs but given that the front of the rotation is undeniably excellent and giving Spencer Howard the benefit of the doubt after he was somewhat rushed into the big leagues in a really weird 2020, I’m still saying this is going to be very good rotation even if Matt Moore and Velasquez can’t get it done, and with that in mind, I’m going to give the Phillies rotation a B+.
Bullpen
Archie Bradley
Hector Neris
David Hale
Jojo Romero
Romon Rosso
Jose Alvarado
Ranger Suarez
Johan Quezada
Sam Coonrod
Connor Brogdon
Finally, it’s time to enter into the abyss that is the Philadelphia Phillies bullpen. I have to give credit to the Phillies for staying busy and signing as many guys who can potentially help as they can, including a legit arm like Archie Bradley but also a ton of minor league deals for veterans who may or not help but at least there are going to be a lot of options for the Phillies. Unfortunately, it’s not like they haven’t tried to find diamonds in the rough recently – they have, but they haven’t been any good. So, unless someone like Neftali Feliz shows up this year like it’s 2010 again, the bullpen is still probably going to be the weakest link for the Phillies. That being said, the Bradley move is going to help a lot and I do believe Sam Coonrod is going to be a lot better for the Phillies than he was for the Giants. In fact, he may even be pretty good. There is a good mix of veterans and youngsters like Jojo Romero and Connor Brogden, who is flat out filthy and is a huge wild card for 2021. In 180 minor league innings, he struck out 230 batters with a 2.5 ERA. Now, statistically there’s no doubt that the bullpen has been historically bad and has been a D- or F recently, but I do think there was a lot of bad luck as well, a lot of soft contact that fell in for hits, and with the addition of Bradley, Coonrod and Jose Alvarado, as well as my belief that some of the younger arms like Broden are going to be really good in ’21, I don’t think this a D or F bullpen going forward. However, until the bullpen proves itself, I can’t give it a very good grade either so for now, the Phillies bullpen is gonna get a C-. If they didn’t make any moves to improve it, it would’ve gotten an F so keep that in mind.
Conclusion
To wrap up this preview, the Phillies are a team that have one potential weakness and that is their bullpen. I expect that they will continue to look for potential talent out there in the form of youngsters, veterans, independent league players, Japanese players and so on in order to finally stabilize their pen. As far as their lineup and rotation, I believe it is more than good enough to compete with any one in baseball and the Phillies are certainly a team I expect to be in a playoff hunt throughout the majority if not all of 2021. Unfortunately for them, as I mentioned, they play in a tough division and the Braves and Mets are not planning on going anywhere. The Nationals won the World Series recently and you apparently can’t count out the Marlins either. All that said, I like this Phillies team a lot and as an overall team I’m giving them a solid B and if their bullpen turns out to be just decent, this team has the potential to do big things.