Phillies Season Overview- By: Justin Dorazio
PHOTO: BRAD MILLS/REUTERS
The 2021 Phillies season is finally over. While it was the first winning baseball season we’ve seen in Philadelphia (Albeit by one game) since 2011, that doesn’t make it worth the pain and suffering we endured watching it. Despite not making it to the playoffs for a decade, there were some bright spots in this season, which we as Phillies fans can look forward to. We saw some development (and regression) out of some of the young stars on the Phillies and the lacking farm system, may soon be worth plundering from.
Of course, we all know the MVP season Bryce Harper had, and it was truly a special thing to watch, at times it felt like Bryce had put the whole team on his back and wouldn’t stop until we sniffed the playoffs, unfortunately for us, one player cannot will an entire team to the playoffs. The Phillies need to protect Bryce Harper in this lineup, Dombrowski and the front office can address this situation in many ways, including free agency or via trade, but the best way to help him out lies right under their own roof. With a season ending injury to Rhys Hoskins down the stretch of August, and the regression of Alec Bohm, the Phillies were without two of their cheap role players, who if healthy and some tweaking can be huge players for the Phillies in 2022. Rhys Hoskins is a get on base machine, if he can’t get a hit then he’ll work the pitcher and force a walk, when Hoskins went down it was felt in the clubhouse as well as on the field. Hoskins should be back for the Phillies by spring training and with new hitting coach Kevin Long joining the team for the upcoming 2022 season, I expect to see a very good season from Rhys Hoskins.
I expect new hitting coach Kevin Long to have a large impact on Alec Bohm. The Young Phillies prospect who finished 2nd in NL ROY voting in 2020 was far from impressive both on the plate and in the field in 2021. Hopefully Kevin Long can fix any issues Bohm is having at the plate and we don’t see Bohm slowly regress like we watched Scott Kingery fade away.
The regression of Didi Gregorius is also very concerning, he is under team control for one more season costing 14 million against the salary cap in 2022, making him the fifth highest paid player on the team, all while sporting a .209 batting average and 77 hits in 368 at-bats. Didi’s fielding has never been his strong suit, but at least we could count on him at the plate. With Phillies President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski already stating Gregorius is not guaranteed the starting SS job in 2022, one must wonder if the Phillies will be looking to unload his contract via trade this offseason.
The Phillies have been seen to play down to their competition, which often leads to losing games that should be vital wins, in 2021 the Phillies often struggled against teams that they frankly shouldn’t have had any trouble with. The Pirates managed to hold the Phillies scoreless in two consecutive games down the September playoff push! Perhaps the lowest point of the season was getting swept by Arizona Diamondbacks who are sporting a nice .321 winning pct. It is worth mentioning that after dropping two in a row to the Pirates, the Phillies were able to buckle up and start an 8-game winning streak (Their longest since 2011) by taking the final game in the Pirates series and sweeping the Nationals and Mets. After the 8-game winning streak the Phillies decided to reopen our wounds by going 3-8 over the next 11 games all while touting the MLB’s worst BA (.174), SLG% (.288),OPS (.560) and home runs over that span. They also had the 2nd fewest (Orioles 1st) total runs scored during that span.
Trade Deadline:
At the trade deadline, The Phillies did make a push to bolster up their starting rotation as well as acquire a true closer. Dombrowski waited till the final day of the deadline before pulling the trigger on any major moves, but finally made the choice to send Phillies RHP prospect Spencer Howard to the Texas Rangers in exchange for starter Kyle Gibson and closer Ian Kennedy as well as RHP prospect Hans Crouse. It was just last season when the Phillies touted Spencer Howard to be their next great home-grown starter, but we never really saw that with him. Howard would often have strong starts but after one full time down the lineup, Howard would see a strong dip in his velocity and fall apart around the third inning, every start. While Spencer Howard may someday become a very good starting pitcher, it won’t be with the Phillies, and it was never going to happen with the Phillies. Howard isn’t exactly lighting it up down in Texas either so for now, it looks like this was a fine trade for the Phillies, but one may ask if the Phillies were willing to part with Spencer Howard, why not have parted with him sooner for a better package? Kyle Gibson had a respectable 2.87 era and 3.76 FIB in 19 starts with the rangers and a much worse 5.09 Era and 4.04 FIB in 11 starts with the Phillies. Kennedy sported a 2.51 ERA and 3.66 FIB in 32.1 IP for the Rangers and a 4.13 ERA and 6.21 FIB in 24 IP for the Phillies. While the Phillies do have one more season of control on Gibson in 2022, Kennedy is a FA after the 21 season. Dave Dombrowski made it clear after the trade that the Phillies wouldn’t trade Spencer Howard if they did not receive a prospect in return, Hans Crouse is that prospect, and there is some real potential in him. Crouse started two games for the Phillies, after they sort of threw in the towel at the end of the season. In two starts Crouse had 7 IP with 2 strikeouts and a 5.14 ERA. While this is a very small sample size, we can see Crouse has potential, and he is a prospect worth keeping an eye on come spring training time.
The Phillies also made a last second trade at the deadline with the Baltimore Orioles for SS Freddy Galvis, a fan favorite making his return to Philly for the first time since 2017. The Phillies acquired Galvis for two lower-level prospects and likely acquired Galvis because they were sick of watching poor defense from Alec Bohm, Didi Gregorius and Ronald Torreyes. Galvis’ impact on the Phillies was minimal, with Galvis becoming a FA this offseason, it seems this trade wasn’t even worth the two lower-level prospects it cost.
Starting Rotation:
The Phillies 2021 starting rotation was a bright spot for us at points this season. Zack Wheeler will be a Cy Young Award finalist and Zach Eflin was having a very good year until hitting the IL in July and ultimately having to get season ending knee surgery in July. Ranger Suarez was able to be successful anywhere the Phillies needed him this season, he performed well out of the bullpen, as a closer and especially as a starter. I must admit when Joe Giaradi announced they would be moving Suarez from the Closer role to a starting role, I was very hesitant, but with 58.2 IP as a starter (106 IP season total) and a 1.36 Era on the year, Suarez is going to be a nice 4th or 5th starter for the Phillies rotation next season. Aaron Nola had a very up and down game, it was hard to tell what you were going to get from Nola, game to game, but when he was having a good day, he was really on his game. The type of season the Phillies have in 2022 largely relies on how their starting rotation turns out. With a rotation that as of now looks like 1. Zach Wheeler 2. Aaron Nola 3. Zach Eflin 4. Kyle Gibson 5. Ranger Suarez, The Phillies could have one of the best rotations in the league if health holds up and Aaron Nola can fix whatever seems to be holding him back.
- Justin Dorazio- Olde City Sports Network
