Pay him his money
I would say that taking two of three from the Red Sox, then going into the Bronx and taking two of three from the Yankees qualifies as a success for the Phillies. They may regret not putting some distance between them and the Mets while the latter was playing bad baseball, but perhaps a pennant chase will have them playing good baseball heading into October if they are fortunate enough to get there.
Three up
Kyle Schwarber
Just pay the man. At this point, who even cares how many years he wants as a contract. Just give it to him to let us avoid an offseason of speculative dalliances with Steve Cohen.
Trea Turner
If the first two years of Turner’s contract were considered something of a disappointment (they weren’t), then this year is a rousing success. He’s been the catalyst for this recent run of offensive firepower, getting on base this past week at a .414 clip. He’s table setting for the run producers behind him, doing what we have all asked him to do from the leadoff position since he arrived.
J.T. Realmuto
It certainly helps when the bottom half of the lineup is helping, huh?
Realmuto is still on track for his lowest slugging percentage since he was called up by the Marlins in 2014, but of late, he’s been one of the team’s better hitters. It’s lengthened the lineup quite a bit and given them a right handed threat they haven’t had much of this year.
They should still trade for another bat though.
Three down
Jordan Romano and Max Kepler
Let’s face it, when it comes to grading this past offseason, outside of his trading for Jesus Luzardo, Dave Dombrowski didn’t really knock it out of the park. His two biggest additions via the free agency market have shown that they were confusing at best, ill fitting at worst for a roster that needed things they were supposed to bring. Kepler was supposed to be a power bat in the outfield; he has a .362 slugging percentage. Romano was supposed to be the strikeout artist in the back of the bullpen; his striking out hitters 24.7% of the time is 70th out of 169 qualified relievers. These signings have been abject failures on the ledger for Dombrowski and this might be the last week we see them in a Phillies uniform.
Johan Rojas
There was an at bat yesterday where Rojas, who hasn’t played much lately, was asked to put down a bunt with two men on, no one out and the team brought to within one run thanks to a home run by Otto Kemp. This was the result of that at bat:
This is about as bad a plate appearance as one can have, particularly when there is a simple job to do. The fact is that Rojas is not a major league hitter and is here to give guys a break once in a while. The team would have been better served giving him the entire year in Lehigh Valley to see if there was anything there of value that could be salvaged, but alas…
Jesus Luzardo
The trade to bring Luzardo into the Phillies organization is one you make ten times out of ten. A lower level minor leaguer for a semi-established rotation member is a trade that helps teams, particularly one that has assembled the best rotation in the game.
But Luzardo has struggled and this week was another example. We know it’s an issue from the stretch, he knows it’s an issue from the stretch and the fact that they have not figured out the root cause is concerning, particularly if he plans on giving them innings from the bullpen in the postseason.
They’ve got to figure this out.