Beware the sleeping NL East giant.
While the Philadelphia Phillies no longer resemble the dominant force that won five straight NL East titles beginning in 2007, the good news is they no longer resemble the directionless, aging franchise once led by Ruben Amaro Jr.
With 36-year-old general manager Matt Klentak now at the helm, the Phillies have been steadily re-stocking their farm system (now seventh-best in baseball, according to MLB.com) with shrewd trades while simultaneously bolstering the major-league roster with veterans such as Michael Saunders, Jeremy Hellickson, Clay Buchholz, Joaquin Benoit and Howie Kendrick on short-term, team friendly contracts.
With another year of seasoning for their young core (more on them below), the Phillies could be just one year and an aggressive 2017 off-season away from contending for a playoff spot in 2018.
Team owner John Middleton has promised to spend big when the team is ready to contend, so an encouraging 2017 could see the Phillies rejoin the game’s biggest spenders sooner rather than later.
As we approach the 2017 season, we’re previewing what’s ahead for each of the 30 MLB teams. The Phillies are next:
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Up-and-coming player to watch
With apologies to J.P. Crawford and Mickey Moniak—ranked 12th and 17th among all MLB prospects, according to Baseball America—the Phillies’ most intriguing young player at the major-league level is slugger
Maikel Franco, now 24 and entering his second full big-league season.
Franco burst onto the scene in 2015 with 14 home runs and an .840 OPS in just 80 games. But as sophomores do, the third baseman regressed last year, posting a .733 OPS in 152 games along with an increase in his K rate (16.8 per cent vs. 15.5 per cent in 2015).
Considering the Phillies finished 24th in home runs in 2016 (161) and 29th in slugging (.385), a big year from Franco would go a long way toward not only improving the team’s fortunes in 2017, but quelling the premature-yet-juicy rumours of the team’s reported interest in pursuing Manny Machado in two off-seasons.
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What a successful 2017 season would look like
With the playoffs out of reach for 2017, the Phillies will be praying for good health and development as much as wins. Aside from the aforementioned Franco, the Phillies are also hoping fellow core, young pieces such as first baseman Tommy Joseph (24), centre fielder Odubel Herrera (24), and the talented starting pitching trio of Aaron Nola (23), Vince Velasquez (24) and Jerad Eickhoff (25) can stay off the DL and on the path to future all-star status.
Come July, Klentak could be one of the busiest GMs in the game should the Phillies find themselves out of contention. If healthy and productive, the likes of Saunders, Kendrick, Hellickson, Benoit and Buchholz would be attractive to almost any contending club.
If the Phillies can cash any combination of them in for another core piece, the fanbase should be thrilled.
Biggest remaining question
Just how good are these young guys? The thing about rebuilding teams is you never really know when they’re ready to take the step until they do. In 2014, for example, the Chicago Cubs won 73 games. In 2015 they won 97 even though most pre-season prognostications suggested they were still another year away.
We’re not suggesting the Phillies’ prospect pool is as deep as Chicago’s, but if top prospects Crawford and Moniak can force their way onto the big-league roster by mid-to-late summer, the Phillies will be one of baseball’s best-positioned teams going forward from a talent and payroll flexibility standpoint.
