The Philadelphia Phillies has made a greatest mistake and…
It will be possible to list and rank the mistakes made on the steep and slippery path from the Phillies’ five consecutive division titles and two World Series appearances to their current spot in the bottom of baseball’s deep barrel once the team has finally finished tearing everything down and rebuilding.
It will be possible to list and rank the mistakes made on the steep and slippery path from the Phillies’ five consecutive division titles and two World Series appearances to their current spot in the bottom of baseball’s deep barrel once the team has finally finished tearing everything down and rebuilding.
It’s not like the Phils made random errors in their calculations or overlooked the collapse in just one or in two methods. They essentially made a mistake for the cycle.
Every fan will have an opinion about the most painful mistake they made, or which pebble during this lengthy jog to the bottom hurt them the most.
With good cause, the legal practice of Howard, Rollins & Utley will receive a large number of votes both individually and collectively. The organization will pay at least $218 million for their services since the team’s last winning season, all of which came after the players were 32 or 33 years old. If Chase Utley had been permitted to reach 500 plate appearances this season—which would have resulted in a $15 million vesting option for 2016—the total might have even been higher.
That’s a hefty price tag for a relatively small number of players for all those losses, and the funds might have been better utilized for free agent acquisition, the farm system, or perhaps an organizational slush fund to stop charging fans more for less.
Large contracts are a direct result of big success, and the Phillies knowingly went down that rabbit hole to retain their most well-liked players.
The largest calculation error wasn’t made there, despite how costly it was to keep the old photos on the wall. Although things could change in a week, the 6-foot-4 closer may be making the biggest mistake right now. His talent should make him trade bait, but the size of both his agreement and his character.
The One Great Scorer will annotate “Jonathan Papelbon” in large red letters next to Ruben Amaro Jr.’s name.
This is an extremely fortunate situation, as Papelbon is only the franchise’s all-time saves leader—a distinction he earned over the course of four seasons that weren’t always filled with chances to save games. However, that is the actual issue. On a poor baseball team, having a great closer is like having a sunroof on a manure spreader.
When Howard sprawled in the dirt close to home plate to end the 2011 season, the Phillies missed more than one obvious clue. They were oblivious to the fact that their decline would not be postponed by a little fix here and there.
given how deteriorated the rest of the framework had become. Three of the five starting pitchers and every position player but Hunter Pence were older than thirty.
Though it would have been nice to look at that and think that everyone would be able to form another contender—well, aside from Howard—that isn’t what actually happened. After the Phillies lost 81-81, the loadout started.
The Phillies ignored Ryan Madson and expended significant resources on a role that was never going to be important—and hasn’t been since—by signing Papelbon.
They also missed a major shift in the baseball market, giving Papelbon large sums of money at the exact moment the business concluded closers weren’t as specialized as previously believed.
Committees or conversions of unsuccessful starters with one special pitch—but not two or three—could accomplish the task. The well-paid would still get paid, but not in the same way. Add that to the list of adjustments the Phillies took a while to adjust to.
The Phillies are currently dealing with the fallout from those miscalculations as they attempt to trade Papelbon before the non-waiver deadline and discover they can’t really ask for much, if anything, in return. As a clubhouse lawyer, Papelbon also carries baggage.
If he doesn’t like the way things are going, he might, for example, yank his crotch at the fans or casually criticize the organization. According to team sources, the manager’s frustration with Ryne Sandberg’s closer was partly caused by surrender. Which team wouldn’t want to make a trade for such an expensive package?
Papelbon’s Phillies contract will have paid him $50 million through this season. After he completes a game for the 48th time this year (he had completed 34 games as of Saturday), he will be eligible to receive a $13 million bonus in 2016, placing him back among the highest paid closers in baseball.
Thus, the Phillies are in a familiar situation where they have no easy way out of a corner. They won’t get much in return even if they eat up a large portion of the contract to entice a trading partner.
They wouldn’t be liable for 2016 if they sent him home and paid the remaining $4.5 million this season. They can simply add it to the others and mark it down as a terrible error.
