A big potential issue for the Phillies, two names to solve it, and other thoughts

I’ve had a soft spot for Randal Grichuk since I watched him make history at Citizens Bank Park in June 2015. There, on a Saturday evening, beneath the lights, in front of a packed house of 24,256 people who couldn’t afford a Shore house, a 23-year-old rookie became the first player in MLB history to hit a home run off Seth Rosin. Nobody knew it at the time, but Grichuk would also go down as the last MLB player to homer off Rosin, who was sent down to the minors after the game. As Ryne Sandberg said in his postgame news conference, “Now, he belongs to the ages.”

Actually, no, Sandberg didn’t say that. But he did tender his resignation six days later, presumably in protest.

I mention this for a few reasons.

1. Any discussion of the weaknesses of the 2024 Phillies needs to be taken with a certain degree of context. There is no such thing as a perfect roster. What you hope for as a general manager is a roster that contains as few imperfections as your resources allow. Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies have done a solid job of that. Anybody who doubts it should fuel up the ol’ DeLorean between the ears and head back down memory lane. The perfect roster might be impossible, but its inverse is a feat the Phillies once regularly achieved. Take that 2015 game when Grichuk hit his immortal blast off Rosin. He also hit one off of Aaron Harang, who suffered the added misfortune of not being sent down afterward.

It wasn’t Harang’s first home run allowed, nor was it his last. He allowed 14 of them in August and September. Those were his last.

2. The biggest imperfection on the Phillies’ current roster involves a position that Grichuk plays, and a skill that he possesses in abundance. He also happens to be a free agent who is languishing in a market where the big spenders have already spent and the small spenders are crying because Mommy is threatening to take away the TV rights money. In other words, a market that could yield some bargains.

This isn’t about Grichuk, specifically. He’s just an example of the kind of player the Phillies could really use, and who could be in line for a one-year deal that would cost John Middleton about a week’s worth of gains on whatever Nvidia shares he is holding.

I mean, the Phillies could still use somebody to replace Rhys Hoskins, couldn’t they?

I spent part of the afternoon scrolling back through some offseason headlines. Felt like I was missing something, you know? Last year at the trade deadline, everybody seemed to think the Phillies were in the market for a right-handed bat. The rationale was solid. Hoskins had been a huge part of their World Series run, and they sure seemed to miss him. With Bryce Harper at first base and Kyle Schwarber destined to DH in October, there seemed to be a natural opening for a veteran who could replace some of Hoskins’ power.

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What, exactly, has changed?

Johan Rojas is an analytics darling on defense. The analytics also say that 97% of people who enter February believing that Rojas should be an everyday starter will enter May wondering how on earth the Phillies could have entered a season without another option.

To be clear, I’m not predicting a bust. Even if I was, I’d certainly hedge it in a way that disguises it. If Rojas hits .302 with a .342 OBP and .430 slugging percentage like he did in 164 regular-season plate appearances, he’ll be the least of the Phillies’ worries. They can thrive with that kind of production along with elite center-field defense and Nick Castellanos and Trea Turner offering a full season of top-shelf right-handed power.

But what if Rojas doesn’t get back to where he was before the postseason began? What if October was what the Phillies ended up getting: 4-for-43 with 15 strikeouts? No amount of defense can overcome that.

They need another option, don’t they? They didn’t have one against the Diamondbacks, which led to Rob Thomson needing to answer a bunch of uncomfortable questions without throwing his options under the bus. Everything is the same as it was. Jake Cave is a left-handed bench bat who sings backup on “Dancing on my Own.” Cristian Pache is a scratch-off ticket that has been mostly scratched.

If the Phillies are committed to playing Harper at first base, then the ideal world is one where they find a right-handed hitter to plug into a corner outfield spot while mixing Rojas in.

It can be difficult to find a player who is willing to expose himself to that kind of situation, but maybe this market can yield one.

Nine years later, Grichuk is 32 years old and looking for a job. He never really reached his potential in St. Louis, nor in Toronto, where he signed a five-year, $52 million extension that just expired after he moved on to two other teams. But he’d be a great flier at the right price. The big right-handed power hasn’t been there like the old days, but he posted a career-best strikeout-to-walk ratio in 2023 and was one disastrous month away from posting a really impressive batting line. He was hitting .308/.365/.496 with eight home runs in 263 plate appearances for the Rockies before a midsummer trade to the Angels. Then, he slumped, posting a .424 OPS in his first 23 games after the trade. But he recovered to hit .280/.336./514 with five home runs in his last 30 games.

He’s a solid fit for the Phillies. Serious right-handed power, rakes against lefties, a career .945 OPS, and 11 extra-base hits in 70 plate appearances at Citizens Bank Park. He may not be as strong a defender as he was when he was young but was capable enough to play 20 games in center for the Rockies last year.

It comes down to price, of course. I would guess he’ll find a better opportunity elsewhere with a team that has a more acute need for a starting outfielder and/or an open DH position.

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Tommy Pham is another one. He’s getting up there in age, but the guy is a gamer who ranks 20th in career postseason OPS among active big leaguers. The Phillies escaped the NLCS without too much collateral Pham-age, but he did hit a solo shot off Aaron Nola to put the Diamondbacks on the board in Game 6. He’ll be 36 this season, but he was a late bloomer and has been a picture of durability. He’s also a Las Vegas native, and the Phillies seem to like them.

Perfect solutions? No. But perfection is never the goal.