Mindful of the uncertainties in their starting pitching rotation, the Phillies made a sound baseball move when they signed Aaron Harang earlier this week.
Harang is a veteran guy who can help plug as many as 200 of the approximately 1,450 innings needed to get through a big-league season.
Innings are a big concern in this rotation considering the following:
• Cole Hamels and his 200-inning pedigree could be traded at any time.
• Cliff Lee is coming off an elbow injury (one reality that could impact innings in the starting rotation) and could be traded as soon as he proves his health (a second).
• David Buchanan averaged less than six innings per start last year.
• Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez and Jonathan Pettibone both experienced shoulder problems last season.
Getting Harang on a one-year deal makes sense. With him, the Phils won’t have to rush the starting pitching prospects that they have arriving at the Double A level, and he won’t block those prospects when they are ready in a year or so.
In the days before they signed Harang, the Phils made another sound baseball move when they traded outfielder Marlon Byrd to Cincinnati. Looking to get younger, the Phils picked up a high-upside arm in Ben Lively and subtracted an aging player (Byrd turns 38 in August) while potentially saving as much as $12 million. (Byrd’s $8 million option for 2016 kicks in with 550 plate appearances in 2015. He had 637 last season.)
But the subtraction of Byrd comes with a price, even for a rebuilding club that is not expected to contend for several years.
Harang was signed to help close the innings deficit.
Who will close the offensive deficit?
The Phillies were a poor offensive team in 2014, ranking 23rd in the majors in runs per game (3.82) and 27th in OPS (.665).
Despite not hitting a home run in September, Byrd led the Phillies in homers (25) and OPS (.757) and was second on the team with 85 RBIs in 2014. He brought some respectability to an outfield that lacked pop. Centerfielder Ben Revere had an OPS of just .686 and all but 22 of his league-high 184 hits were singles.
Leftfielder Domonic Brown’s .634 OPS ranked 139th out of 147 qualifying batters in the majors.
Overall, Phillies outfielders in 2014 ranked 24th in the majors with a .684 OPS. Take Byrd out of the mix and Phillies outfielders had a .658 OPS. That would have been the 23rd-worst outfield OPS since 1969. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the 1968 White Sox had the worst outfield OPS of the modern era at .598.
The Phillies’ outfield won’t be that bad in 2015, but it will miss Byrd. Still, we like the trade off of a second division club taking a step back in right field to add a young arm with potential.
With Byrd gone, Brown will probably move to right with left field being manned by a platoon of Darin Ruf and Grady Sizemore. Rule 5 pick Odubel Herrera is having a big winter ball season in Venezuela and will also get a look in left field.
The offensive concerns on the 2015 Phillies extend beyond the outfield, of course. Freddy Galvis is not Jimmy Rollins’ offensive equal and there are big questions about Chase Utley and Ryan Howard.
Utley hit .335 with a .937 OPS in 47 games through May 28 last season then had an alarming drop-off, hitting just .239 with a .657 OPS over 108 games the rest of the season. He enters 2015 mired in a homerless streak of 153 at-bats, the longest of his career.
Howard, of course, drove in 95 runs in 2014, but his .690 OPS ranked 20th among big-league first basemen and 120th overall. Whether or not Howard will still be around on opening day remains to be seen. Eventually, Maikel Franco could be plugged in at one of the corner infield spots. The Phillies believe his bat can be a foundation piece of future clubs.
There are still almost three months to go before opening day and Phillies officials remain committed to shipping out the old and bringing in the new. They’ve brought in some young pitching and would welcome more as you can never have enough of that commodity. But this team needs some bats that can help down the road, too.
In the meantime, Aaron Harang will help close the innings deficit in 2015. But who closes the offensive deficit?