Freddy Galvis has impressed many with his defense and newfound power this season.
But the 26-year-old shortstop entered Thursday night’s game against Pittsburgh ranked dead last among qualifying major-league hitters with a .271 on-base percentage.
The Phillies as a team ranked last in the majors with a .296 on-base percentage.
If you’ve listened to the comments that general manager Matt Klentak has made since he took the job 11 months ago on how he wants to build the team, you know that both on-base marks — Galvis’ and the team’s — are not going to cut it long term.
“We’ve struggled to score runs for much of the year, and maybe more specifically, we’re last in on-base percentage,” Klentak said Thursday. “Organizationally, that is something we’re really going to need to focus on, not only for this season but for the foreseeable future.”
With all due respect to Galvis’ new power and lockdown glove, he’s probably going to have to improve his on-base skills if he wants to hold off prospect J.P. Crawford down the road. Crawford played at Triple A as a 21-year-old in 2016 and sports a career on-base percentage of .372 in the minor leagues.
“I think Freddy’s defense has taken maybe not a step but several steps forward this year,” Klentak said. “He’s one of the most reliable, dependable shortstops in the league and we see it every night. It seems like every night he makes a play that certainly saves a base runner if not a run. And he has 19 homers. Really for any position, but especially for a shortstop, to be approaching 20 homers in a season is pretty impressive.
“We talked about controlling the strike zone and getting on base, which ultimately leads to run production. We like to have players who can control the strike zone and get on base. Now realistically, we know every player’s not going to be able to do that. We know that. There are playoff teams that hit a lot of homers but don’t work counts especially well, and there are teams that grind out at-bats and don’t hit a lot of homers. There’s a lot of ways to win in this game. But in the aggregate, we have to look at Freddy Galvis’ season as a very, very positive one this year.”
Has Galvis’ season been good enough to steal the “shortstop of the future” label from Crawford? Considering the front office’s affinity for players who get on base and manager Pete Mackanin’s recent comment that no player has sewed up a long-term job, probably not.
Don’t misunderstand, unless the Phillies try to capitalize on some trade value and move Galvis over the winter, he’s going to be the team’s opening day shortstop in 2017.
But Crawford, in the eyes of many, still projects as the long-term shortstop of the future, even if he did not tear up Triple A this year and make it to the majors, which is understandable given his age.
Crawford hit just .244 with four homers and 30 RBIs in 87 games at Triple A this season. He had a .328 on-base percentage and his on-base skills are better than that over the length of his minor-league career and the Phillies like that. It’s how they want to build their team. Sure, they like the power Galvis has shown, but is he going to be a 20-homer guy every year? When all is said and done, this could end up being the best power year of his career. Galvis' previous career high in homers was seven, set last year. He entered Thursday with a .239 batting average and 121 strikeouts. He needs to get on base more and cut down on his strikeouts to become a complete player — or at least the kind of player the Phillies seem to be looking for.
Galvis’ strong season with the glove and in the power department has led some to wonder if the Phillies would have Crawford change positions. No chance. You don’t take a talent like that out of a premium position at that age.
“As I’ve said all along, players are not always going to excel at every turn,” Klentak said. “They’re going to have bumps in the road and they’re going to have to overcome them. I’m confident J.P. will.
“We challenged him this year. Even a 21-year-old at Double A [is young] but certainly Triple A is aggressive. I think he’s proven at both levels that he still has the ability to control the strike zone as well as anybody in our organization and probably the best in minor league baseball. I think his defense has taken a step forward. He’s still 21 years old. He still needs to get stronger. He still has some things he needs to work on.”
OK, so who is the shortstop of the future?
Klentak deftly talked around that one.
“We’re focused on these major-league players until there are other players that come up here and change our mind,” he said. “Right now, Freddy has certainly had a strong enough season that he’s our shortstop.”
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