Herrera could be a solid contributor for the Phillies

TAMPA, Fla. - This is the kind of offense Ryne Sandberg envisions. All offseason, the Phillies manager has attempted to explain what he means when he says the team can improve despite a roster that lacks any obvious improvements. He has talked about line drives and grounders, about focusing on the top half of the baseball and swinging down and through, about singles and stolen bases and productive outs. Essentially, he has talked about all of the things Odubel Herrera did yesterday afternoon at George M. Steinbrenner Field: put the ball into play in all four of his at-bats, reached base in three of them, stole three bases, scored two runs.

"A spark plug at the top of the lineup," was how Sandberg described the 23-year-old old Herrera, whom the Phillies were thrilled to select with the No. 8 pick in the Rule 5 draft.

It is tempting to conflate the question about Herrera's potential to develop into a big-league player with the question about the Phillies' potential to score more runs. History suggests that a lineup cannot live on singles alone. Yet Herrera's ability to hit them could be a valuable tool if he runs the bases as he did yesterday and shows he can play centerfield. That second variable is the one most responsible for the Rangers' leaving him off their 40-man roster and thus enabling the Phillies to select him. Herrera has spent his minor league career predominantly at second base, where he did not have the glove to make up for his lack of power. But the Phillies saw him play centerfield in Venezuela during the winter ball season and are optimistic he can make the position a new home.

Clearly, the guy can hit for contact. His swing is quick and level and he sprays the ball to all fields. Yesterday, one of his three singles came against high-priced Yankees southpaw Andrew Miller, who last year held opposing lefties to a .163 batting average. While it is far too early to do anything besides watch and wait, Herrera at least showed what the Phillies saw in him and why they seem determined to keep him in the system beyond this season.

Herrera's power potential might be limited - he had two home runs and a .402 slugging percentage in 408 plate appearances in the offensively charged Texas League last season - but the Phillies are in no position to be greedy about offensive tools. In a 3-1 win over the Yankees, they managed eight hits, only one of them for extra bases. Besides Herrera, the encouraging at-bats came from Darin Ruf, who crushed a double over the rightfielder's head to set up the Phillies' first run, and Maikel Franco, who lined an RBI single off Kyle Davies. Otherwise, it is worth noting that Freddy Galvis and his .621 career OPS batted second for the second straight game. In the fifth inning, he laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Herrera into scoring position.

Batting second for the other team was a guy with a .942 career OPS and 654 career home runs. Alex Rodriguez hadn't logged a plate appearance for the Yankees since Sept. 25, 2013, and nobody at Steinbrenner Field seemed to disagree too vehemently with his taking one yesterday. As his name was announced, there were equal parts positive sounds and negative sounds, each more reflexive than enthusiastic, as if the positive noise was generated by a bunch of people simultaneously turning to their neighbors and saying, "Oh, hey, I'd much rather have Alex Rodriguez as my No. 2 hitter than Freddy Galvis," and the negative noise was generated by a bunch of people simultaneously turning to their neighbors and saying, "I think we're supposed to boo this man, correct?"

And then, Rodriguez lined a single off Kevin Slowey and the entire stadium clapped the way stadiums do when somebody on the home team reaches base, and then the next batter was announced.

Slowey, a veteran of seven big-league seasons with the Twins and Marlins, who could find himself in the rotation before the end of the season, didn't seem to care one way or the other until he was informed that he was briefly trending nationally on Twitter, along with Matt Cassel.

"Somebody send me a screenshot of that," he said.

"I can only speak for myself," Slowey said. "The situation is pretty well documented, as far as I'm concerned. He was found guilty of whatever he was found guilty of and paid the price and served his time, and he's got a uniform on and he's trying to help that team, and I'm trying to help this team win. That's about it.

"I'd be surprised if that wasn't the pervasive thought."

On Twitter: @ByDavidMurphy