If being benched for one game is a short jolt of shock-therapy motivation - the baseball equivalent of a brief text message reading, Pck it Up:-) - then being removed from the lineup for four straight games is an old-fashioned, longhand epistle on the seriousness of the situation.
The Phillies don't merely want Jimmy Rollins to begin visiting the bases more frequently. They don't just think it would help steady a team that scores runs either in bunches or not at all.
They desperately need Rollins to shake off his batting funk and become, if not a prototypical leadoff hitter, then at least a good imitation of the player whose intangible spark often outweighs an underwhelming on-base percentage.
The next month will be a dividing time both for Rollins and his potential future with the team, and for the Phillies this season as they try to prepare themselves for the rigors of the postseason. If the Mets begin to play with more competence than they have shown so far, even just making the playoffs is in doubt.
That is why manager Charlie Manuel put Rollins on the shelf after another hitless night Wednesday and a rare mental error in the field. Rollins sat through the final game of the Tampa Bay series and all three in Toronto, the longest benching of his career.
Manuel said he wanted to give Rollins a break from trying to grind it out every day, wanted him to come back fresh and get a new start on the season. Maybe Manuel had been looking for a spot to do so, and when Rollins' average for June fell to .176, compounded by the fielding gaffe, he had the chance.
For his part, Rollins has stayed mostly quiet on the subject. He told the Delaware County Daily Times that the benching was "something [Manuel] felt he needed to do," and that's about as inflammatory as he got.
There has been little reason for the organization to look past Rollins' term at shortstop, particularly as one season in which he was the most valuable player in the National League was followed by the one when the Phillies won the World Series.
But Rollins, who turned 30 during the off-season, is having a dreadful year now and you begin to wonder. The franchise isn't rife with alternatives, however. Jason Donald was a hot prospect, but he cooled at the triple-A level and is now recovering from knee surgery. Some in the organization look at him and think "utility man." A great-fielding Venezuelan prospect named Freddy Galvis is at single-A Lakewood, but he's just 19, skinny as 6 o'clock, and will take a few years.
For the moment, and perhaps well beyond, Rollins is going to be the one they rise or fall with at shortstop. Next season is the last guaranteed year of his contract, and, in all probability, Rollins wouldn't be happy entering 2010 under that circumstance. Decision time looms.
That will become an issue, however, only if Rollins continues to loll along without regaining his fire. Three months of the season have slipped away, but there is plenty of time to recover. Last season, Rollins hit .217 in June and followed that with .291 in July.
In fact, the back of Rollins' trading card tells a pretty optimistic story for the Phils. He has always hit 20 points higher after the all-star break than before it over the course of his career. There's no reason to think it won't happen again.
Unless, of course, it doesn't.
That's the real worry for Manuel. What do you do if the benching doesn't help? Unfortunately, the answer is either "nothing" or "Eric Bruntlett."
The Phillies, quite obviously, are fortunate to be chased mostly by the Mets during their recent struggles. On May 29, New York had a half-game lead in the NL East. Since then, the Phillies have gone 13-14 and - entering last night - had gained 21/2 games on the Mets.
That's not easy, but the Mets can match issue-for-issue with the Phils. If they get Carlos Beltran, Carlos Delgado, and Jose Reyes back from injury in July, perhaps that will change. But they still have a pitching staff that doesn't get many strikeouts and walks too many and a defense that gives up nearly one-half an unearned run per game.
Even with their own pitching woes - and when you don't know if it will be Drew Carpenter or Carlos Carrasco starting Thursday, that qualifies as a woe - the Phillies can limp home and win the division.
Winning more than that, however, or being in a reasonable position to do so, will require some significant improvement.
No one on the team has more room for improvement thus far than Jimmy Rollins.
That was Manuel's reason for the benching, and we'll begin to find out tonight if it was helpful or just a cry for help that wasn't heard.
Contact columnist Bob Ford
at 215-854-5842 or bford@phillynews.com.
Read his blog at http://philly.com/postpatterns.
