Phillies confident Young can rebound
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Phillies confident Young can rebound
Matt Gelb
The Phillies believe they have found a third baseman in Michael Young, a 36-year-old veteran who has not regularly played the position in two seasons and posted career-worst numbers in 2012.
That says as much about the other options at third base than anything. On Sunday, the Young trade was made official, with relievers Josh Lindblom and Lisalverto Bonilla headed to Texas. The Rangers will reportedly pay $10 million of Young's $16 million salary in 2013. The Phillies paid Young $1.2 million to waive his no-trade clause, a decision he deliberated for days, and will also grant him a new no-trade provision.
It was a hefty haul for Young, who was marginalized in Texas despite his tenure and respect.
"He has a tremendous track record," Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said Sunday. "I know that last year was not his best year, but after talking to the scouts and discussing it intently with the rest of our front office, we felt like this is an excellent person to bring to our club."
Amaro did not return requests for specific comment. Instead, the team issued his responses through a pool reporter from MLB.com.
Left unanswered is why the Phillies think Young is defensively capable of handling third base on an everyday basis given he primarily served as designated hitter for the last two seasons with Texas. Young won a Gold Glove at shortstop in 2008 and played at third in 2009 and 2010. Advanced defensive metrics rated him among the worst at the position.
Young, a career .301 hitter, batted .277 with a paltry .312 on-base percentage in 2012. His 26 double plays hit into were second only to Miguel Cabrera's 28.
One metric, wins above replacement (WAR), rated Young's 2012 among the worst seasons in modern baseball history. There are only three worse seasons (minimum 600 plate appearances) than Young's minus-2.4 WAR since 1947, according to Baseball-Reference.com.
The Phillies, of course, are banking on 2012 being an aberration. In 2011, Young batted .338 with an .854 OPS and led the American League in hits. He has been an All-Star seven times.
"You don't have a great year every year," Amaro said. "He's had some years where he hit .280 and others where he hit .330. But at the same time, even when his numbers aren’t extraordinary — and they were still pretty darn good last year, maybe better than anybody we had on our club — the fact of the matter is he's a professional hitter. He's a guy who we know will strive to be the best player he can be. And even when he's not having productive hits, I know he’s the kind of guy who makes productive outs. So there's a lot of pluses to this guy."
Young's leadership was often praised in Texas, where he spent the first 13 years of his career. "He's such a professional," Rangers manager Ron Washington said. "If there was crying in baseball, I guess I'd cry." Amaro described Young as "the ultimate team player."
The acquisition of Young leaves Kevin Frandsen and Freddy Galvis as utility infielders. With one of the oldest infields in baseball, those two could serve as insurance policies. One could also become a late-inning defensive replacement for Young.
Amaro's two recent trades were aimed at saving money. Young and new centerfielder Ben Revere will make a combined $6.5 million in 2013. Placido Polanco and Shane Victorino made $15.8 million at those positions in 2012.
With a payroll that is approximately $20 million shy of last season's, Amaro has plenty of flexibility to add offense in the outfield.
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I'm thinking the three to be had are Nick Swisher, Cody Ross, and of course Hamilton. Ross bats righty and has the best BA over the last nine years but Swisher has had the best upside over the last few years and is a switch hitter. Hamilton is a lefty and will cost 20M per, which is a lot. All are about the same age.
If the Phillies plan is Ruf, Revere, and Hamilton, that's about 21.2M in the starting outfield. Doable. For 80 HRs from last year. We have to hope that Ruf wasn't playing over his head and can repeat in the majors.— CarolinaEagle
@Wokenfuss - haha...got it. Johnny Wockenfuss had an unusual batting stance, if I remember correctly. Quite an unusual name to be sure! :)
There is another big bat on the way, folks. Cody Ross sees the ball extremely well at CBP and could put up career numbers in red pinstripes. Swisher would look good too. Hamilton is really good friends with Young as some have pointed out, so stay tuned...— Sam Crow- I think my order of preference, discounting any money or contract issues would be Hamilton, Ross, Swisher. I'm not a huge Swisher fan. He's been horrible in the post-season with a lot of post-season appearances to make it a concern. If he helps get us there then disappears, what good is he? Hamilton has also had some post-season problems but he's such a difference maker I'd still probably take him even with all his issues. I've never been a big Cody Ross fan but he's got some decent numbers and his limited post-season appearances have been very good (as we all painfully remember). I'm warming up to the idea of Cody Ross. I just wonder if, at the end of the day, getting a guy like Swisher or Ross isn't going to be that much different than letting a guy like Brown play regularly. If the Phillies get an outfielder I think they need to be able to play a decent center field so we can get a bat in there when needed. Revere brings no power at all.— s
- texas wants to spend its money on pitching and get Upton in a trade. here's hoping hamilton is in the works.— high water
- @ijj: after Polanco got hurt they played awful defense at 3B. Wiggy was atrocious and Frandsen was not good there either. Young once won a GG at SS...so he can field and throw, even at 36. He had an off year, for him, and drove in almost 70. He averages 16 HR 87 RBI and a .301 ave for his career. Tell me that's not better than they have been getting from 3B lately?— Paul SoTX
- Young's Gold Glove was in 2008 -- 5 years ago -- and it was when he was playing shortstop. His 3B defense numbers are pretty horrible. If you look at UZR, he's double digit negative, whereas Frandsen was just under zero last year. Polanco was around 40. Pedro Feliz, who was a stellar defensive third baseman was up over 80. So the drop-off in defense at third base is probably going to be noticeable, particularly since Young hasn't played regularly there in two years. This is very similar to the Thome signing except that Young has been fielding some (although he's mostly been a DH), he's younger and he's fewer years away from his peak than Thome was. We can get excited about it if he has a rebound year. But until I see something I'm assuming he's more of an insurance policy than anything else. The other big problem here may be that Charlie overplays him just like he does all the old guys. With Young's recent history he really should be rested for him to be useful for any sort of playoff run. Charlie plays his veterans to a fault, which is one of the reasons this team has gone downhill. — s
- 'hefty haul'?? yea right. Unbelievable stupid writing. what assclowns.— spittooncj
- Amaro has made two good moves -- if you swallow hard and realize we have Utley ($16 million) and Howard ($25 million), and the 2013 season basically hinges on how well they do. You can throw in Halladay ($20 million) but, IMO, if a No. 2 or 3 starter has a bad year and another pitcher (like the 2011 Worley) steps up, you're still OK.
Bottom line: Young will give us more offense at 3B than we've had in years. This is a contract year for him, his last, and he's in a hitter-friendly park. They fact that he plays other infield positions is a bonus.
Revere is a step back offensively from Victorino, other than steals. But, his low salary is key and we've seen Shane's peak years by now.
We don't have the money to sign Hamilton, who's likely to stay in Texas now that they've lost Greinke. So I'm hoping for Swisher who, to me, is more of an every-day guy than Ross. I'd be fine with Ross too, though.
We'll add a veteran reliever, hopefully better than Qualls, and give it a go. I like that Amaro seems to realize Galvis and Mayberry are bench/role/utility players. They are. For life.
— eman - I just wonder what they promised Young. It would be a mistake to commit to him being the everyday third baseman until we see what he has in my opinion. If he gets replaced with a defensive sub when it's warranted, if they rest him a bit and if he fills in at second (meaning Utley is also getting some rest) then it may turn out to be a good signing. Or maybe the change of scenery gives him new life. But he's clearly on the way down and probably on the express train, not the local. The smart thing to do would be to go into the season with an open mind and also with an eye toward giving some innings at all the infield positions to younger players. Ruf, Nix and Mayberry can all play first. Frandsen, Young and Galvis can play second. Galvis can play shortstop. Frandsen and Galvis can play third. I just doubt Charlie will do this. He's not a good manager for an aging team in my opinion. He and a lot of people in the organization think 2008 was a few months ago. They ignore the realities of aging players. — s
- Next big move is PROMOTING SANDBERG and giving this team a professional manager who understands strategic baseball.— TruthTeller01
- The Phils aren't through puting the 2013 team together by any means. There are quite a few very affordable starting pitchers the Phils could acquire through free agency. These are all young guys guys with good to outstanding track records. Acquire two of any of the following and the Phils will have one of the strongest back end rotations in baseball: Liriano, Marcum, Karstens, Jurrjens, Zambrano or Lannan. Acquire two of these guys and move Kendrick back to the pen where he can help the Phils in a few different ways, including being the 8th inning set-up man. I'd also look for the rest of the young bullpen to put it all together this year. Guys like Aumont, Bastardo and Stutes should have very good years. I'd also think about adding Peter Moylan at low cost. The Phils still have big bucks to spend on a major impact bat, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Stanton or Hamilton signed sometime soon. All in all, I think the Phils are on the right track and have the ability and desire to make a few major additions that will return the Phils to the top of the ML East.— onthebucks
- I'd love to see two pitchers signed but I really think they only have the money for one, particularly if they want to add a power hitting outfielder. The only two pitchers I really feel we can count on are Hamels and Lee right now. I'm hesitant about Halladay but I also feel if anyone can rebound it's him. We really won't know until we see him in spring training. My fear with him is there's some sort of low level damage/wear he's never going to really bounce back from. His velocity loss last year was very troubling. We really need Lee to stay off the DL and have a solid year. The other issue is depth. If any one of the top three starters go down, we're very thin. Last year we has Blanton, Worley and Kendrick to fill those gaps. Right now we have Kendrick. Not a lot of room for error there.— s
- Here's the thing about WAR...you'd be primarily comparing Young to 1B and DH players in 2012. He's not your prototypical player at either position. Baseball-Reference's version of WAR gives the defensive statistics greater credence. The real test would be to run oWAR compared to league 3B.
Also, one bright spot in those advanced statistics I love to hate is Young BABIP. For his career, his BABIP is .334 - in 2012, it was .299. Maybe 2012 was just an unlucky year for Mr Young.— slovak34 - Yo Slo. Very informative. And thank you. Please stick around. This site desperately needs more data and less hate.
— zubzub - I remember how excited they all were last offseason by the signings of Wiggy, Nix and Thome.— wo_fat
