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.
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
If Young can put up offensive numbers somewhere toward the average of this year and 2011 all should be fine. The more he can approach 2011 numbers the better the deal will look, even if he's lousy defensively. He's also shown he can stay on the field but Polanco was also not missing much time until we got him. Also remember that Young has been mostly DH'ing the past two years. Not playing the field has kept him rested. I feel like this is not going to be taken into account. I just can't imagine Charlie backing off a guy who has the numbers Young had a few years ago.— s- Young is going to do great in Philly. He's a guy with a good head on his shoulders and something to prove. I think he wants to have the final say about his ability to play an infield position and play every day - two areas of contention he had with the Rangers the past two seasons. He stays healthy, he'll be a great presence in the club house and NL pitchers don't know him. This guy was the acknowledged team leader of the Rangers for many years and he will motivate the other Phils to bring their best game to the park every day. Likewise, he will feed off their encouragement and have a much better year than anyone expects. Young joins a team of guys who want to win. Their chemistry will be optimal and the result will be an explosive years for the Phils.— onthebucks
- Sounds a lot like what was said about Thome to me. The "clubhouse guy" thing is a bit overrated in my opinion and it only works if the clubhouse guy is playing good baseball.
I think an offensive rebound is well withing the realm of rational hope. It's starting him in the field every day that I think will be a mistake and you can bet this is what we'll see with Manuel. Young is revered in Texas and the fan noise about his defensive drop-off at third base started around 2009/2010. In 2011 and 2012 he only played the field a little over 50% of the time and third base only made up about 20% of his starts. He may have a good head and something to prove but he still has a 36 year old body when you put him out there at third base. The right thing to do would be to pick and choose when he starts and where he's used, not to pencil him every day at third base now.— s - "Camelot" had a great run on Pattison Avenue for five seasons, but these trades represent the posting of a closing notice. This team is done.— andrewfrombrooklyn
- Now if we can convince Manual to platoon Howard and get rid of his 100 batting average against lefthanders.— farley
- WAR, what is it good for? You know according to WAR Aaron Hill and Aramis Ramirez are better then Josh Hamilton, Prince Fielder, and Albert Pujols? What BS. Young will be fine this year, will get a ton of big hits. I say 80 RBI's, and he continues to rake lefties as his career averages say. Solid pick up for 6 million.— E*Rock
- I hate when people and writer's use WAR as a crutch. They don't have to look at it more deeply. That said I think it's a flyer type of move which is meant to be a potential bridge to Cody Asche and Kevin Frandsen, Freddy Galvis who is a big risk if he's suspended again and few choices in the free agent market. A 3b with good WAR these days is going to be expensive to trade for.
I definitely think there's potential for a pretty good player and a floor of Greg Dobbs at 3b.— rc1000
