Skip to content
Phillies
Link copied to clipboard

Phillies' MacPhail still values pitching one year later

PHOENIX - One year ago this week, Andy MacPhail stepped into Citizens Bank Park as the first outsider to become president of the Phillies. He had zero ties to the franchise, had been out of baseball for almost four years, and had agreed to oversee an arduous rebuilding process.

PHOENIX - One year ago this week, Andy MacPhail stepped into Citizens Bank Park as the first outsider to become president of the Phillies. He had zero ties to the franchise, had been out of baseball for almost four years, and had agreed to oversee an arduous rebuilding process.

MacPhail has witnessed quite a bit of losing since then. But the 63-year-old executive believes his mission is succeeding.

"You really can't ask for a lot more," MacPhail said this weekend in San Francisco. "Guys are coming along and progressing. We have young players that are getting an opportunity here to show who should stay. We've got other players coming along that ultimately are going to be vying for an opportunity to get the same chance, to get on the field and see if they can stay here.

"I'm actually more encouraged today than I ever would have dreamed I would have been after my first month with the Phillies."

Progress, for these Phillies, is all relative. The season will be measured not in wins and losses, but rather by how many players at the end of 2016 are promising possibilities for 2017. The roster could look different by August with the promotion of numerous prospects from the minors - "That would be my hope," MacPhail said - and that will provide a clearer idea of where the Phillies stand.

"I'm not going to be the final arbiter of that," MacPhail said. "My hope would be, as the team president, that we would be able to introduce players that deserve the opportunity to be here."

The team president said he was aware of the industry's perception that the Phillies were lying low for a few seasons, stockpiling prospects and money, before a significant splurge. The Phillies, he said, will not shy away from acquisitions now if they make sense for the future.

"In other words, there's no laying low on purpose for a year and not doing anything," MacPhail said. "If something comes up that we think, 'Boy, this fits in our window,' let's go."

Still, the likelier scenario is the Phillies are quiet at this summer's trade deadline. As for the winter, MacPhail said the franchise has money to spend, and it will explore different avenues. It may not be a free-agent signing, but a trade with another team that has a bloated contract or a player nearing free agency who may be an easier sign for the Phillies.

"We won't shun the free-agent market by any stretch," MacPhail said. "If we can find something that makes sense for us and is a nice fit, we would do it. Certainly in the pitching corner. If there's a position where we don't think we're as deep, then we can fill in with somebody now. I think Matt [Klentak]would be interested in that, too. We're going to have some flexibility, so I think we have every intention of trying to understand the market and what might make sense for us."

MacPhail was hired June 29, 2015, and from that moment, he has preached the need to build the next great Phillies team through pitching. A year on the job has not altered his perspective.

If anything, his conviction in that strategy is firmer.

"My experience has been you can find hitters," MacPhail said. "Pitching is the essential component. When you look at this team's success for the first seven or eight weeks of the season, it wasn't offense. It was pitching and playing a much-improved defense from where we were a year ago. In my view, there's never enough pitching, and if you have good pitching . . . that is the greatest safety net of good performance."

MacPhail cited Baltimore, where he was the president of baseball operations from 2007 to 2011. "We found hitters," he said. "Just go around the diamond." Chris Davis was a trade. Jonathan Schoop was an international signing. J.J. Hardy, another trade. Manny Machado was a high draft pick.

"Just where I've been," MacPhail said, "we've been able to find a hitter to plug in somewhere."

Since the start of 2012, Baltimore has the American League's best record by 12 games. But the Orioles' 3.92 ERA ranked 17th in baseball during that span. The Orioles thrived because they outhit their opponents, and not because of the strength of their makeshift rotation.

Yes, the Orioles may be an outlier. The National League teams with the most wins since 2012 - St. Louis, Washington, and Los Angeles - all rank in the top three in ERA. Good pitching, the old baseball adage says, beats good hitting. But, if more teams have good pitching in this velocity era, does that increase the value of a great hitter?

"If you gave me a choice, if I could have one thing locked down, I'm going to take the rotation," MacPhail said. "We'll figure it out from there, whether we have great power or not. It's not saying that we don't want it, we don't look for it, we don't value it. To the contrary.

"To me, it's stack up the pitching. That will always be a mandate. If you go through our system, the players that are close and are well-regarded in the industry are, by in large, position players."

That, for now, instills confidence in the supervisor of this rebuilding franchise.

mgelb@phillynews.com

@magelb www.philly.com/

philliesblog