Phillies Not Concerned With Youth Movement
The 2012 Phillies figure to be the oldest team in MLB.
The 2011 Phillies got major help from the minors. From the “Pig Pen” that saw Antonio Bastardo and Michael Stutes hold together a bullpen eroded for much of the season by injury to the stellar starting work from Vance Worley, the farm fed the big club when it was starving for competent contributions.
While last season’s youth movement proved valuable to an aging club – one that had the oldest average age for position players in MLB (31.5) and seventh-oldest average of pitchers (29.2) – the identity of the roster remains that of a veteran-laden club.
The considerable contract commitments made to a core of veteran players guarantees that while the Phillies might be best served considering an infusion of younger talents if we are to look towards the future, there is no time to do so for the 2012 campaign.
The expensive core of Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Shane Victorino, Placido Polanco, Hunter Pence, Carlos Ruiz, Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels and the newly acquired Jonathan Papelbon has an average age of just over 32-years-old. If the team retains shortstop Jimmy Rollins, 33, this average only inches higher.
Hamels, Pence and John Mayberry Jr. are the only key contributors on the club that are under 30, but all are in their late-20s. The bullpen past Papelbon remains young thanks to last season’s youth movement. The bench, while not a complete group at the moment, is headlined by 41-year-old Jim Thome.
“To be honest,” said an NL scout in a recent interview, “the Phillies don’t really have the system to get young anytime soon, and they’ve made so many big commitments to veterans that being an older club is going to be their identity for the next several seasons. It’s not really a bad thing for the short term, for next summer, as long as injuries don’t become a big factor; it’s a club filled with guys that know how to prepare and are proven winners. Last summer proved this to be true in the regular season. It’s almost to the point where adding a guy like [Michael] Cuddyer makes sense since they’re heavily invested in winning now, and not in 2015.”
General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. has acquired one major asset that can be deemed young in Pence during his reign over the roster. The vast majority of his moves have been for proven veterans with an eye on continuing the success originally fostered by the homegrown core of Hamels, Howard, Rollins and Utley. His agenda has been to acquire immediate help from vets and not building a cache of prospects.
“It’s not going to show right away,” said the scout, “but there will be a price paid in building this club, especially when we start to see some of the prospects they dealt develop as some of these veterans really decline.”
We’ve seen some decline already, thus eroding the effectiveness of the team. Last season, Polanco proved unable to sustain success at the plate or hold up health-wise to the rigors of an everyday role. Roy Oswalt’s 2011 was essentially lost early on thanks to a myriad of significant ailments. Now the 2012 club faces a significant recovery process for Howard and serious questions remain over Utley’s ability to return to the elite level his salary and reputation suggest. Many times a baseball team is tested by the resources lost to injuries and ineffectiveness. In the case of the 2012 Phillies, there is no getting younger, and they might even get a bit older if they attain Cuddyer and retain Rollins.
“There are legitimate risks in such an all-in strategy,” said the scout, “but this is the cost of keeping the proverbial window open.”
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