The Phillies are 4-1 after their first five games of the 2019 season. The juice is back at Citizens Bank Park, where the Phillies will return for a three-game weekend set against the Minnesota Twins Friday. Here are three thoughts ahead of the Phillies third series of the 2019 season.
There's an unfair narrative surrounding Andrew McCutchen
Every conversation surrounding Andrew McCutchen starts with an unfair qualifier. Even if the intention of the conversation is to praise McCutchen, the praise always comes after the phrase "He may not be the player he used to be, but...".
And why? It's not untrue that McCutchen isn't as good as he was from 2012-2015, when he finished in the top five in National League MVP voting every year. But at this point, who cares? That stretch was years ago. And it does a disservice to the player that McCutchen, 32, is now.
In his first five games as a Phillie McCutchen has two home runs, including a leadoff home run on Opening Day. He's already worked four walks and is seeing 4.54 pitches-per-plate-appearance. McCutchen's ability to drive the ball to all fields, along with a willingness to work the count make him a perfect player to chip away at opposing pitchers before they face Jean Segura, Bryce Harper, Rhys Hoskins and J.T. Realmuto.
As Jason Ferrie of Phillies Nation noted, 2019 is the first season that McCutchen, a five-time All-Star, will play a full season of home games at a hitter's park. PNC Park, home of the Pirates, ranked as the 24th most hitter-friendly park in 2013, when McCutchen won the National League MVP. Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants, actually was the 14th most hitter-friendly park in 2018, but it isn't traditionally considered a good place to hit. And McCutchen only spent 25 regular season games with the New York Yankees in 2018 after his trade from the Giants, so he didn't get to fully take advantage of that hitter's park.
With a chance to play 81 home games at Citizens Bank Park in 2019, McCutchen could have somewhat of an offensive renaissance. He's also already proving to be a significant upgrade over Rhys Hoskins - and a bulk of the left fielders that the Phillies have employed in the last decade - in the outfield.
So yes, there would have been a time where the signing of McCutchen would have been as exciting as acquiring Realmuto. This isn't that time. But it doesn't matter - if McCutchen was always the player he is in 2019, people would go out of their way to talk about how underrated he is. And by adding an unnecessary qualifier every time his name comes up, you do a disservice to the player he is now.
Bryce Harper is off to a scorching-hot start, which shouldn't be surprising
Understandably, there's been a lot of focus on Bryce Harper for non-baseball reasons early this season. There was attention given to the Pulp-Fiction inspired t-shirt and Phillie Phanatic cleats he wore in his debut as a Phillie. Each game in Philadelphia, he's also received standing ovations when he trotted out to right field, which he's responded to by bowing and fist-pumping. After his first series in Philadelphia, the Phillies headed to D.C., the place Harper called home for the first seven seasons of his major league career. Naturally, there was quite a bit of attention given to how Nationals fans welcomed their former MVP back to the nation's capital.
But despite all of those potential distractions, Harper is off to a rather incredible start in red pinstripes. He hit home runs in the final two games of the Phillies first series of the season against the Atlanta Braves. And after Harper was struck out by Max Scherzer in each of his first two at-bats as an opponent at Nationals Park, he reached base in every plate appearance he had the rest of the series. He hit a second-deck home run in the eighth inning of his first game back in Washington, one of five hits he had in a two-game series. The Phillies lost a roller-coaster game against the Nationals Wednesday afternoon, but Harper had two more hits and three walks.
So Harper is hitting .500 with three home runs, eight hits and seven walks after his first five games as a Phillie. It's an incredibly small sample size, but it's hard not to mention the 1.840 OPS the 26-year-old has. He's started the season off performing like a Hall of Famer, which probably shouldn't surprise anyone.
Harper had a historic 2015 season, slashing .330/.460/.649 with 42 home runs and a 9.3 fWAR. He won the National League MVP at age 22 in 2015, but hit just .243 in 2016. Harper still hit 24 home runs and drove in 86 runs in 2016, so it's hard to say he had a bad year, but it was certainly disappointing after such a dominant season. We later learned, however, that Harper played through a right shoulder injury for much of the season. The injury was apparently severe enough that Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci, who had the original report, later said that Harper told him he couldn't do an upper-body weightlifting for approximately two-thirds of the season.
In the first-half of the 2017 season, Harper was playing at an MVP form again, slashing .325/.431/.590 with 20 home runs and 65 RBIs in the first-half of the season. In the second-half of the 2018 season, Harper slashed .300/.434/.538 with 11 home runs and 46 RBIs.
What happened in between those two stretches? Harper slipped on a wet first base bag at Nationals Park on Aug. 12, 2017, limiting him to just 30 games in the second-half of the 2017 season. He returned for the 2017 postseason and was technically healthy for the first-half of the 2018 season, but his .214 batting average would suggest that the left knee that he hyperextended late in the 2017 season was still not back at 100 percent.
Harper's injury history was a concern to some teams when he reached free-agency. (Although his 2017 knee hyperextension could have been much worse, perhaps a testament to how strong his knee is.) But the last two healthy halves of baseball that he's played have seen him hit at an MVP caliber. The last full healthy season he had - 2015 - is one of the best individual seasons of the last 25 years.
So if Harper's quick start - which has come despite him not signing until early March - is a precursor for the time of season he's going to have in 2019, we probably shouldn't be surprised. He's healthy, and when he's been healthy, he's been one of the five best players in the sport.
Roman Quinn is the Phillies version of Deion Sanders (the baseball player)
If you watched the ESPN 30 for 30 "Deion's Double Play," it was hard not to come away with the takeaway that while history may have forgotten how valuable of a baseball player Deion Sanders was when he was on the field, it was almost impossible for the Atlanta Braves to plan for a short or long-term future with Sanders in the picture.
In many senses, Roman Quinn has put the Phillies in a similar position. No, he's not a Hall of Fame cornerback in the same way that Sanders was. But he'll flash high upside as a weapon for a contending baseball team, but you know that at some point, he's not going to be available. Sanders wasn't available because football was his No. 1 priority. Quinn becomes unavailable because he tends to have at least one stint on the injured list each season.
Quinn has opened the 2019 season on the injured list with an oblique strain. But he made a rehab appearance at Single-A Clearwater Thursday, and Matt Breen of The Philadelphia Inquirer reported yesterday that the Phillies expect that without any setbacks, Quinn will rejoin the team in mid-April.
Still just 25, there's not any question of whether a healthy Quinn is worthy of being on the Phillies 25-man roster. He has lightning speed, which allows him to be valuable on the basepaths - he stole 10 bases in 50 games at the major league level in 2018 - and in center field.
While there's often been a debate about whether Quinn could start over Odubel Herrera in center field, that debate feels like a moot point now. Whether Quinn would be a better starter in center field than Herrera or not, he hasn't proven to be able to stay healthy consistently enough for him to usurp Herrera. If anything, he's shown that even when he is healthy, the Phillies may be better off only using him a few days a week.
But on a team relatively deep in outfield talent, there's a legitimate debate to be had about how to proceed with Quinn when he's ready to return from the injured list. Herrera, Bryce Harper and Andrew McCutchen aren't going anywhere. Aaron Altherr and Nick Williams are on the Phillies bench as legitimate outfield options currently, and manager Gabe Kapler is comfortable with Scott Kingery playing in the outfield as well. The Phillies don't really need another outfielder, so it feels like a stretch that they would activate Quinn and send a relief pitcher to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
As NBC Sports Philadelphia's Corey Seidman noted Thursday, it appears that when Quinn is ready to return, the Phillies will be left to decide between Altherr and Williams.
At the outset of the season, many thought Williams would be sent to Triple-A Lehigh Valley, where he would be an overqualified minor leaguer until either he was traded, Altherr underperformed or Quinn got injured again. But that may not be the best plan of action.
While the Phillies gave Altherr the first chance to win the starting right fielder's job in 2018, his season took a rather disastrous turn. Altherr hit just .181 in 243 at-bats a season ago, and the Phillies used his final minor league option to give him a chance to reset in late July. That means that sending him back to Triple-A isn't an option now (pun not intended).
Williams, 25, has two minor league options. But he hit 17 home runs and drove in 50 RBIs in 2018. He drove in a run Thursday off-the-bench, after hitting .333 as a pinch-hitter in 2018. Yes, the Phillies could send him to Triple-A. But it would seem to be a slap in the face of Williams, who thrived as a pinch-hitter in 2018, something the Phillies are asking him to do in 2019. The human aspect of this can't be ignored.
Altherr, 28, has a .187 career batting average off the bench. He is a better fielder than Williams, and is capable of playing all three outfield positions. But it's fair to wonder how frequently the Phillies will be asking Altherr or Williams to start in 2018 or beyond.
Simply optioning Altherr to Triple-A and hoping for the best isn't a realistic option. He will be claimed. But a trade of Altherr, which would open up a roster spot for Quinn and not leave the Phillies completely empty-handed, could happen.
When healthy, Quinn could spell Herrera in center field occasionally, and be utilized as a pinch-hitter, pinch-runner and late-game defensive replacement. And if he's healthy, he could be extremely valuable in that role. The problem, of course, is if he gets injured again, there's a chance Altherr won't be there to take his place again.
But like Sanders in the 1990s, teams are still tantalized by the potential of Quinn on a contending team. Quinn is out of minor league options too, and it would be a minor shock if the Phillies moved on from him.
