As the Phillies to get ready to begin the 2020 MLB season, expectations surrounding the club are not quite as high as last year. This time last year, the Phillies were fresh off of adding Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, and Jean Segura, but finished just 81-81 after an injury riddled 2019.
Now, despite the additions of key pieces, the Phillies are projected as the fourth best team in the NL East and general manager Matt Klentak says they're "OK" with that.
"It's quite a contrast and believe me, I understood it last year and we enjoyed it," Klentak told Jon Marks and Ike Reese live from Clearwater on Monday.
"Maybe it's not quite this simple, but we return most of the core of last year's club, last year's 81-win club that had a lot of things go wrong for it—most notably injuries. And to that, we now add Didi Gregorius, Zack Wheeler, (new manager) Joe (Girardi) as we mentioned, some new coaches, and you kind of look at it as though this team is built to improve and do better this year. So the fact that we are flying under the radar, as you mentioned, I think that's OK with us. These guys know what they gotta do and they're getting ready for it."
Many fans believe Klentak did not add quite enough talent this offseason to compete with team like the defending champion Nationals and the Braves.
"I agree all of your listeners or callers who say, 'We'd like to add more.' You can never have enough," Klentak agreed.
"You can never have enough pitching, you can never have enough depth, you'd always like to add one more bat or someone to compliment something. I'm compelled to feel that same way in various junctions of the offseason, during the season, etcetera. We all want more. Part of our job is to understand what's out there, what players can bring to our team. You mentioned some trades, some trade possibilities, trade rumors. We have the pieces to go execute a trade like you're referencing if we want to. We're not being held up by money, that's not the issue. It's about the talent and what we'd have to give up in return. Good teams have to work young players into their starting lineup or into their rotation, you just have to. To build a sustainable club you'd have some veterans, some young players."
You can listen to the full interview below.