GDT 4/16/22 Philadelphia Phillies (Suárez, R) @ Miami Marlins (Rogers, T)

[andyb]

At the same time, sure - if this was the Dodgers or Giants front office the GM would just tell him to quit playing Camargo and Didi so much. Or wouldn't have necessarily given him those options (or four DHs) to begin with.

I don't think it is as cut and dry as that. The Dodgers and Giants clearly have a GM and manager that work together on personnel decisions as all teams should. Girardi clearly wanted Bohm and Stott on his roster. He is a smart guy. He knows they need to play or should be in AAA. The manager SHOULD have final say on this stuff, but we all know that Girardi's weakness is in playing young players especially those who make an occasional mistake like making an error.

The GM should tell Girardi to play Bohm in the majors or he will be sent to AAA. The manager does not get to disagree with the GM unless they are winning. Then the manager often gets fired (and the new manager comes in and says its a clean slate and Bohm and Stott are magically in the next starting lineup).

[zambonir]

Sure. It's a nuanced thing. Really we are still paying the price for Dombrowski not being on the job early enough last year. His owner wanted JT (not that re-signing him was a bad move) and his manager still wanted Didi (but I will forever be baffled by the second year). It was the path of least resistance. And clearly everyone was in alignment on Bohm... i.e., writing him off, possibly trading him... before spring training.

Camargo was a smart signing, controllable, has upside, might be able to get back to what he was early on (or in AAA last year). Also, he was signed before the DH became official (though it was inevitable). But he just gums up the works further so long as Didi's also here.

[andyb]

All of that ignores the central point that if you have Stott and Bohm on the major league roster you need to play them pure and simple. I argue to play Bohm, but if the manager thinks Camargo is better than we should have Bohm in AAA and a different player on the roster. If the GM and manager disagree on this, the manager probably needs to go.

Ronald Torreyes got 344 plate appearances in the majors last year. 0.3 WAR. He played more 3B than SS. That is a problem. A pretty big problem if one recalls the sequence last year where Bohm started to hit after a slow start and then sat on the bench most of the time after he began to hit. I agree Camargo is better than Torreyes at a 3B role, but that does not mean the manager is still not making bad decisions. Bohm may be a bad draft choice from the previous regime, but they are literally ruining him before our very eyes because the kid can actually hit.

[zambonir]

Oh I agree the manager is making bad decisions but I guess I also agree with Flyers that the GM doesn't necessarily disagree with his decisions. The GM has the power to send Bohm down if he wants. He also has the power to dictate line-up decisions (and even in-game decisions) though I don't think that is either man's style.

In theory that same GM also acquired Freddy Galvis to force Girardi to play Didi and Torreyes less but instead Galvis was banged up and they benched and demoted Bohm and we got even more Torreyes, and Freddy at 3B.

The other puzzling thing is, they deliberately built a team that was terrible at defense and meant to outhit that issue. Slightly upgrading one spot hardly fixes the problem, and makes it worse if it costs offense.

I think Joe is on thin ice if they keep playing .400 ball. The details of why that's happening or how he's handling certain players don't matter. He could just as easily get fired for doing what Atown suggests with Schwarber. Managers know not to bench their GM's biggest signing.

[Austinfan]

Girardi needs to win now, so he wanted Bohm and Stott, but couldn't give a fig about what's best for their long-term development. This is where Dombrowski has to lay down the law, play them or they get sent to Lehigh.

[zambonir]

I wouldn't say that. His actions say Girardi wants Didi and Camargo. He probably would have loved to get Chapman or a better FA SS too.

At the same time I think he does care about their development. It's not good for Bohm if he has several more bad games at 3B. It's not good for Stott to be hitting .154. It's just that the two veteran players aren't really that much better, so the cost of sticking with your youngsters and riding out isn't high. But the whole organization is terrified of getting off to a bad start now. The Phillies aren't gonna have the patience of the 2019 Nats or 2021 Braves, because they don't have the track record.

They really should just bench or wave Gregorius, now that they are already in the tax. But Stott's not really forcing that issue.