News of Phormer Phillies, 2023

[bkox]

Brewers front office promotions announced by GM Matt Arnold:
• Will Hudgins, Matt Kleine and Karl Mueller promoted to assistant general manager.
• Matt Klentak to executive advisor to the general manager.
• Expanded roles for Taylor Green, Carlos Villanueva & Rickie Weeks.

— Sophia Minnaert ( @SophiaMinnaert ) November 6, 2023

[mdougherty12]

Pat Burrell was named co-hitting coach for San Francisco:

https://www.mlb.com/news/matt-williams-pat-burrell-join-giants-coaching-staff

[zambonir]

Andrew Bailey (very short Phillies career but also a local boy) appears to be leaving the Giants after four years as their pitching coach and is a candidate for various other jobs, including other pitching coach gigs and Yankees bench coach. The Mets tried to interview him for a bench coach job last year and couldn't get permission. He's still only 39.

Yankees ask David Ross about bench coach job, but he prefers manager job to...

[zambonir]

Giants added Erik Miller (who was traded for Yunior Marte last year) to their 40.

[David_Criss]

Kyle Gibson signs with Cardinals

[BostonRoss]

Hoskins to Boston?

https://www.si.com/mlb/red-sox/news/phillies-slugger-linked-to-red-sox-as-possible-surprise-addition-this-offseason-pat3

[julio]

Hoskins to Boston?

https://www.si.com/mlb/red-sox/news/phillies-slugger-linked-to-red-sox-as-possible-surprise-addition-this-offseason-pat3

Well, I have to question the reliability of somebody who includes the suggestion that Hoskins "could see time in left field" in his argument for Hoskins to the Sox. Rhys Hoskins managing the Green Monster?

I'm second to nobody in my fondness for Rhys, but the LF experiment did not work, and that's without asking him to play the carom.

[zambonir]

Fan Nation is not a good website, but the original source seems solid (and did not mention LF).

[phillychuck]

LF is very easy to play in Fenway because of the reduced area. Some pretty bad fielders have learned to play the carom after practicing hard at it, and Rhys works hard!

[zambonir]

Be that as it may, neither the Red Sox nor any other team has actually expressed an interest in Rhys playing LF that we know of, nor has any reporter reported it. The opinions of that blogger carries no more weight than, well... the opinions of you and julio!

That said (here comes my opinion) I'm not sure the failed 2018 experiment means anything either. Worse people than Rhys have played LF before and since, including for the Phillies. If he's primarily a DH but some one needs him to play 1B 30 times and LF 20 times it's probably workable.

[julio]

Well, I'm of the opinion that my opinion carries more weight than some others... Oh, wait. That's my waist, not my opinion!

While I'm skeptical, I could get used to seeing Rhys Hoskins in Beantown.

As some of you know, I've been following Rhys specifically since 2015 - his single-A seasons, followed by his winter in Sydney. He's been my single favorite Phils player (and before that, prospect) throughout — both on the field and because he's a really stand-up person.

Then there's the Red Sox. I attended my first Red Sox game, at Fenway, in September 1972. Yaz. Rico Petrocelli. Carlton Fisk. Luis Tiant. (I was in my first - and only - year at MIT.) The Sox have been my AL favorite ever since. (Any time they're not playing the Phils!) If Rhys were to close out his career there...I wouldn't exactly be unhappy.

[Philsmania]

White Sox DFA Adam Haseley. Perhaps he should try his hand at pitching?

https://www.si.com/mlb/phillies/news/former-phillies-first-rounder-designated-by-white-sox-jon9

[zambonir]

Probably at the crossroads of either retirement or becoming a Travis Jankowski type guy.

[David_Criss]

He put up solid numbers in AA and AA in 2018 and 2019 then......played for Kapler. Didn't he leave the team for quite a while due to a personal issue? Nothing much was ever discussed about that and he in entitled to his privacy, but seemed like he and Phillies PTB were never quite on the same page during his tenure.

[zambonir]

His best and only significant major league season was the one where he played for Kapler, 2019. Girardi had a lot less faith in him in 2020 (just 23 starts, 21 against RHB, in the short season) and then yeah, he was the Opening Day starting CF in 2021 but took his leave of absence soon after, never got any traction again, and got dumped in 2022.

He was probably never more than 4th or 5th OF material to begin with, we all knew he was neither an elite defensive CF nor a big enough bat for LF. Or at least, the Phillies had already failed to develop him beyond that.

[Philsmania]

Speaking of Kapler...

Marlins To Hire Gabe Kapler As Assistant General Manager

[zambonir]

Always made sense for him to go back to that side.

His new boss started his career as an intern for the Rays when Kapler played there.

Kapler’s focus with the Marlins will be player development, but he will be involved in all areas of baseball operations.

— Ken Rosenthal ( @Ken_Rosenthal ) December 1, 2023

[bkeich]

I agree with Z. Makes sense for him to do something like this. He proved in the first few days that he had no idea how to be a manager, that isn’t the part of Baseball he understood. No idea why we wanted him to learn on our dime, it was foolish, but he has a good baseball mind and interesting ideas. An advisor to a GM would be optimal.

I don’t think his players hated him, he just seemed to not know how to manage and wasn’t all that clear about strategic ideas in game. I suspect his ideas were also “weird” enough that they threw off many players.

[bkox]

I don’t think his players hated him,

Scott Kingery has 24 million reasons to like him.

[Philsmania]

Kapler's all-time W-L record as a manager is 45 games over .500 (456-411) but that is solely on account of that one huge 2021 season with the Giants when, frankly, he led a veteran team with a clubhouse which could probably take care of and police itself, a la the '93 Phillies. That, however, was his only winning season as a manager in six seasons (1-3-2 was his seasonal W-L record). In the end, he was not the next Terry Francona. So, I would agree with BK that field managing was not what he was cut out for.

No idea why we wanted him to learn on our dime, it was foolish, but he has a good baseball mind and interesting ideas.

Klentak tried too hard to think outside the box there. When you think outside the box, you're a visionary and a genius if your thinking works out. If your thinking does not work out, you're a failure at best, a crackpot at worst.