So Why Didn't The 2019 Phillies Work?

Well...I think it's time to really examine this.

The Phillies will probably not be making the playoffs. Unless something miraculous happens, which doesn't happen often in Philly, we're gonna be missing the playoffs for the umpteenth year. This also means that even WITH Bryce Harper, JT Realmuto, Jean Segura, Jason Vargas and Andrew McCutchen, we still can't make the playoffs.

So what went wrong? Well...a few things.

1. The pre-existing outfield let us down. Before the deals started happening, we figured we'd be going into 2019 with an outfield of Nick Williams, Odubel Herrera and Roman Quinn, with Aaron Altherr as a swing. Once the signings populated the lineup, none of those four decided to be productive in 2019. Altherr .034 in 22 games, then left for San Francisco and Queens. Herrera hit .222 before bowing out thanks to sexual assault charges. Williams has been hitting .157 in 61 games. Quinn has been hitting .213, and is currently on the IL.

The overall point here is that, much like the 2015 Padres, the transplant of an entirely new outfield of McCutchen, Harper and Kingery was not compatible with the initial outfield, and so the initial outfield buggered off. Thankfully the rest of the lineup didn't have this problem, as the infield is pretty compatible with Jean Segura, though Franco had another shoddy year.

2. Relief pitching. The veteran presence of Pat Neshek, David Robertson, Blake Parker and Juan Nicasio didn't amount to much. The onslaught of young relief pitching from last year, including Seranthony Dominguez, Victor Arano and Edubray Ramos, didn't carry over to this season, and a lot of converted relievers like Ranger Suarez and Cole Irvin had to pick up a lot of their slack. We also had to make a lot of late moves for relievers, and while Parker and Mike Morin worked initially, their numbers faded over time. At least Jared Hughes is a pretty cool pickup, though.

As even if Hector Neris has a career-high of 28 saves this year, I still don't trust him as a consistent reliever. He still blows saves, he still has streaky moments, and he still feels like a holdover until we sign an actual closer (and...we did, it was David Robertson. He just won't stay healthy).

3. The other teams were just better. The Braves are gonna be a dangerous playoff contender, the Nationals are a sneaky WC team, and even the Mets have more moments of spontaneity, and Pete Alonso. What do we have? An okay year from Harper and Realmuto, an okay year from Aaron Nola, and a lot of okayness from everybody else. And you can't win a division by being okay.

...except if you're the Cardinals.

Coming Tomorrow- Took me all year to find a good photo of this guy, but he's one of his team's last solid assets...and he's on the last year of his contract.