Gabe Kapler is a man who thinks in both macro and micro terms, and there is something that has filled his mind of late. The Phillies manager has considered every scenario for pennant race baseball in September. He has thought about how, if he needs to use Justin Bour as a pinch-hitter in the third or fourth inning, he could then run for him with Roman Quinn. Then, maybe later in the game, he’d need another runner after Wilson Ramos pinch-hits and reaches base. Maybe that game keeps going. And going. And maybe it’s the 16th or 17th inning. Now, in his hypothetical scenario, he’s burned a few of his best options.
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“We’re going to have plenty of bodies,” Kapler said Friday in his office. “But what if we had not the greatest matchup and we decided to leave that guy in Lehigh for the Triple-A playoffs instead of having him around? I think that would, like, haunt me forever.”
He paused.
“So,” Kapler said, “those are the things that we are considering here coming up.”
This is bliss for a coaching staff and front office that have explored the tiniest of advantages ever since spring training. The Phillies, in recent years, did not need to sweat the small details. The macro problems were so great and daunting. Now, a game here or a game there could decide the National League East. The margin is slim.
The toy chest is open for Kapler. The Phillies could play with a 32-man roster beginning Saturday with more players to come later in September.
This is not to suggest the Phillies will look to do unusual things for the sake of doing unusual things. But it’s a chance for Kapler, who thinks about a lot of things, to think outside the box. There is no overnight fix to an inconsistent offense or a substandard defense. But the Phillies just need to discover methods to minimize those deficiencies for a month. A decent month could win them a division title; they have gained 2.5 games on Atlanta in the last three days.
“They’re going to be long games,” veteran reliever Pat Neshek said.
That is one side effect. The Phillies could activate more than six players on Saturday when rosters expand and at least four of them — Edubray Ramos, Austin Davis, Yacksel Ríos and Jerad Eickhoff — could be pitchers. Before every series this season, the Phillies’ analytics department has produced various reports for the coaches. One of them identifies specific opposing lineup pockets that could best suit a reliever. The Phillies will dig into those matchups and apply them often. If that means seven or eight or nine relievers one night, then so be it. It is not the most aesthetic baseball.
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But this is about more than that. It is a chance for the Phillies to mask their roster’s shortcomings with some temporary solutions. They’ll have defensive replacements like Aaron Altherr and Pedro Florimón. Bour, who took his first swings Friday since injuring his oblique, could be activated next week to reprise his role as a left-handed bench threat.
Most contending teams will expand their rosters Saturday. But few stand to gain as much as the Phillies do because their strength, all season, has been depth. They have added to that depth in the last month. Almost every member of the current 40-man roster, which is at 42 players, has played for the Phillies this season — the lone exception is Eickhoff, who has been on the disabled list.
So the path to 27 outs could look quite different each night. The nights started by Aaron Nola are clearer. There will be more nights like last Wednesday when Kapler pulled Jake Arrieta after three innings and deployed seven relievers over the final six innings. There could be quicker hooks than the one Friday night when Nick Pivetta danced around trouble with 87 pitches in four innings only to surrender a solo homer in the fifth.
On Friday, in the 2-1, 10-inning win over the Cubs, Kapler deployed Héctor Neris when he needed strikeouts and Neshek when he needed a ground ball. He matched Adam Morgan’s changeup against free-swinging Javy Baez. Those matchups prevailed. With a larger bullpen, the Phillies can take fewer risks with less-optimal matchups. It is the most granular of baseball strategy.
“I cannot dote on our bullpen enough,” Kapler said after the dramatic win. “They have just come up so many times. They have not gotten the attention that they deserve. We had ridden them so hard. And we’ve put them in incredibly difficult, unique, new positions for all of them.”
Asdrúbal Cabrera celebrates his walk-off home run in the 10th inning Friday to beat the Cubs. (Eric Hartline-USA TODAY Sports)
The way Rick Kranitz sees it, there are different levels of benefits to how the Phillies will run their bullpen in September. They’ll have more protection for multiple-inning stints, with Eickhoff and Ríos. They’ll add high-leverage arms in Ramos and Davis. They could later add even more depth with Triple-A starters Ranger Suarez, Enyel De Los Santos and Drew Anderson if needed.
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The club’s best bullpen arms will have some protection because, well, there will be more of them.
“We won’t have to use our relievers too much and we can keep them fresh,” the pitching coach said. “That, to me, is probably the biggest part of it. But we have a lot of pieces and a lot of ways to go with it.”
He pointed to Ramos, who has a 2.00 ERA with 36 strikeouts in 36 innings this season.
“They’re all quality guys,” Kranitz said. “That’s the thing. They’re quality. We have quality that’s here — not only on our roster now but the guys who are getting ready to be put on the roster. And that’s huge. Put Ramos in the eighth inning up one run and it doesn’t bother us. You know what I’m saying? It’s just another good piece that we have ready to use.”
Just as intriguing is how Kapler will make maneuvers with his position players. They have players who are here because they can hit — José Bautista, Asdrúbal Cabrera and Bour — but are compromised on defense or the bases. That could lead to some creative pairings, where someone like Altherr or J.P. Crawford is a designated pinch-runner or defensive replacement whenever those players reach base.
Think about those four games at the end of September in Coors Field, a place that tends to generate weird baseball even without expanded rosters. If those games matter to the Phillies, they will be weird.
“You’ve seen it with the Dodgers the last couple of years,” Neshek said. “Every game is a matchup. It’s a different part of the season. I mean, we’ll utilize that too.”
There will be optimal offensive units for right-handed pitchers, left-handed pitchers, hard-throwing pitchers, etc. There will be combinations for when the Phillies are ahead late. And ones for when the Phillies are behind. Think Carlos Santana at third base and Bour at first base, if it presents a chance for Bour to have more than one at-bat in a game where the Phillies need runs.
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These ideas are less about reinventing the game and more about surviving with a flawed roster. More than once this season, people around the Phillies have described this unit as one whose sum is greater than its parts. Now, there are more parts.
“If there’s any kind of advantage,” Neshek said, “I’m sure we’re the team that is going to be the one to utilize that.”
(Top photo: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports)
Matt Gelb is a senior writer for The Athletic covering the Philadelphia Phillies. He has covered the team since 2010 while at The Philadelphia Inquirer, including a yearlong pause from baseball as a reporter on the city desk. He is a graduate of Syracuse University and Central Bucks High School West.
