Matt Moore’s addition finally gives the Phillies a lefty in their starting rotation | Extra Innings

The calendar has flipped to February, and the Phillies have satisfied their needs at catcher and shortstop by re-signing J.T. Realmuto and Didi Gregorius. Team president Dave Dombrowski has also filled in some rotation and bullpen pieces, and the players union has rejected Major League Baseball’s proposal to delay the start of the season by a month.

So now we are less than two weeks away from Phillies pitchers and catchers’ holding their first workout of 2021 on Feb. 17 at the Carpenter Complex in Clearwater, Fla. We are still in the middle of a pandemic, the vast majority of the players have not been vaccinated, and nobody is sure when fans will be allowed to walk through the turnstiles again at Citizens Bank Park.

You can’t have everything.

Play ball!

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— Bob Brookover (extrainnings@inquirer.com)

The Phillies once traded for Lefty (Steve Carlton) and that was good. They also once had a World Series MVP lefty in Cole Hamels and that, too, was good.

And then half a decade went by and it seemed as though all the lefties had left the Phillies’ starting rotation.

That, of course, is not entirely true. The Phillies have attempted to get some left-handed starters into the mix since Hamels was dealt to the Texas Rangers at the July 31 trade deadline in 2015. They just haven’t done so successfully.

Consider this: Hamels went a combined 13-8 for the Phillies and Rangers in 2015. Since his departure from Philadelphia, the Phillies have exactly 12 wins from the left-handed starters they’ve sent to the mound.

Here are some of the relevant numbers:

Adam Morgan has made the most starts (30) by a Phillies lefty since the Hamels trade. He was 3-6 with a 4.76 ERA in nine starts after the deal in 2015, and then went 2-11 with a 6.15 ERA in 21 starts in 2016 before being moved to the bullpen.

The Phillies added veteran lefties Drew Smyly and Jason Vargas to the rotation in the middle of the 2019 season, and they went a combined 4-6 with a 4.88 ERA in 23 starts. Cole Irvin made three starts in 2019 and went 2-1 despite a 5.60 ERA, and that same year, reliever Jose Alvarez was used as an opener against the Los Angeles Dodgers and pitched two scoreless innings.

Now, the Phillies are ready to send a lefty to the mound as a starter again. They had an introductory Zoom call for 31-year-old Matt Moore on Wednesday, and it sure sounded as if he has the inside track to one of the team’s rotation jobs behind the top three of Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler and Zach Eflin.

“I mean there’s no guarantees, but we’re looking for Matt to be one of our starters,” new team president Dave Dombrowski said.

Joe Girardi, who managed two great lefties — Andy Pettitte and CC Sabathia — with the New York Yankees, sure seemed excited about the idea of having a southpaw in his rotation.

“I think when you have different looks, it’s important for a staff,” Girardi said. “To have a left-hander on the staff, I think, is always important. You’re going to face teams that maybe their most dangerous hitter is left-handed and all of a sudden you can neutralize them more or maybe even force the other manager to give them a day off.”

Moore isn’t the second coming of Carlton or Hamels even though his career in Tampa Bay got off to a great start. He went 29-17 with a 3.53 ERA in his first 63 games with the Rays, but is 25-39 with a 5.13 ERA in 118 big-league games since. Moore, however, did go 6-3 with a 2.65 ERA in 15 starts last year in Japan, and the Phillies are hoping he can bring that success back to the states.

Meanwhile, a Phillies reunion with Hamels now seems very unlikely. It obviously would make for a good story, but it’s hard to blame the Phillies or any other team for being concerned about Hamels after he pitched in just one game last season with Atlanta because of shoulder weakness.

The Phillies also added veteran right-hander Chase Anderson to the list of rotation candidates Wednesday.

Scott Lauber details how the Phillies got free agents Realmuto and Gregorius to rejoin the band for the 2021 season. He also notes that the 2020 Phillies did not resemble The Beatles.

Matt Breen explains why the Phillies were willing to bet big money on Realmuto even though he is about to become a 30-year-old catcher.

The Phillies made sure they’ll be strong defensively at catcher again next season when they re-signed Realmuto, but they also need to be better overall on defense if they want to contend in 2021.

Commissioner Rob Manfred and Major League Baseball thought they made a fair proposal to delay the start of spring training and the season, but it was rejected by Tony Clark and the players union.

Fixing the bullpen was among Dombroski’s top priorities this offseason, and we take a look at how he fared in that mission during his time with the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers.

Feb. 17: First spring-training workout for pitchers and catchers.

Feb. 27: Grapefruit League opener vs. Toronto in Clearwater, Fla.

March 29: End of spring training.

April 9: Start of first road series in Atlanta, 7:20 p.m.

When asked why he thought the bullpen was so awful last season,Realmuto mentioned, among other things, that the relievers did not strike out enough hitters, a problem Dombrowski has attempted to address by loading up on hard-throwing bullpen guys.

For the record, the Phillies’ relief corps finished 27th last season with 203 strikeouts. Only Seattle, Miami and Colorado had fewer, and those three bullpens were also among the bottom five in baseball. It should be noted, however, that Boston’s bullpen had the most strikeouts in baseball and still finished with a 5.79 ERA.

The difference was that the Red Sox relievers threw a major-league-leading 278 innings while the Phillies threw a major-league-low 186 innings, so strikeouts might not have been as big a problem as Realmuto perceived. The Phillies’ relievers struck out 9.82 batters per nine innings, which was 12th in the majors and eighth in the National League.

Far bigger problems: the bullpen’s batting average against on balls in play (BABIP) and home runs allowed. The bullpen BABIP was a major-league-worst .376. The relief corps also allowed 42 home runs, tied for the third most in baseball despite the fact the Phillies’ relievers pitched the fewest number of innings.

Send questions by email or on Twitter @brookob.

Answer: Girardi has not committed to anything, but my best guess is that Vince Velasquez will open the season in the bullpen. I agree with you that Velasquez’s best chance at big-league success is coming out of the pen because he can come out throwing hard without worrying about getting through the fifth inning. One of the key things is that he must embrace the role from the start, and the best chance of that happening is if he comes out of the pen to open the season.

Answer: Love this question mostly because there is not an easy answer. The Phillies do not figure to have a lot of roster openings coming out of spring training, and it seems likely that the start of minor-league seasons will be at least a little delayed.

With the return of Gregorius, Bryson Stott’s elevation to the big leagues now seems blocked. Since I already talked about left-handed starters quite a bit in this newsletter, I’ll go with Damon Jones because there is always a possibility that a major-league team will need the help of its minor-league pitching depth.