‘Phillies Extra’ Q&A: Preston Mattingly on why Buehler and not Painter, Crawford outlook, and more
General manager Preston Mattingly joined The Inquirer’s baseball show to discuss what the team liked about Walker Buehler and other roster-related questions down the stretch.
Later this week, the Phillies will go to a six-man rotation to give additional rest to their other starters, notably Cristopher Sánchez, Ranger Suárez, and Jesús Luzardo.
It’s a move they wanted to make last month.
But once Zack Wheeler was lost for the season, the Phillies lacked a clear-cut sixth-starter candidate. They found their answer on Aug. 31, when they signed veteran righty Walker Buehler, who was released two days earlier by the Red Sox after posting a 5.45 ERA and walking 55 batters in 112⅓ innings.
General manager Preston Mattingly recently joined Phillies Extra, The Inquirer’s baseball show, to discuss what the team liked about Buehler, what it means for top prospect Andrew Painter, and other roster-related questions down the stretch.
Watch the full interview below and subscribe to the podcast on Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Q: For three years before this, you were running player development, which means you were in charge of the farm system. That’s an all-encompassing job. I’ve always heard baseball executives say being a farm director is probably the best apprenticeship for being a GM. I wonder if you feel that way, and how that job prepared you for this.
A: From the [player development] standpoint ... it’s a lot of people management. You mentioned all the players, but that’s not mentioning probably the 100-plus staff members as well. I loved to run the PD system. It was an honor to do it. The players we have, the staff we have, is a great group. And I think it does help you, as I switched over to now the GM role, trying to get the rhythm of [president of baseball operations] Dave [Dombrowski] and just what he needs on a daily basis. And other people throughout our front office, you try and be an advocate for different things that people bring to you. And just really lucky to be a part of this group, and I think just continue to grow in this role and help the team win in any way possible.
» READ MORE: Walker Buehler still on track to make his Phillies debut Friday against the Royals
Q: What led you guys to claim lefty reliever Tim Mayza? It seems like he could be a sneaky, important pickup down the stretch.
A: Acquisition never stops in baseball. ... I think it was a case where our scouting group really, really felt like he was throwing the ball well. We had seen him in multiple different rehab outings. A lot of the data we had on him was kind of like trending back to the way he was in his Blue Jays days. So I think we thought it was an opportunity to take a guy that’s dominated left-handed hitters and to throw into the mix with our guys. A guy that can come in and ... get out a couple lefties and kind of bridge the gap to Matt Strahm, to Tanner Banks and more the leverage roles and José Alvarado as well. So it’s just another quality arm, a guy that’s had a ton of success vs. left-handed hitters, and we thought it’d be a good add to our mix. Every game matters here down the stretch, so just trying to put the best 13, or now 14, in that pitching staff.
Q: Were you surprised that Walker Buehler became available, and why do you think that your pitching department might be able to help him?
A: ... Obviously he got released and I think just a lot of different conversations between our scouts, a lot of people in our group, and just feeling like, just to protect our starters — and know we were wanting to potentially go to six starters — to give our guys an extra rest.
We’ve leaned heavily on our starting pitching. No surprise, it’s a tremendous group we have there, and we wanted to make sure we took care of them down the stretch here. And we thought Walker, even though the overall season numbers may not be what people have expected, we’ve seen the quality that he still has.
[Buehler] pitched very well against us and a couple of other contenders. So we thought it would be a good guy to add to our group. And [pitching coach] Caleb Cotham had a lot of success with helping pitchers, just [with] different guys we have on our staff. We obviously brought over Jesús Luzardo. We feel like Jesús has gotten better, and there’s still another gear there for him. And we think there’s a few things we can help with Walker, too. So we’re excited to add him to the mix.
Q: Why Buehler for that spot in the six-man rotation and not Andrew Painter? He has struggled this year in triple A, but there might be a benefit to getting his feet wet here late in the season. How much of a conversation was that?
A: It was definitely a conversation. I think we had multiple internal options, but I think we just thought that adding Buehler, there’s some upside there. Not that there wouldn’t be with Andy, or any of our internal options as well, but I think we have to do what’s best for the player. And I think just speaking directly to Andy, obviously, you mentioned his [5.62] ERA, I still think we’re really excited with the year he’s had, maybe not from an ERA perspective. That’s not just the only thing we look at. And I think his stuff has continued to trend in a good spot. He’s thrown 100-plus innings after missing two years with Tommy John [elbow surgery], his stuff still grades out really well, and maybe some of the surface performance is not what people want to see, but I think we’re really confident in Andy and his ability.
» READ MORE: Aidan Miller among three prospects to receive minor-league promotions by the Phillies
So I think at the end of the day, I think we just felt that Walker was a great add to the organization. And I think we don’t want to rush players to the big leagues. Andy will tell us when he’s ready. And there’s obviously some benefits [of adding him to the major league roster], but I think we just felt like Walker was a very rare case to add him to our organization, to be playoff-eligible and to help us down the stretch.
Q: How much discussion has there been about Justin Crawford being called up throughout the course of the year?
A: Yeah, Dave and [manager Rob Thomson] have obviously been very public about this. I think with Justin, he’s had a tremendous season, but if Justin were to come up, we want him to be able to play every day. I think it’s not beneficial for a young player to come up and just sit. He’s definitely on the radar. There’s different conversations throughout the year that happened. Sometimes it’s very close to happening. Other times it feels like it’s a little bit farther away. But he’s put himself on the radar of everybody, honestly, with the season he’s having, and he’s continuing to get better.
» READ MORE: ‘Phillies Extra’ Q&A: Justin Crawford on the challenge of triple A, preparing for a call up, and more
I think people lose sight of, he’s a 21-year-old kid in triple A. We have him playing some corner outfield as well, just to get him exposure in different spots. He’s hit at different spots in the lineup. He’s hit first, he’s hit second. So we just want to expose him to a lot of different things he could see at the major league level. And just continue to work with him. He’s not a finished product by any stretch of the matter. And he’s still getting better every day. He’s still a kid, and he’s still growing into his body. So I think there’s so much upside with Justin and we want to, from a development standpoint, continue to tap into that down there in triple A.