Nate Schierholtz a lesson in productivity for Phillies

CHICAGO - His opportunity was supposed to come last July, when the Phillies traded away two All-Star outfielders, but he didn't truly get his first chance to be an everyday major league player until April.

On Saturday, he took a quick glance at the starting lineup, saw his name in the fifth spot in the batting order and jogged onto the field for pregame batting practice.

"He's been consistent everyday," Chicago Cubs manager Dale Sveum said. "He's done a great job . . . He's a two-way player who can run, play defense. He can throw. He's done everything we've asked of him."

Sveum was not talking about Domonic Brown, the Phillies' leftfielder who has seized an everyday job this season like no other player in baseball.

Sveum was talking about Nate Schierholtz, who came to Philly last summer in the Hunter Pence trade only to be nontendered this winter and sign with the Cubs as a free agent. Schierholtz, who made his 39th start of the season Saturday at Wrigley Field, entered play yesterday hitting .288 with an .834 OPS.

Only one Phillies player has a better batting average and OPS: Brown.

"I feel like I didn't play enough in San Francisco to show teams that I could play everyday - it was really sporadic," Schierholtz said. "And then I got injured in Philly. They were giving me a shot, which was great and I appreciated a lot. But I also understood why we parted ways."

The Phillies ended the 2010 season with five outfielders - but none were proven, everyday major league outfielders: Schierholtz, Brown, Laynce Nix, John Mayberry Jr. and Darin Ruf. Three of those five hit lefthanded, including Schierholtz, and none of the five were natural centerfielders.

Nix, one of the other lefthanded hitters, was the only one with a guaranteed major league contract; he signed a 2-year, $2.5 million deal before the 2012 season.

Schierholtz, who suffered a foot injury 2 weeks after arriving in Philly last summer, was the proverbial square peg in the round hole as the Phils tried to add both a righthanded hitter and a centerfielder to their outfield in the offseason.

"It probably wasn't the right fit for us at the time," general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. "We made calls to several teams and made [Schierholtz] available, particularly before the [general manager] meetings [in November]. Not enough bites."

Instead of trading for Schierholtz, other teams figured they'd take their chances that he would be nontendered and they could get him without giving up anything in return.

"I thought probably it was going to be 50/50 [that I'd get nontendered]," said Schierholtz, who signed a 1-year, $2.25 million deal with the Cubs. "I got hurt [in Philly] pretty quickly and didn't really have enough time to show them I could play consistently. And they had a lot of outfielders there, a lot of young guys, a lot of guys who came up through their organization, like D-Brown. So it wasn't too surprising to me, to be honest."

Every move is always easier to look back on in hindsight (imagine if the Phils outbid Atlanta for B.J. Upton, who's hitting .158 with a .534 OPS). But in addition to playing solid rightfield in Chicago, Schierholtz has been more productive than almost anyone in the Phillies lineup in 2013.

He has the same number of home runs (7) as Ryan Howard and Chase Utley and the same amount of doubles (16) as Howard and Jimmy Rollins in fewer plate appearances. Howard has just one more extra base hit than Schierholtz.

Revisiting the decision on Schierholtz isn't an exercise done to nitpick the past as much as it's an example of how the Phillies need to limit similar mistakes in the future.

After a forgettable weekend in Milwaukee, the Phillies (31-33) are back under .500.

The Phils lost five of seven games to the last-place Brewers in the last 2 weeks. They've also played 13 of their 19 games against the Miami Marlins this season and yet have failed to take advantage: The Phils are in third place, behind Atlanta and the underperforming Washington Nationals (31-31).

The calendar flips to July in 3 short weeks. Other than December, it's baseball's most active month for player movement and Amaro has been as active as any of his peers in July.

Last month, Jimmy Rollins told MLB.com that his team needed to begin winning more consistently or else Amaro could "blow it up," meaning a repeat of last year's trade deadline, when Schierholtz arrived and Hunter Pence and Shane Victorino were shipped out, but perhaps to a greater scale this year.

"We're not in a position nor do we have an desire to blow this team up," Amaro said yesterday. "There is a more public position, I guess, that that's what we're going to do. If we have to change to make the team better by adding or subtracting that's what we'll do. But we're still in the business of trying to win as many games as possible. By no means are we looking to go backwards."

But in moving forward, the Phils offense will have to prove it's better than what the first 2 months of the season have showed.

The Houston Astros, the American League's version of the woeful Marlins, have scored more runs than the Phillies. Only eight teams in baseball have scored fewer runs than the Phils.

Howard, the former big piece in the middle of the order, has battled chronic knee pain and hasn't connected with his power stroke. He has one home run in his last 103 plate appearances.

"Ryan hasn't gotten into a groove," Amaro said. "I fully expect him to do it at some point, it's just a matter of when."

Delmon Young, who the Phils essentially chose over Schierholtz, is hitting .232 with a .290 on-base percentage in 6 weeks of regular player since returning from the DL.

"I think it's a little incomplete," Amaro said of Young. "We need to be a little more patient with him. And, frankly, we don't have a suitable replacement for him. If we had someone who could give us more consistent offense, we would make a change."

Meanwhile, Ruf, who is hitting .256 with five home runs in 56 games at Triple A Lehigh Valley, has just one homer since the end of April, a span of 129 at-bats.

"I haven't put a timetable on guys for how short of a leash they may have," Amaro said. "We need [all] of those guys to produce, there's no question. As I said before the season, it's going to be difficult to win if Howard, Rollins, Utley and Ruiz aren't producing."

Despite his team's inconsistent play, Amaro isn't concerned when he considers the big picture, which has the Phils 8 1/2 games back of Atlanta in the NL East and 6 1/2 behind Cincinnati and Pittsburgh for the NL wild cards with 98 games left in their season.

"All things considered," Amaro said. "We haven't been blown out to the point where we're out of this thing."

An MRI exam yesterday revealed that catcher Eric Kratz suffered a torn meniscus in his left knee that will require surgery. It is unknown how long he will be out. He was placed on 15-day DL on Sunday.

Kratz injured his knee running past first base in the ninth inning of Saturday's 4-3 loss to the Brewers.

The Phillies called up Steven Lerud from Triple A Lehigh Valley to take his place on the 25-man roster.

Today on PhillyDailyNews.com: Rich Hofmann writes that it is time for the Phillies to begin dismantling so they can rebuild for 2014.

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