The Phillies’ Plan To Ignore Defense Has Proven To Be Indefensible

The Great Phillies Experiment is a failure — so far.

The Philadelphia Phillies entered the 2022 baseball season knowing that their defense would be a problem, which, team officials believed, would be overcome by dominant starting pitching and a slew of sluggers.

Uh, not so much.

After a loss Sunday night to division rival New York Mets, the Phils sank to six games under .500 at 21-27 and don’t look anything like a playoff contender that its fanbase was promised heading into the season. And it’s easy to pinpoint the team’s tragic flaw: defense, or lack thereof.

According to the popular “defensive runs saved” metric, Philadelphia’s dismal defense is the worst in baseball at -24 after ranking last in DRS in 2021. The metric, which Sports Info Solutions has been calculating since 2003, measures how many runs a player prevented or cost his team compared with an average defender.

The DRS stat scores Phillies third baseman Alec Bohm (-10) as the worst defender in the game this season; Phils right fielder Nick Castellanos (-8) ranks only two spots above Bohm.

But this was the renegade plan of Phillies President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski — to surround Phillies star Bryce Harper with other mashers in the lineup and, well, defense be damned. And it was a pricey strategy, too. Dombrowski spent $179 million on free-agent outfielders Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber, two well-known defensive liabilities.

“There have been clubs that have not had great defensive metrics in the past that have won,” Dombrowski said before the season began. “I’ve been part of a couple of those clubs.”

The spending on Castellanos and Schwarber also hoisted the team over the luxury tax threshold for the first time in club history.

Phillies principal owner John Middleton OK’d the splurge if it would ensure Philly would reach the playoffs for the first time since 2011 — which is the longest postseason drought in the National League and second longest in baseball.

Now, one third through the season, the playoffs look like a vanishing dream for the Phillies, who have recently showcased a defense that looks cut from a blooper reel.

Check out this defensive disaster on Wednesday when the Phils gave up the go-ahead run after three fielders astonishingly missed a throw from catcher J.T. Realmuto:

And then there was this defensive calamity which wasted Harper’s go-ahead home run in the top of the ninth inning and led to a heart-breaking loss on Tuesday:

The team’s defense has taken a blow with Harper relegated to designated hitter for most of the season due to an injured right elbow. Harper hopes to heal up and take the field after the All-Star break. That would send Castellanos back to DH and help the Phillies defensively in the outfield. But it may be too little or too late to save the season — or to save manager Joe Girardi.

Some media and fans are calling for Girardi’s job. He was asked about the subject after the game on Sunday night. “I don’t worry about my job,” Girardi said. “I’ve never worried about my job. I don’t worry about my job. I’ve got to do my job. It’s the business of being a manager. I don’t worry about it.”

But, realistically, firing Girardi won’t fix the team’s disastrous defense.