PHILADELPHIA — Silence hung over Citizens Bank Park around 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, three hours before the Philadelphia Phillies’ new defensive arrangement took the field a second time.
The scoreboard wasn’t on. The music did not play. The only disruption, albeit small, was when Luis Arraez, the new second baseman, climbed the dugout steps alongside infield coach Bobby Dickerson. Arraez knelt in the wet grass next to the tarp. Dickerson tossed and then hit to him as Arraez alternated fielding with a pancake mitt and his typical glove.
So much was different: the lack of noise in a place typically full of it, the second baseman in his second day on the job, the positions he and his teammates would play later that night. Yet, three games into the Phillies’ defensive shuffle, things have mostly felt normal.
“Is there going to be maybe a little bit of a learning curve? Sure,” Trea Turner said Thursday, “but I just feel like the routine plays will be good. … So, it’s really just me picking up my side. I feel like the last three days have been really good. I can’t remember, like, a play we haven’t made. We turned some double plays. (Bryson) Stott made some good plays.
“Maybe it’s not as big (an adjustment) as everyone seems (to think), but I think there’ll still be some hiccups along the way. I think we’re ready for that. Like, we know that. But so far so good.”
Who won and lost the MLB trade deadline?
Andy McCullough and Johnny Sweet
No roadblocks have arrived yet. Everything looked fine for the Phillies in a 7-3 win against the Washington Nationals on Thursday, and there have been few miscues in the three games. The Phillies have made some of the most drastic changes of any team after the trade deadline, with three position changes and a fourth position player (Arraez) joining the roster, yet the early returns haven’t been especially noteworthy — a positive in itself.
There are, of course, the expected changes associated with all of this: interim manager Don Mattingly talking with Alec Bohm during defensive drills, Bryce Harper bowing to the right-field stands once more, players standing in different places. All of this has trickled down in various ways.
“The angles are a little different,” said Stott, who moved from second to third. “Reading swings is a little different. You’re a lot closer — playing the bunt, things like that.”
And then there are the somewhat unexpected impacts — among them Turner, who has had some brutal stretches at shortstop this year, looking better. There is thought that a bigger target at first base — Bohm versus Harper — could help him.
“(Bryce) picked the ball great for us this year, and he did a good job,” Turner said. “But sometimes a bigger target just makes you feel a little better. And then it feels like you make better throws just because you know you have so much room for error. Where there’s not like, ‘I have to throw this one perfect,’ or, ‘I have to do this.’ So, yeah. It can definitely help sometimes. Especially on high throws, too, where you’re like, ‘Oh, I kind of let that one go up a little bit.’ He can kind of stay on the base and stay on those.”
For Mattingly, so much of the success of the arrangement comes back to Harper. He has perhaps the greatest questions surrounding him of any defender as he plays right field for the first time in four years. Should Harper feel comfortable and play the outfield well, maybe the Phillies defense could look even better than before.
That bar might not be hard to clear. The Phillies are 20th worst in the majors in Outs Above Average (minus-12) and worst in Defensive Runs Saved (minus-39). Those measurements are not perfect assessments but point to the broader picture of an at times ineffective defense. Turner has struggled; Harper’s first base wasn’t as strong as it had been in the past; the outfield has been up and down (though augmented by strong defenders such as Adolis Garcia and Derek Hill).
So now they try something new, an arrangement highlighted by the franchise star’s move back to the position he played during his first 11 seasons in the majors.
In his first 27 innings back in right field, Harper has one notable miscue: not backing up CJ Abrams’ triple hit to Hill, which continued rolling after ricocheting off the wall as Hill hit the ground hard. Harper ran for it eventually, but he could have headed toward center earlier.
“(He’s) just not used to that,” Mattingly said. “(The ball’s) really in a spot that you don’t expect it to do what it did.”
There are four years of rust to shake off, and a physical component to all of it. The Phillies are trying to be conscious of Harper’s arm as he moves back to the outfield. He played the most shallow right field (271 feet average starting distance) of any player in the majors this year Tuesday. That positioning changed to an average of 288 feet in the second game, which is more in line with a typical starting distance. He will continue to move back as the games progress.
Just four days ago, the Phillies went to field grounders, and the infield looked as it had the past several years: Harper, Stott, Turner and Bohm in their usual spots. It did not feel as though radical change was on the horizon, even as Arraez was on his way to Philadelphia. And even now, after three games played, it does not feel as though there has been a significant shift; none of the positional changes has seriously affected the games. Problems might arise, but for now, it all feels so ordinary. Perhaps that is just what the Phillies need.
— Matt Gelb contributed to this report.