In recent days, the Phillies have made several roster additions in order to shore up some persistently weak spots in the composition of the team. One by one...
...Placido Polanco [3yrs, $18 million]: There are certainly some pluses and minuses to the addition of Placido Polanco and his Big Bertha-sized noggin [I guarantee you the hat on the table is looking back and thinking, I have to fit on THAT?]. The biggest plus is the flexibility Polanco offers to Charlie Manuel. Don't forget, Polanco is a Gold Glove second baseman, so on some days he can play second base in place of Chase Utley and, presumably, Greg Dobbs will taking over third base on those days. I tend to think that if you can get Utley an extra day off in April, May, June and July, then he'll be more like Chase Utley in late-August and September, rather than the tapering performance we've seen in recent years.
Another plus is what Polanco can do for the every day lineup. With Polanco batting second, Charlie can do some things to hit and run with Jimmy Rollins on base. The Phillies are built to score runs in bunches via the homer, and there isn't a darn thing wrong with that, however, having Polanco around will help to manufacture runs during those inevitable stretches of power outages that the lineup sometimes goes through.
On the downside, Polanco is 34 years old and the Phillies just gave him a three-year deal. The Phillies are rapidly aging. At 29, Shane Victorino will be the youngest every day player for the Phillies in 2010. You can't wave a wand and get the type of player you want at the age you want, but still, the time is coming when the Phillies have to get younger.
What's more Polanco is showing his age a bit. For three consecutive seasons, his batting average and OPS have declined. Where will those levels be in three years at the end of his contract?
For the near term, the Polanco signing is a good one. You get an overall better player than Pedro Feliz and for only $500,000 more in 2010 than you would have paid for Feliz. But down the road, you can't help but wonder if the signing will become a bit of an albatross.
Brian Schneider [2 yrs, $2.75 million]: By adding Schneider to the roster, the Phillies will automatically have a 3-game advantage in the win column in 2010. In previous tours with the Mets and Nationals, the Allentown-area native hit .450 against the Phillies. OK, OK, those are exaggerations, but still, having him on our side will be a bit of a relief, rather than watching him get the wrong hit at the wrong time while on the other side.
Schneider's signing is interesting in that you have to believe, given his defensive reputation and ability to handle the bat a little bit, he would have been able to get a starting gig for another team if he had held out longer. Instead, he chose to go with the Phillies and will be Carlos Ruiz' backup. Having those two as your catching cadre is quite nice.
Juan Castro [1 yr, $750,000]: Ugh. By letting Eric Bruntlett go, you figured that the Phillies would try and find the upgrade for the role of "middle-infield backup" with the thinking being that Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley need a bit more rest from time to time than they've received in the past. However, I'm not sure how Castro fits that bill. He's probably a better defender than Bruntlett at shortstop [Fangraphs has Castro at a value of 6.1 defensive runs over the course of his career per 150 games at shortstop, 13.5 at second base, while Bruntlett rates at 1.9 and -3.2, respectively], but I'm not convinced that he'll hit any better than Bruntlett.
Sure, you're not going to get a very good player to ride the bench, but still, there's a very good chance this ends up being a lateral move.
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From here on out, expect the Phillies to focus heavily on pitching, in particular the bullpen. With each passing day, it's less likely that Scott Eyre and Chan Ho Park are less likely to return, which leaves Ryan Madson, Brad Lidge, Chad Durbin and JC Romero as your back-end. Those last three experienced long bouts of injury and/or ineffectiveness in 2009 and Madson has been used excessively over the last few years. As a matter of fact, if he's smart, Scott Sheridan, the Phillies trainer, has a roll of duct tape reserved for re-attaching Madson's arm.
