Jimmy Rollins on How to Fix the Phillies: Just Keep Spending, Just Keep Spending
Unfortunately, unlike Dory, the Phillies shouldn’t just keep doing anything, because what they’re doing is not working. And what certainly won’t work is the fine wine philosophy of letting the aging core age yet another year and supplementing them with expensive talent. Adding Jonathan Papelbon, A.J. Burnett, and supposed Cuban star Miguel Alfredo Gonzalez in recent years has helped not even a little bit, and it’s so painfully obvious that the best course of action is to sink the ship and, maybe, throw Cole Hamels a wooden door to stay afloat until help arrives.* But Jimmy is a winner, ostensibly, and wants the Phillies to keep trying, keep spending, and, so long as they don’t get mixed up with the cartel, keep swimming**:
“We have enough money to,” Rollins said. “So you can’t say we don’t have the money to make improvements in the places that need to be improved, or where they can make them, whichever is the priority. We’re in a big market. A big-market payroll. So you have to go out there and make it happen.”
And unlike, say, Miami, there are big-market expectations, too. So maybe the Phillies will invade the international market with a stronger tenacity; general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. has been to Japan and scouted Cuban free agent Yasmany Tomas in the last 2 weeks.
“I didn’t see that until [Tuesday] night,” Rollins said. “If that’s the trend, you got to get in while it’s hot. [Jose] Abreu, [Yoenis] Cespedes, Aroldis [Chapman], [Yasiel] Puig, [Jorge] Soler and [Javier] Baez. Geez. It’s just – they’re picking the right ones. You’re not having to sift through a thousand kids at the academies. It’s – here are our 10 best . . . We’ve got to get our hands in that market.”
Yeah, getting their hands in that market, even if they are lucky enough to unearth the next Puig, will make no difference, at least for the current core. The Phillies need a complete rebuild – this much is obvious – but, really, what else is Rollins supposed to say?
*Unfortunately, we’ll watch Chase Utley hang on until he has no more strength and slowly fades into the abyss.
**I’m awfully proud of the water motif in this post. I think even Benjamin Braddock would be impressed.
