In light of the Phillies’ most recent bullpen meltdown, this time in Cincinnati, I am tempted to revert to my intrinsically negative nature. I can’t help it, you see. I was born and raised in Philadelphia, and pessimism is our city’s original sin. Not even a baptism in the waters of the Schuylkill can wash it away.

I want to bash this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad baseball organization. I want to rant about the poorly-constructed roster, lambaste the shoddy development of prospects, bemoan the constant personnel shuffling, eviscerate the rudderless front office, and chide the short-sighted ownership group.

I want President Joe Biden, a self-professed Philly sports fan, to declare the disastrous Phillies bullpen a Superfund site. Only an influx of federal dollars can fix the mess that the relief corps has wrought on this franchise.

I want to wonder aloud how the seemingly old-school manager can allow the outfit for which he is responsible to play a brand of baseball that treats the fundamentals of the game with such little regard.

I want to be a cynic. I want to be cruel. It’s the essence of the Philly sports fan, after all, as the great Dan Le Batard explained on his popular podcast recently. But then, Glen Macnow, one of the deans of sports talk radio in this town, reminds me of a demand Rhys Hoskins made of those of us who attempt to write about the ongoing dumpster fire at Citizens Bank Park:

Keep on the sunny side of life, says our intrepid first baseman. Sunglasses optional, of course!

So, here goes my attempt at optimism:

If experience is the best teacher, as the old proverb goes, Joe Girardi is on the fast track to a PhD in the subject of bullpen mismanagement. Girardi is actually a solid manager. He simply suffered the misfortune of the Cubs choosing David Ross as skipper ahead of the 2020 season, leaving him to inherit the bad poker hand erstwhile Phillies manager Gabe Kapler played during the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Perhaps Girardi will have a similar rejuvenation Kapler has enjoyed in San Francisco once the Phillies inevitably offer him as a scapegoat to satisfy the frustrated fan base in Philadelphia. There may not be second acts in American lives, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once wrote, but that observation has never applied to managers of American baseball teams.

Any players who mercifully receive their walking papers during the inevitable midseason sell-off might reasonably expect similar professional renaissances. An escape from Philadelphia has worked wonders for the career of pitching castoff Cole Irvin. Even the enigmatic Nick Pivetta has found some success with the Red Sox.

Let’s pause here to acknowledge the persistence of the front office, which, in lieu of developing a dependable crop of relievers who can fill critical roles in the bullpen or the back of the rotation, or hiring a pitching coach that might stick around for longer than a year to implement a consistent philosophy for the arms on the major league roster and throughout the organization, has instead resorted to rooting around the bargain bin for reclamation projects. Their most recent effort yielded Neftalí Feliz, who last toed the rubber on a major league mound in 2017. Girardi handed the ball to Feliz in the 7th inning to get 2 critical outs and preserve the lead. To his credit, Feliz got the outs. His outing also contributed to the bullpen’s historic quest to reset the club record for blown saves in a season, which they might overtake by midyear. Hey, we’re here to focus on the positives!

Finally, watching the Reds’ 12-4 ambush of the Phillies last night served as a reminder of the way the Phillies won games back when they emerged as legitimate contenders in the late 2000s. Chasing a 4-2 deficit in the final frame, the Reds had the Fightins right where they wanted them: making a call to their bullpen. Nick Castellanos played the role of Jayson Werth, belting a grand slam in the course of driving in seven runs. Joey Votto added a solo home run to right center that punctuated the onslaught. It was the kind of knockout punch Ryan Howard used to deliver. Fun times, those were.

For those in the fan base who demand an immediate solution, expect impulsive owner John Middleton to appease you. Like a bad landscaper who would rather trim the leaves of a weed than uproot it, Middleton will demand the sort of splashy fixes that win headlines in November, but rarely playoff games in October. Fire the manager. Replace the coaching staff. Overhaul the bullpen (again). Pursue more high-priced free agents. Install a like-minded baseball executive in Dave Dombrowski, who will oversee the cycle of retooling-but-not-rebuilding.

Rinse, wash, repeat. It’s just another day in the prison of short-term thinking Middleton has constructed. To his credit, the Phillies owner wants to build a winning baseball franchise, and he wants to do it yesterday. I don’t question his passion for the Phillies or the significant financial commitments he has made to demonstrate it. I question his investments, and I wonder if he has tricked himself into thinking the slowly closing door of managed decline he has overseen is actually an open window of contention.

To break the spell of mediocrity under which his organization has fallen, to mend the busted prospect pipeline, and to return to some semblance of winning baseball, the Phillies need to rethink their entire organizational philosophy. They need to consider why a pitcher like Enyel De Los Santos, who has been in the organization since 2018, has somehow regressed during his tenure with the Phillies, and why his professional trajectory seems to be the rule rather than the exception for the young pitchers who have taken their turn in the big leagues. They need to consider why dimming prospects like Mickey Moniak can’t seem to realize their potential, and spend some time reconsidering the development of Scott Kingery so that the mistakes made in the management of his early career are not repeated. When looking west to contenders like the Padres, Giants, and the Dodgers, the front office needs to model not just their competitors’ spending habits, but also their prospect development operations.

Alternatively, the franchise can cling to the delusion that they are just a few moves away from contention, and due some karmic justice for a number of bad breaks in the first half of the season. The Phillies are only 5 games out of first place in spite of the ongoing failures of the bullpen. Never mind that the NL East has established itself as the worst division in baseball, and the Phils are closer to the cellar than they are to the divisional crown.

The experience of the past few seasons does not leave me confident the organization will choose the right path. But, taking Hoskins’s advice into consideration, I will try to be positive. Perhaps we will see sunnier skies over Citizens Bank Park later this season.

My newfound optimism only goes so far, however. Forgive me if, like my favorite first baseman, I leave my shades on the brill of my cap. I’ve seen this movie too many times to count, and it usually ends with rain.