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Max Kepler Definitely Sounded Like a Guy Who Knows His Time in Philly is Limited
By Kyle Pagan
Published:
This was Max Kepler after the game talking to John Kruk and T-Mac. You can tell this season is kicking his ass and you wonder with the Phillies additions at the deadline if he already knows his time is up in Philly. Keep in mind this is after he went 2-4 with a home run and double. It’s a really interesting look into mental side of an athlete:
Man that was tough to get through. It sounded like he was on the brink of tears during multiple answers. Credit to T-Mac and Kruker for navigating that and making him laugh a little. Phillies fans can be tough. Right after the game Michael Barkann opened the Postgame Show talking about Kepler’s statement about boos being Phillies fans love language and didn’t miss a beat mentioning, “We boo because we love! We boo because we care. And we boo because you’re underperforming!” The irony in that response, lol.
And Barkann isn’t necessarily wrong. The Phillies paid Kepler a lot of money to come in here and perform and he hasn’t. That’s just the name of the game here. If you’re in sales and you’re not selling anything your company is going to get rid of you. At the end of the day it is a business. It happened with Whit Merrifield last year and he jokingly apologized to Phillies fans when he said “sorry I stunk for you” it in his retirement statement. Everybody responds to things differently and you can tell this season is really taking a toll on Kepler. Now with Harrison Bader and hopefully Justin Crawford coming up Kepler is the odd man out and could be gone shortly. Hopefully he’s able to string as many good at bats as he can for as long as he’s here, but there’s a chance he’ll leave us with this 2-4 night. It’s ironic in a season full of boos the last moments he had with Phillies fans will be all cheers:
UPDATED: Kepler talked to reporters after the game where he mentioned the boos get to him because he is an overthinker, but he loves that the fans come out every game regardless of them:
And there was this:
Kyle writes blog posts and does Man on the Street-style videos all around Philadelphia. He graduated from Temple University (a basketball school) in 2015. contact: k.pagan@sportradar.com