Written by Derek Harvey at The Comeback
The Nationals were arguably baseball’s biggest disappointment in 2015. They had built a super rotation that included Max Scherzer, Stephen Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann, Gio Gonzalez, and Doug Fister – with competent starting option Tanner Roark pushed to the bullpen. They had young superstar Bryce Harper headlining an equally impressive offensive core that included the likes of Jayson Werth and Anthony Rendon. You would have been hard pressed to find a person that didn’t have them as the NL World Series favorites going into Opening Day. Instead they finished 83-79, seven games out of the first place in their division and fourteen games back of the second wild card.
Despite all that, they’re still in a strong position going into 2016. They have tons of talent at the major league level and a pretty solid farm system. But there are areas that still need to be addressed. With Anthony Rendon moving over to third base full time, Ian Desmond gone to free agency, Yunel Escobar dealt to the Angels, and Danny Espinosa likely to take over shortstop (at least until Trea Turner is ready), it’s not surprising to hear the Nationals are exploring their options at second base. The most recent news has them looking at possibly trading for Reds’ veteran Brandon Phillips.
I think there is a large contingent of fans that hear his name and immediately scoff. I’ll admit I was among them for a time. He’s comes off as hot-headed and, at times with the media, antagonistic. It’s easy to dismiss the on-field value of a player that you might not like. And while age has started catching up with the 34-year old, his career isn’t quite as over as his reputation might lead you to believe.
According to FanGraphs WAR metric, Phillips was worth 2.6 wins above replacement in 2015. That’s a slightly above average player. Much of that value comes from his defense though. He rocked a +5 DRS (Defensive Runs Saved). That’s above average defense and it’s the norm for him. He’s only dipped below a 0 DRS once in his career. It should be noted that his recent fielding numbers are one or two magnitudes below what he was capable of in his prime. At his age, he’s not going to improve, and it’s perhaps likely he will experience some decline.
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