Coming to a theatre near you this summer: 500 Plate Appearances To Hell.
The drum beats louder every day among Phillies fans and a healthy percentage of those who cover the team. The mortal danger the ballclub will uncover if they allow Chase Utley to reach 500 plate appearances, the threshold at which his 2016 contract vests for $15 million.
Utley is currently hitting .179 with minimal power. Not an ideal candidate to make $15 million next season.
But let’s take a deep breath and realize that, in this case, the money does not matter.
Baseball does not have a salary cap. There is a luxury tax for teams that spend at the top of the sport. But that is something the rebuilding Phillies will likely not have to worry about next season, barring a complete change in organizational philosophy.
Furthermore, the team president just acknowledged that 2019 is a reasonable timetable for competing again. So it’s not as if Utley’s $15 million next season, should he reach Philadelphia’s most disdained milestone since 10,000 losses, will make a difference in the club’s ability to find a free-agent difference-maker for next season. The Phils will not be big players in free agency this offseason. Nor should they be.
If the Phillies don’t want to pay Utley $15 million, they’re certainly entitled to feel that way. But if they want to do a franchise cornerstone a solid, that’s fine too. The bottom line is that the money will not impact the team’s ability to compete one way or another next season. Or moving forward to that 2019 projection.
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The real question with Utley is one of playing time and player development. If Utley plays consistently, that means a younger player, a player that could be on the next contending Phillies team, is not.
Cesar Hernandez has certainly shown flashes with the increase in playing time he’s seen thanks to Utley’s season-long struggles. You could argue the 25-year-old Hernandez has consistently demonstrated the best approach at the plate among Phils hitters. The fact that he’s second on the club in walks with 17 (Utley has 21) in fewer than 150 plate appearances is proof of that.
So if the Phillies believe they need to sit Utley because Hernandez is the future at second base, that’s an understandable decision.
Yet, if you think about this situation from a best-case scenario for the Phillies, playing Utley every day might just be the right decision.
As has already been laid out, money is a minimal issue for the Phillies as they look to rebuild. Cliff Lee comes off the books at the end of this season. Ryan Howard follows the season after that. This front office, whoever is making the calls in the years ahead, will have money to spend when it is time to spend it.
It’s not money the club lacks. It’s prospects. And Utley still might just be a conduit for acquiring one of those precious commodities.
While the Chase Utley that has played the last two half-seasons is not a tradeable piece, it wasn’t that long ago (the first half of the 2014 season) that the franchise’s subdued face put together All-Star numbers.
So maybe, not saying it’s likely, but just maybe, if the Phillies play Utley every day and pray with all of their might to whomever the patron saint of short, compact swings is, Utley will be able to become an asset worth acquiring again.
Now, he’d have to agree to a trade. But after this season, you’d have to think Utley would be more inclined to sprint to the postseason light at the end of his baseball tunnel.
Even if all of this happens for Utley, the return for the Phillies in a trade would only be a “B-level” prospect, at best.
Is $15 million an inordinate amount for the baseball equivalent of a lottery scratch-off? Sure. But it’s not a decision that would damage the ballclub.
The only way in which that Utley's reaching 500 plate appearances this season becomes a detriment is if the organization decides to make Utley a regular next season over a younger player and we get a sequel, “Vesting Option 2: 500 More Plate Appearances.”