A 3-10 stretch coming out of the All-Star break has brought a lot of noise around the Philadelphia Phillies, with Bryce Harper and Trea Turner among those at the center of it.
First it was Harper, whose relationship with the front office has appeared strained at times in recent years, making these comments after a recent shutout loss to the Marlins when asked if the Phillies can handle good pitching.
“Yeah man, I think we need some help. You know. But I think we’ve proved pretty much all year we’ve done a pretty good job, but any time you can get some help in here and reinforcements it can help. I think both (an arm and a bat). I think obviously everybody knows what we need, so I think I’ve said it over the last couple of days,”
Manager Don Mattingly was not a fan of Harper seemingly taking aim at president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, and a recent report from Jeff Passan suggests the organization isn none too thrilled with Turner either.
According to Passan, Philadelphia is already starting to make plans to move Turner out of shortstop, and their interest in Zach Neto further proves that.
“Even the Phillies (have interest in Neto), which was interesting to me, they have shortstop in Trea Turner. There’s been conversations because of Trea Turner’s defense about him moving to the outfield potentially or second base after this season. Those conversations haven’t happened yet,”
The 33-year-old Harper is in Year 8 of the 13-year, $330 million contract he signed to join the Phillies as a free agent in 2019, while Turner, 33, is in Year 4 of the 11-year, $300 million contract he signed to join them as a free agent in 2023.
It turns out it’s not always sunny in Philadelphia, and a wildly up-and-down season has reached another low of late. As a result, they’ve quickly emerged as one of the more fascinating teams to watch over the next few days ahead of the trade deadline.
Whatever happens, however, the fate of the Phillies will ultimately depend on whether the likes of Harper and Turner can carry them to the promised land, as they’re paid to do.
