Amid potentially damaging layoff, is Phillies skipper Joe Girardi angry with Miami Marlins?
Phillies manager Joe Girardi will set a starting pitching rotation for his team’s restart after Sunday’s workout.
The Phillies held just their second workout since last weekend Saturday at Citizens Bank Park. Girardi did not name his rotation after that workout because he and pitching coach Bryan Price were still gauging the readiness of arms amid all the starts and stops of this COVID-marred 2020 season. The Phillies still have two starting pitchers, Jake Arrieta and Zach Eflin, who have yet to throw a pitch in official game action and the top two of Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler will be looking at nine and eight days between starts, respectively, by the time the Phillies resume play against the New York Yankees on Monday night.
On top of this, Phillies hitters haven’t seen live pitching with any regularity for the last week.
Good luck in the Bronx. Gerrit Cole could pitch Monday if the Yankees stay on rotation.
“I give our pitchers credit,” said Girardi, who, at least publicly, has stayed amazingly upbeat during a trying time. “They’ve kept up trying to do as much as they could by themselves. I’ve heard guys throwing baseballs against mattresses and brick walls on the outside of their homes and wherever they are. It’s challenging, but we knew that it would be coming into the season. We knew that we had to be somewhat prepared for anything and I think our guys have done a pretty good job of handling that.
“We have to be a little bit cautious because for some of these guys, we were building them up and they were kind of put on hold. Now you have concerns about going back-to-back with relievers for the first time after they were put on hold for a while. I think we’ll be cautious a little bit in the beginning. Our starters won’t be up to where other teams’ starters are that have made two starts and some will be coming up on their third start pretty soon. Our starters won’t be there and we just have to deal with it.”
Without saying it explicitly, Girardi articulated a flaw in the competitive integrity of this 60-game season. The Phillies played their first three games then, through no fault of their own, were shut down for more than a week because they came into contact with a team that suffered an outbreak of COVID-19. Now, the Phillies will have to somehow shoehorn 57 games into 56 days. There have been multiple reports that some Marlins players ignored MLB protocols for social distancing before playing in Philadelphia last weekend. No Phillies players have tested positive, but the Phils are still paying a price.
Are Phillies players angry at the Marlins?
“I haven’t really heard any complaints from our guys, but understand that we don’t sit around and talk like we used to. That’s just not what we do,” Girardi said. “So when we do get a chance, we’re pretty much talking about baseball only. I have not heard it, so I can’t really tell you exactly how the players feel. I do know that they want to play and they’re frustrated that we’re not playing right now. They’re not blaming anyone, but they want to play. That’s what we do. I think our players are handling this great.”
How about Girardi? He said he was aware of the reports that the Marlins did not take COVID protocols seriously. He spends significant time every day stressing the importance of protocols to his players. He must be ticked off at the Marlins, right?
“No,” Girardi said. “They had one player who had it and then they traveled and they were on buses and planes and no one knew. For me to judge – I could walk in one day and have COVID here and not know it and spread it around.”
Girardi said he communicated with some members of the Marlins organization and those people felt “a real sense of guilt and remorse.”
Focusing on his own club, Girardi said, “The fortunate thing is it did not spread around our clubhouse. So we just have to make sure our guys are prepared to play Monday and physically they’re ready to go. That’s my biggest concern.”
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