We Have Seen Enough Of Odubel Herrera

If you were not watching last night's Phillies game, you probably at least saw that they lost, but you missed the how. They took a lead into the 7th inning, but a Luis Garcia double off of Aaron Nola turned it into a 3-2 Nationals lead. The Phillies never came back. And without actually seeing how that happened you may be tempted to blame Aaron Nola for blowing that lead. But what you missed is that Odubel Herrera misplayed that ball. Shocking I know. Herrera making a mistake in the outfield? It is hard to believe. But it happened. For what feels like the 100th time this year Odubel Herrera did something dumb that hurt the team.

When is enough enough? Herrera brings nothing to this team. He can't hit and is a disaster in the field. This is not the first time that he has looked this foolish. Earlier in the year, he swung at a pitch that went through his legs. Just a week ago he swung at three straight pitches nearly in the dirt. Afterward, he said he was trying to be a hero. To his credit, he had 3 hits in the game before that. But seeing him have that bad of an at-bat in a big moment kind of erases the impressiveness of those 3 hits. He routinely takes bad paths to the ball in the outfield. Over the last month, he is hitting .197. with an on-base percentage of .246.

I get that the Phillies are bereft of options in Center Field. Mickey Moniak is overmatched at the plate vs Major League Pitching. Matt Vierling has been playing much better, but various injuries have forced him to play in the infield for now. For the time, they might have to play Herrera. But the point is they shouldn't be in this situation. There was no reason to bring him back. You may ask who do you bring in instead? And honestly, the answer doesn't matter. With his awful fielding and awful hitting, a replacement-level player is better than him. He does pretty much everything you need a baseball player to do well, poorly.

They cant keep letting him kill you both in the field and at the plate. If he did one of the two well, you could maybe excuse the other. But at least Mickey Moniak plays the field pretty well. He isn't a good option either, but both are automatic outs right now, and only one of them is a mess in the outfield. if Matt Vierling keeps playing well you would put him back in center once the infield is healthy again. Ideally, you will eventually trade for someone, but that may not happen until closer to the trade deadline.

https://975thefanatic.com/listicle/the-best-and-worst-phillies-from-the-first-half-of-the-season/

But Odubel Herrera needs to go. Enough is enough. He adds nothing to this team. For some reason he has his supporters in this city, who will chirp up the one time per week he does something decent. I have some Herrera fan who sends me a tweet every time he manages to not screw something up. But they are weirdly quiet the 99% of the time he is hurting the team.

At this point, I would take someone who can't hit but will play a decent center field, over Herrera. Because Herrera can't hit either. Put literally anyone else out there. I am fine with Moniak being an automatic out there until you can work out a trade for a real center fielder. At least he won't screw up as bad as Herrera did last night in the outfield. Just get him out of there.