Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
When Ben Revere went down with an injury after fouling a ball off of his foot, it signaled bad news from the start for the Philadelphia Phillies. Not only was Revere just about as hot as any player in baseball, but more than that his absence means the Phillies are losing one of their better defenders and a threat on the base paths.
GM Ruben Amaro tossed around the idea of the Phillies looking to the trade market for a replacement center fielder, but with there still being question marks surrounding the team’s ability to contend, trading away more future pieces for a temporary fix doesn’t seem like the best route to go.
As far as in-house replacements, the prospects the Phillies have as outfielders fit into two categories. The first being the ones at Double-A Reading and Triple-A Lehigh Valley such as Tyson Gillies and Jiwan James, who are looking to be busts. In the other category are the young, raw and clearly not major league-ready guys that are playing for the organization in Class-A or Single-A ball.
Long story short, an in-house replacement at this point is not an option.
Luckily enough for the Phillies, their bench consisted of guys who could fill in at the outfield positions. The only problem is, none of the bench guys have played any sort of significant time at center field, which is the toughest outfield position to play.
That leaves John Mayberry to fill in while Revere is on the DL.
Mayberry, who is really a platoon player at best, is the only one on the Phillies’ active roster other than Revere that has any sort of significant playing time at center field. He has played 114 innings at the position which is second only to the 119 he has played in left.
Mayberry has been a decent defensive player so that is not the concern. At this point, the Phillies are more concerned about keeping a .250 hitter with just seven home runs and 25 RBI in the everyday lineup.
There really isn’t much of an option, though, as Mayberry in center and in the lineup it gives the Phillies the best chance to win, short of looking outside of the organization for a replacement.
Marilee Gallagher is a Philadelphia Phillies writer for www.RantSports.com. You can follow her on Twitter @MGallagher17 like her page on Facebook, or join her network on Google+.
