Philadelphia Phillies: If Odubel Herrera can’t lead the team, who should?
By Chuck Booth
Following Mike Schmidt’s comments on Philadelphia Phillies center fielder Odubel Herrera who should be the centerpiece of the team going forward?
Odubel Herrera has struggled this season for the Philadelphia Phillies leading to criticism from fans and media alike. But after being allowed to play through his struggles, Hererra has found his stroke. He’s slashing .529/.500/1.235 in his last seven games to inch closer to his career numbers for the Phillies.
So when 94WIP brought Philadelphia Phillies legend Mike Schmidt on air Tuesday morning, no one expected what was coming next when Schmidt was asked about Herrera.
Schmidt talked about how he had a different approach to the game than the bat flipping, home run pimping Herrea but it was when Schmidt brought up Herrera leading the team that bombs were dropped.
"“My honest answer to that would be no because of a couple of things.” Schmidt said, “First of all, it’s a language barrier. Because of that, I think he can’t be a guy that would sort of sit in a circle with four, five American players and talk about the game. Or try and learn about the game or discuss the inner workings of the game. Or come over to a guy and say, ‘Man, you gotta run that ball out.’ Just can’t be—because of the language barrier—that kind of a player.”"
Let’s unpack this statement for a second. First of all, I have no issue with Schmidt questioning Herrera’s leadership capabilities for the Philadelphia Phillies moving forward. But using language as his crux for this, Schmidt has opened up a can of worms that didn’t need to be touched.
To begin, the Philadelphia Phillies have a significant number of Spanish speakers on the team to whom Herrera can likely communicate with better than a more traditional locker room leader. Also, baseball language is universal so even if Herrera may not be the best English speaker around he can still get his point across to his teammates.
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It comes down to a clash between the old age of baseball and the future of a constantly developing game. Herrera represents where the game is headed as it becomes global and as flashiness becomes a bigger part of the game. Schmidt is a relic of the game and as these statements have shown, he doesn’t seem to care too much for where the game is headed.
Herrera has one of the more interesting stories in Major League Baseball and while he has been maddingly inconsistent at times, has an unorthodox stance, and has needed to be disciplined by Pete Mackanin at times, why shouldn’t he lead the team?
At this moment, Herrera is the best player on the Phillies roster. Aaron Altherr and Tommy Joseph are making a claim for that role but they too need to show more consistency in their performances.
If not Herrera, then who?
If Herra is too inconsistent to lead the Phillies, the team is honestly pretty short on options. Altherr and Joeseph present interesting cases due to battling back from significant injuries in their careers but they need a bit more of a track record to take on that role. Jeremy Hellickson has become a rock for the pitching staff but his long-term future is up in the air.
If the Philadelphia Phillies want to hitch their wagon to Hellickson they need to lock him up first which is easier said than done. If Maikel Franco were more consistent, he’d have an interesting case but he presents even more drawbacks than Herrera at this point. It’s too early to project the leadership qualities of the prospects leaving Herrera as the most deserving candidate on the roster.
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If anything, the fact that he has had clashes with management and has responded well to discipline actually works in his favor. Herrera can easily relate to guys going through a rough patch in the majors because he has been there and done that. El Torito may not be the orthodox choice, but in my eyes, he’s the right choice.