Philadelphia Phillies: Stop blaming Joe Girardi for the bad bullpen

Philadelphia Phillies manager Joe Girardi can only do so much.

When the Philadelphia Phillies finally made the decision to part ways with Gabe Kapler this past offseason, a lot of fans viewed it as the organization’s turning point. The team had underachieved for two straight seasons despite owning one of the highest payrolls in all of baseball, and replacement manager Joe Girardi had a championship winning background that projected to push the Phils over the hump.

Now, with just a handful of games left on the schedule here in 2020, the Philadelphia Phillies are tied for a Wild Card spot with Kapler’s own San Francisco Giants.

We all know how the Phillies 2020 season has gone up unto this point, so I need to do little explaining in that regards. Despite boasting one of the best offenses in all of baseball, the team’s league-worst bullpen has left them completely unable to compete on a serious level. They’ve lead in 41 of the 48 games they’ve played, and have yet somehow only have 24 wins on the season. The Phillies collective bullpen ERA sits at a 7.05, which currently makes them the second worst performing ‘pen in all of baseball history.

The Phillies having a horrible bullpen isn’t news to anyone. If you tuned into even just a handful of 2020 Phillies games this season you have likely witnessed a late game collapse from one of the team’s relievers. However, in recent weeks, the blame for why the bullpen is poorly constructed has started to shift. Fans of the team have started to move their frustrations away from the physical relievers and the man who hired them (Matt Klentak), and towards the team’s World Series winning manager.

Without a shadow of a doubt, blaming Girardi for any of this is complete nonsense.

During the team’s 5-4 loss on Wednesday, the Phillies once again saw a late inning collapse at the hands of two of their “best” relievers. Adam Morgan allowed the game-tying run on a double blasted off the wall, and Hector Neris had a complete meltdown in the 9th, balking the eventual winning run over via a dropped baseball.

Following the epic collapse, questions started to pop up regarding Girardi’s managing of the loss, with people saying he could have put in X reliever over Y reliever, etc. As fun as it can be coaching from the couch, have we all not been watching the same Philadelphia Phillies bullpen this season?

This is a historically bad reliever room. Career minor leaguers like Deolis Guerra and Trevor Kelley were once viewed as crucial pieces to the ‘pen, the team’s highest paid reliever in Hector Neris is on track to set a career-high in blown saves, and all of Klentak’s midseason additions have been deemed completely unpitchable. Sure, sometimes Girardi pulls a starter a few pitches too early or plays the wrong matchup once in awhile, but that’s part of baseball. At some point in time, it’s up to the players to just simply make the pitches.

The Phillies had a one run lead with five outs to go last night. Girardi jneed just five outs from his bullpen. He turned to two of the team’s most tenured veteran arms, and both gave up a run almost immediately. Neris did so by literally just dropping a baseball on the mound.

Was Girardi supposed to “Gorilla Glue” the ball to Neris’ hand to make sure that didn’t happen?

Girardi hasn’t been perfect for the Philadelphia Phillies here in 2020, but you can’t blame him for bad players being bad. His staff has done a phenomenal job with the team’s overall offensive production, and he’s elevated Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler into legit ace-caliber pitchers. Faulting Girardi for Matt Klentak’s complete ineptitude when it comes to building a bullpen is simply foolishness. If the Phillies even just had a middle of the pack reliever room, we’d be singing Girardi’s praises with the Phils sat in first place right now.