Cut Your Idols: Bobby Abreu Won't Make the Phillies

Sadness is the flavor of today's Phillies Kool Aid, as the loss of Stutes is followed by the cutting of Bobby Abreu. From the desk of Gelb:

Bobby Abreu will not make the Phillies.

— Matt Gelb (@magelb) March 26, 2014

That's the black and white truth of the thing, and here's the fuzzier rationale:

Seems like Phillies will attempt to convince Abreu to stick around in minors. Bat was good. Glove was not. He looks like an AL bench player.

— Matt Gelb (@magelb) March 26, 2014

I'm not so sure I buy this, as the team heretofore constructed is not exactly a defensive powerhouse.  Abreu certainly had the bat and the batting eye to play at the dish, and one imagines that he can't have been worse of a butcher than Delmon Young was last year.  In any case, I can't imagine his defense was really bad enough to erase a 263/429/395 line.

But, in the end, all moot rationales.  I expect Bobby will catch on somewhere as a part time or even full time DH.  Maybe on the platoon-happy A's or on the offense-loving O's.  I really just hope he doesn't land on the island of misfit fielders in Seattle, but I suppose it's all one to him, so long as he has a job.

We'll have to wait and see how this cut looks both a) historically and b) in relation to the rest of the team's construction.  Still, it's hard to give the Phillies the benefit of the doubt on this one, as a 429 OBP plays really almost anywhere, even as a bench bat/DH during interleague series.  Not to be a negative Nancy, but I tend to agree with the Venerable Professor Cohen, who notes that "knowing the strike zone is anathema to this team."

Happy trails, Bobby.