2021 report card: Roman Quinn

Go ahead, name a more frustrating Phillies player in recent history.

To label Quinn as “injury prone” would be the same as labeling the Mona Lisa a “masterpiece”. There really is no other description for it. Sadly, another season in Quinn’s career ended with an injury, only this time, it has the real potential to affect the one tool he excels at.

2021 stats

.173/.306/.288, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 19:6 K:BB, 4 SB, 69 wRC+ (nice), 0.2 fWAR

The good

Even in his limited time, Quinn showed again that he can play defense quite well. Giving the team +1 OAA in center field, helping answer a question the team was struggling to answer early on.

Also: he’s fast. Very, very fast.

The bad

Like I mentioned earlier, Quinn ruptured his Achilles’ tendon at the end of May and missed the rest of the season. We saw what it did to Ryan Howard, that he was able to come back but not be the same. Now picture this same recovery hope with a player that relies on his speed to make him a major leaguer.

While it is fine to feel bad for Quinn (pretty sure most Phillies fans do), let’s also point out that he wasn’t exactly having a good season to begin with. His speed helped his defense, but an OPS of .594 isn’t rosterable. Having a player with Quinn’s speed on the bench should be looked at as more of a luxury for a team, not a necessity. When he’s this poor of an offensive player, he should be replaced by someone who can actually provide offense. A team that is loaded with offensively productive players can afford to bury Quinn on its roster in case they need a stolen base or a defensive replacement late in games. The Phillies are very much not that kind of team.

The future

Quinn is up for arbitration this year and it presents an interesting question. Do they tender him a deal (projected at $700K) or let him go?

The $700K is not the issue here. Paying that much money is paltry for this team, even if they are on a budget that keeps them under the luxury tax. It’s the roster spot that should be debated. For a player who isn’t much of an offensive contributor, do they want to guarantee him a roster spot and the accompanying money for the 2022 season? To me, I’d rather keep that roster spot open for someone who can be counted on to give them more production than what Quinn can give. They should be pushing to get him back on a minor league deal so that he can continue rehabbing as much as possible and then they can see how he looks in Lehigh Valley. If he’s struggling, releasing him doesn’t cost them anything. The money in his deal wouldn’t be guaranteed so it’s no issue.

Final grade: D+

Listen, we all feel bad that Quinn got hurt again, but he wasn’t doing well anyway. He was far below average with the bat and if the team had a capable starting center fielder, he wouldn’t have been playing much anyway. It’s going to be interesting how they handle his situation moving forward in 2022.