2022 report cards: The Undesirables

In this series, we were determined to write something about each player that suited up for the Phillies in 2022. That means even those we have forgotten about, along with those that we wish to forget about.

Odubel Herrera and Scott Kingery both looked like a part of the next great Phillies team.

It did not end that way.

Herrera 2022 stats: 62 G, 197 PA, .238/.279/.378, 5 HR, 21 RBI, 21.3 K%, 5.6 BB%, 0.2 bWAR
Kingery 2022 stats: 1 G, 0 PA, .000/.000/.000, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB, 0.0 bWAR

The good

The best part about either of these two players this season was when the Phillies decided to trade for an actual, honest to goodness center fielder. It was a good enough strategy at the start of spring training to take one of, or both, Mickey Moniak and Matt Vierling, plop them into a platoon and hope for the best. The team had already exceeded the luxury tax, but you could almost feel (at the time) the ownership group grimacing as they did so. “Someone has to play for the team at the minimum salary,” they likely thought. Enter the platoon. However, Moniak’s injury and Vierling’s early season ineffectiveness meant the team was forced to give Herrera another shot in center field, something he simply didn’t take and run with. Kingery was never given a shot as using him meant using a roster spot that could have been given elsewhere.

Once they traded for Brandon Marsh, neither one of these players was needed. Kingery was banished to Lehigh Valley where he’ll likely never be heard from in a Phillies uniform again while Herrera was released, having yet to catch on with anyone else. The team’s fortunes in center have turned around and it is no longer the gaping crater of suckitude it has been for some time now.

The bad

Odubel Herrera is bad at baseball.

Scott Kingery is bad at baseball.

Neither one was ever in the team’s plans to start the season and even when given a shot, Herrera just fell apart. Kingery made it for one plate appearance, so his story will likely be that of a prospect that simply went bust. For Herrera, his re-signing by the team was odd as he wasn’t even that good in 2021, but for the pricepoint he came in at, it at least made sense. Having Dave Dombrowski in charge of roster decisions made it a lot easier to simply get rid of him since Dombrowski was more able to say “Hey, this guy is kind of bad at baseball. Let’s try something better!”

The future

I mean honestly, who really cares?

Neither one is ever going to play with the Phillies, but at least with Kingery, there is a shred of me that hopes another team claims him once he is removed from the Phillies’ 40-man roster next year and gives him a chance to at least have a decent career. Each and every one of us would have signed the same contract he did, when he did.

Herrera? Who cares. Good riddance.

Final grade(s): F

They’re both quite bad at baseball right now, but at least Kingery might be able to salvage something somewhere else.