Since Joe Girardi got fired, everything’s gone right for interim manager Rob Thomson. Two starters and an MVP got hurt, but the team kept on winning. Now the Phillies have a COVID vaccination crisis looming in the Great White North, but it looks like they’ll be cool.
They traveled from St. Louis to Toronto on Monday night for two interleague games without four frontline players who won’t be allowed to enter Canada because they chose to not get vaccinated for COVID-19: former All-Star catcher J.T. Realmuto, third baseman Alec Bohm, and former All-Star starters Aaron Nola and Kyle Gibson. Swing starter/reliever Bailey Falter, despite being reasonably effective, was optioned to triple A on Thursday, and president Dave Dombrowski said there was a reason, but he would not elaborate. Falter was due to start Tuesday, but the Phillies will cobble together a bullpen start. Falter was unvaccinated when he tested positive for COVID last year.
Asked if he had injured players who would have potentially been absent, Dombrowski said, “Individually, I would not get into it.” Reigning MVP Bryce Harper leads a list of injured Phillies whose vaccinated status is unknown.
This is bad, on two levels: First, everyone should get vaccinated. Second, these are key players, and they’re willingly unavailable.
“It doesn’t mean someone’s being a bad teammate because they didn’t get [vaccinated],” said Kyle Schwarber.
Yes, it does.
The Red Sox went to Toronto in late June and lost two of three without leadoff hitter Jarren Duran and closer Taylor Houck, who watched the Sox blow two saves without him. This is the definition of being a “bad teammate.”
Not getting vaxxed means much more than that, but it means at least that. Or, at least it should.
Realmuto expressed a special sort of me-first ethos when he presented his case:
“I’m a healthy, 31-year-old professional athlete. ... I’m not going to let Canada tell me what I do and don’t put in my body.”
“I.” “Me.”
He’s just that kind of guy.
Timing plus planning ...
All that said: Will the absence of this loathsome fivesome really be bad for the Phillies? Probably not.
Nola isn’t scheduled to start Tuesday or Wednesday. Falter isn’t all that good, anyway. Gibson won’t miss a start either, thanks to some clever rotation manipulation.
Gibson was scheduled to pitch Friday. Staff ace Zack Wheeler started instead. Gibson was pushed back to Saturday so he wouldn’t be scheduled to pitch in Toronto. Incredibly, both Wheeler and Gibson dealt seven shutout innings against the Cardinals. Now, Wheeler, perhaps the best pitcher in baseball over the past three seasons, will pitch Wednesday against the third-best hitting team in the majors.
The absence of Realmuto sounds ominous, but he entered Monday night’s game in St. Louis with one hit in his last 13 at-bats and was hitting .196 in his last 28 games. He‘s a catcher. He’s 31. He’s on pace to play in 141 games this season, about six more than he averaged in his six full major-league season. That’s too many for a 30-something catcher. Two days completely off his feet won’t hurt him; Lord knows, he doesn’t have any discernible rhythm to disrupt.
Recency bias might inflate Bohm’s perceived value, considering he hit two home runs Friday, but he’s been generally powerless all season. He was hitting .271 overall, but his OPS is just .688, third-worst among the 15 qualifying major-league third basemen.
That’s mainly because he almost never walks — just 16 walks in 328 plate appearances — and he has only 20 extra-base hits. Those homers Friday gave him six for the season. He’s hitting .246 with a .633 OPS in his last 47 starts. No third baseman in baseball has as many as Bohm’s eight errors in as few as his 71 starts.
Missing a couple of starts won’t hurt him.
Still mad
Make no mistake: I’m still mad.
For the past two years I encouraged caution, especially during the prevaccination stage of the coronavirus pandemic. I encouraged blanket vaccinations for the global population, especially for public figures, and especially for athletes. Vax-averse dunderheads such as Aaron Rodgers, Novak Djokovic, and Kyrie Irving have done untold harm to vaccination efforts all over the world. When the United States hit the million-death mark in May, a study showed that almost one-third of those deaths would have been prevented had all American adults been vaccinated.
The Phillies clubhouse has always been an epicenter of the anti-vax, anti-smart movement. More than half of the Phillies were unvaccinated for most of the 2021 season. One especially dim bulb, reliever Brandon Kintzler, said last year the he believed his vaccination caused not only his neck injury, but also injuries to teammates Archie Bradley and Matt Joyce. “There has to be some science behind it,” Kintzler reasoned.
There isn’t.
There is, however, lots of convoluted logic. Consider Gibson, who has ulcerative colitis. He explained Monday: “The medicines I take don’t let me build up antibodies, so I don’t have a vaccination.”
Gibson told me this same thing in March, at spring training (more on that later). It was an aside during a conversation we were having about his faith. Gibson further explained to me that his condition would require him to get vaccinated more frequently than a typical person.
That seemed like the best possible reason to get vaccinated, not to avoid vaccination. I soon contacted a virologist, who affirmed my assumptions: Yes, immunosuppressed people are at higher risk for severe COVID episodes; and yes, vaccinations would protect this group of people.
So, why didn’t I report it in March? Because, in general, I only report controversial news that materially and immediately affects the Phillies’ chances of winning. Unless Gibson was made unavailable by COVID contraction or exposure, or unless he couldn’t go to Toronto four months hence, it didn’t affect the Phillies’ chances of winning.
Incredibly, the continuing selfishness of the Phillies’ not-so-fantastic five might not affect their chances of winning, either.
