Former Philadelphia Phillies' manager and current advisor to the general manager Charlie Manuel recently spoke to Zach Links of MLB Trade Rumors at Phillies' Spring Training. The most interesting thing Manuel had to say in the interview was when he suggested that the Phillies could have a fairly quick rise from worst team in the league to a World Series contender, like the Houston Astros have.
“I think a few years from now, you’ll see us where the Astros are,” Manuel said as he gestured towards the visiting dugout. “They backed up and made a lot of good draft choices and look at how good they are now. That’s what we’re hoping to do.”
Much like what caused the Phillies to fall into this position, holding onto to too many expensive veterans caused the Astros to hit rock-bottom as an organization. From 2011 to 2013, the Astros didn't win more than 56 games, with even their own fan-base referring to them as the ''Lastros''.
During that time, the team racked up high draft picks, had bad contracts come off the books and created a more stable front-office and coaching staff. The result was that just two seasons after winning 51 games, the Astros won 86 games and had the eventual World Champion Kansas City Royals on the ropes in the 2015 ALDS.
Because the Astros were really bad for the better part of five seasons, their farm system is still very deep, despite the fact that they already have a young, World Series contending team at the major league level. That's nice for a team to have in their back pocket, because it means either more talent is on the way, or they have the pieces to make a trade for someone like Ken Giles, which is what they elected to do this off-season.
The Phillies, who have already begun to see the pay-off of Maikel Franco and Aaron Nola at the major league level, also still have players like Cornelius Randolph and whoever they eventually take with the No. 1 pick in this summer's draft that are a few years away from making their debut. Meanwhile, some of their other top prospects, such as Jake Thompson, J.P. Crawford and Nick Williams, are expected to debut this season.
If the Phillies have to endure one more rough season in 2016, before winning 70 or more games in 2017, the way that the Astros did in 2014, they could be set-up for a 2018 return to contention, the way that the Astros did in 2015.
Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is the Managing Editor of Philliedelphia.com, focusing on news and features.
