Do The Phillies Need To Be More Proactive To Improve Offensively?

As the Phillies head into the second half of the 2018 season, the team has roster decisions to make as they fight to stay in contention as the leaders in the National League East with a 53-42 record.  The two areas of concern for the team moving forward are with the Offense (11th in Runs Scored in NL) and the Defense (14th in Fielding Percentage in NL).  JP Crawford is set to be ready to return from the Disabled List by the end of July, around the same time of the MLB Trade Deadline.  The inconsistent play of young players like Crawford and Scott Kingery has contributed to the Phillies need to make moves to stay in the playoff hunt.  Crawford has a .194 Batting Average in 34 Games, Kingery with a .282 On-Base Percentage in 91 Games, and Aaron Altherr has a .174 Batting Average in 87 Games.

Philly.com Phillies Beat Reporter Scott Lauber joined Mike Gill on Wednesday discussing decisions that have to be made with the Trade Deadline coming up in just a couple weeks:

"(Phillies are) playing meaningful games and they will be through August and into September so I’m not sure you can just wait for J.P. Crawford to come off the DL, plug him into the lineup, and sit back and see what happens. I think they’re in a position where they need to be a little more proactive in terms of figuring out ways to get better offensively. That said, it doesn’t help you make any decisions on Crawford or Kingery going forward. I think if they had gotten (Manny) Machado, what that does is it puts Kingery back in kind of that utility role where he sort of started the season - Now it’s unclear what happens. Let’s say you trade for Mike Moustakas, he becomes your Third Baseman. Now you’ve got three guys: Kingery, Crawford, and Franco who you’ve got to make decisions on and you’re not gonna see all three of them on a consistent daily basis. These are conversations that are happening in their front office right now in terms of how to approach the final two and a half months of the season and still make good decisions on players they need to make decisions about."

Hear what Lauber had to say about Aaron Nola's All-Star experience, options for Phillies ahead of the Trade Deadline, and more