3 Phillies Who Struggled the Most To Produce in May

The month of May was a successful one for the Philadelphia Phillies, who went 18-10 to get back over the .500 mark after a brutal March and April.

While the team found a lot of success overall, there were still some concerning developments. The lineup is producing at a historically low rate at the plate, putting a lot of pressure on the pitching staff to perform perfectly night in and night out.

That will have to change eventually, because even professionals are going to have a bad day at the office once in a while. Even with all of that success the team has had, there were a few players who did not perform well in May.

Here are four of the Phillies who struggled the most in the last month.

Adolis Garcia

May started pretty well for Philadelphia’s right fielder. He was 8-for-31 with one home run and one double, producing a .258/.294/.387 slash line in his first eight games. Certainly not elite, but serviceable when paired with excellent defensive metrics.

Unfortunately, Garcia has been mired in a horrific slump since. In the final 19 games of the month, he had a .053/.179/.070 slash line in 67 plate appearances. He has only three hits in his last 57 at-bats, with a .107 batting average on balls in play.

There isn’t a level of defense that can make up for that production. If the Phillies had other options to turn to, Garcia would be on the bench more often.

Tanner Banks

Expected to be a major part of the late-game plan in the bullpen, Tanner Banks isn’t someone that interim manager Don Mattingly can trust currently. He made 10 appearances in May and recorded a 7.20 ERA and 1.70 WHIP.

His 9.9 K/9 was pretty strong, recording 11 strikeouts in 10 innings of work. But he surrendered 13 hits and issued four walks, resulting in eight earned runs.

Banks alternated a clean outing with an outing allowing at least one run, providing the worst kind of consistency for a manager.

Trea Turner

Another player dealing with consistency issues is their star shortstop, Trea Turner. He produced a paltry .189/.222/.306 slash line, which prompted Mattingly to take him out of the leadoff spot in the order and swap him with the designated hitter Kyle Schwarber.

He has been better in the No. 2 hole the last five games. Turner has a hit in four out of five contests, including two home runs, to go along with two stolen bases. That has helped the batting average slightly and slugging percentage, but his on-base percentage has gone down during that stretch.

A more drastic move could be on the horizon, especially with Bryce Harper needing to be put into a spot in the order that will not result in so many two-out, zero-men-on situations.

Andrew Painter

A 6.14 ERA in six starts and 29.1 innings pitched is far from ideal for the highly-touted pitching prospect. However, the Phillies may have an answer to some of his problems on the mound.

When J.T. Realmuto is catching, his performance is much better compared to having Rafael Marchan or Garrett Stubbs behind the plate. It will be something worth keeping an eye on moving forward.

The eight earned runs implosion against the Athletics on May 7 was with Marchan behind the plate. When Realmuto was injured during his latest start against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Painter promptly gave up two home runs when Marchan replaced him.

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