Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt was on Philadelphia sports radio station 94 WIP Tuesday morning, where he shared his opinion of why centre-fielder Odubel Herrera can’t be counted on to lead the Phillies.
Herrera has struggled in 2017 for the last-place Phillies, his first season of a five-year, $30.5-million contract signed in December.
Schmidt was asked whether a team could build around a player like Herrera, and here’s what he said:
“My honest answer to that would be no because of a couple of things,” said Schmidt. “First of all, it’s a language barrier. Because of that, I think he can’t be a guy that would sort of sit in a circle with four, five American players and talk about the game. Or try and learn about the game or discuss the inner-workings of the game.
“Or come over to a guy and say, ‘Man, you gotta run that ball out.’ Just can’t be — because of the language barrier — that kind of a player.”
The negative reaction to Schmidt’s comments was swift on social media. Several prominent voices, including Fox Sports writer Ken Rosenthal, chimed in to argue the validity of Schmidt’s reasoning.
Schmidt has since called Herrera to apologize, and offered the following statement, according to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com.
During the morning radio interview, the former Phillies third baseman also brought up Herrera’s inconsistency at the plate when discussing why the 25-year-old wouldn’t be worth building around, but did say that Herrera could be a part of a championship team.
“He’s not afraid to do things that sort of irk the other team if you will, and you know what that is. I probably would hate him if I played against him because of his antics on the field, but he’s not afraid. He’s not afraid to do that. He’s learning to play a really good centre field. …
“To answer your question, those are the reasons that I don’t think you can build a team around him. Now, I truly think he can hit second or first on a championship team. There’s no question about that.”
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