How Worried Should The Phillies Be About Raul Ibanez?

With Jayson Werth in Washington and Chase Utley on the disabled list, one of the players the Phillies have been counting on to pick up the slack is veteran Raul Ibanez. The team has hoped that the 39-year old outfielder would be able to have one more productive season, hit .270 or better, hit 15-20 homeruns, and drive in 75-80 RBIs.

Six games into the season, Ibanez was off to a good start. He was hitting .304, with one homerun, and six RBIs. Since then, Ibanez has fallen into a terrible slump. In the following 12 games, Ibanez has managed just seven hits (all singles), no homeruns, and has driven in just four runs. His batting average has plummeted to .209, and his has struck out 16 times.

Ibanez is playing a critical role in the lineup, hitting behind Ryan Howard most nights. A key to Howard’s success is having the players around him hit well so that the team will be forced to give him decent pitches to hit. With Ibanez failing to pose any kind of threat behind Howard, it has been easy for teams to pitch around Howard. Howard has gotten frustrated by the lack of quality pitches he has seen, and fallen into a slump of his own.

So what is the problem with Ibanez? Has his age caught up to him, or is he just in a slump? His age and his history in his first two seasons in Philadelphia make him as big of an unknown quantity as the Phillies have, and impossible to predict. Ibanez has been a streaky player throughout his time in Philadelphia. He’s either been red hot and capable of carrying the offense by himself, or he’s been an automatic out.

Ibanez started the 2010 season in a similar slump before putting together a strong effort in the second half of the season. However, at age 39 it’s impossible to expect him to repeat that performance. Watching Ibanez, it’s clear that he’s lost most of his power at the plate. He can’t drive the ball like he did in the beginning of the 2009 season anymore, and doesn’t look like anything more than a singles hitter at this point.

While it’s still too early to write him off, Ibanez’s performance has been far more alarming than encouraging in 2011. Unfortunately for the Phillies, they’re still going to have to count on him to be a productive bat in the lineup. They have almost no depth in the outfield, and even when Domonic Brown returns from his hand injury, they don’t know if Brown will be able to succeed either. Unless they’re able to make a trade to bring in some additional offensive firepower, the Phillies will be counting on Ibanez to play an important role in an offense that struggles to produce more than three runs a game.