MIAMI -- Odubel Herrera was out of the Phillies' starting lineup Monday night.
He will be absent again on Tuesday night.
Yes, the slumping Herrera has been benched.
It's not punitive. It's just manager Pete Mackanin's latest attempt to get Herrera's eyes and bat going again.
"He's getting two days off to correct his flaws," Mackanin said.
The skipper paused and played the positive card.
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"After two days, he's going to be back to right where we want him," Mackanin said.
Herrera has had a dreadful month of May. In 25 games, he has hit .181 (19 for 105) with a .196 on-base percentage and a .257 slugging percentage. He has walked just once while striking out 29 times. A number of his strikeouts have come on wild swings on pitches outside the strike zone. Last year, 34 percent of the pitches that he swung at were out of the strike zone. That number has jumped to 43 percent this season, according to Fangraphs data.
A year ago at this time, Herrera had 33 walks. This year he has just 11. A year ago at this time, he was hitting .328 with a .435 on-base percentage. He was slugging .460. He headed to the bench Monday night hitting .217 with a .264 on-base percentage and a .328 slugging percentage.
"It all boils down to plate discipline," Mackanin said.
Herrera didn't balk at the idea of not starting a couple of games. He thought it would provide an opportunity to clear his mind, "relax a little and see what I'm doing wrong." He added that he would be ready to pinch-hit if needed.
Herrera was asked specifically about his vanished plate discipline.
"I think I need to focus more," he said. "I need to find the approach I had last year, more disciplined and selective. That's what I need to go back to."
Mackanin debated what to do with Herrera before Monday's series opener with the Miami Marlins and decided a break was needed.
"You go back and forth on what's the right thing to do," he said. "Right now I think this is the right thing to do. Sometimes you have a guy fight through it. Sometimes you back off. I don't have a secret formula. You just try to figure out the best thing and the right time to do it. That's why we don't sleep."
Herrera was the Phillies' best offensive player, hitting .291 with a .773 OPS, the last two seasons. That led management to lock him up with a five-year, $30.5 million contract extension in the offseason. That transaction, along with Herrera's comment about needing to focus more, raises the question of whether the player has lost some of his hunger.
Does Mackanin sense that?
"I don't know," Mackanin said. "I'm not in his head. He sure looks good in the outfield. He covers a lot of ground. I don't know if he's lost hunger."
Despite the worst slump of his life, Herrera has not lost confidence.
"One thing I'm sure of is I'm going to come out of it," he said.
