After a breakout 2016 season that earned him his first All-Star berth, Odubel Herrera has had a tough go of it in 2017. His numbers are down across the board, his team is terrible, he drew baseless criticism from a franchise legend. And right as he was turning things around (hitting .375/.437/.672 since July 3), he’s in trouble with his manager.

Things went sour for Herrera on Tuesday, when he bat-flipped emphatically on a first-inning drive that wound up caught at the warning track.

It was the second time in a week he had flipped his bat prematurely.

Herrera could have maybe survived the embarrassing celebration, but he compounded his troubles later in Tuesday’s game by failing to run to first on a dropped third strike. The outfielder was double-switched out of the game (and booed heartily) shortly after that, and afterward manager Pete Mackanin said the lack of hustle “had something to do with it” and that he would talk to Herrera about it the next day.

Here’s the play that go Herrera benched:

Fast forward to Wednesday, and Herrera was not in the Phillies lineup, ending a streak of 18 straight starts. Mackanin said it was just a regular day off, but that seems a touch hard to believe, given what had happened the night before.

On a winning team, a premature bat flip once in a while might be funny and a failure to run out a ball in the dirt would go unnoticed. But when you’re 34-64 on the season, on pace to lose 106 games, everyone gets a bit more sensitive. Now suddenly half of Philadelphia wants to trade a 25-year-old who has been the team’s best player three years running.

If Herrera returns to the Phillies’ lineup and keeps hitting, maybe everything will be forgotten. Then again, he should probably chill a little on the bat flips, just to be safe.

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.