10 months ago, The Phillies outrighted utility man Andres Blanco off the 40-man roster, and almost no one noticed.

Why would we? Blanco went 13-for-47 for the 2014 Phils, with one dinger and three RBIs in just 25 games. To that team, Crashburn Alley points out, Blanco was the last in a long line of mediocre middle infielders. To most fans, Blanco was just another no-bat Caribbean glove man, a late inning defensive sub like Wilson Valdez before him. When Andres Blanco showed up on the Opening Day roster this season, it's likely that, again, almost no one noticed him.

Things have changed greatly since then. 2015 has been a career year for Blanco: he's played in 67 games this year, one less than his career-high 68 for the 2010 Rangers. In that time, he's been solid as a substitute, hitting .250 with 6 XBH and an .811 OPS, and shined as a starter, hitting .311 with a .954 OPS. His 4 home runs are a career best. Combining that production with his signature defense, "Whitey" has been a bright spot on a bad club.

But of course, we're approaching the end of the season. That means not just looking back at this year's players, but ahead to next year and beyond. And for the rebuilding Phillies, that future mainly involves names like Franco, Crawford, Altherr, Knapp, and Alfaro. The Phils are a young team full of young players who will get plenty of time to struggle, streak, and sharpen in the next few years.

But what about Ol' Whitey? Should the Phillies put him through arbitration for another year on the bench? Release him into the wild and let him try to ride his good year to another team's lineup?

The Phillies should make him a bench coach.

Blanco has already shown a willingness to teach the young players. His mentorship of Maikel Franco is a perfect example. In April of 2014, Franco and Blanco found that their AAA lockers were side by side. According to Lehigh Valley Live, IronPigs manager Dave Brundage did this on purpose, hoping that Blanco would help the raw, toolsy Franco grasp the intangible parts of the game, as well as help him improve his English.

Brundage's plan worked fantastically. Starting in AAA and continuing while they've both been on the Phillies roster, Blanco has guided Franco with advice while serving as his lifting buddy before games and his translator in interviews after. In other words, Blanco took Brundage's assignment, to help a young player reach his potential in a complicated game, and ran with it. Exactly like a bench coach.

And it's not just Franco that Blanco has been looking out for. Since joining the big league club, Blanco has reached out to many of the team's young players. Every now and then the Phillies cameramen will catch him in the dugout talking shop. Usually, he's the at the center of a group made up of him, Cesar Hernandez, Freddy Galvis, and Franco. Often, Whitey will recreate the at-bat that has just ended, bulging his eyes and miming swings while the young players look up at him like eager students. Between innings of Aaron Nola's MLB debut, Blanco sat next to the tense rookie, patting him on the back and talking him through his nerves.

That's Blanco's style. If Chase Utley is a strong, silent leader by example, Blanco is a vocal, hands-on mentor. He's more than happy to share the lessons of his experiences with anyone who will listen.

He's sure had a lot of experiences. Like Galvis, Franco, Herrera, and Hernandez, Blanco started his professional career as a teenager. He entered the Royals minor league system, according to one scout, "small, slow, and skinny" and left it a top prospect. He was the youngest rookie in Royals history when he debuted in 2003. Since then he's played for pennant-winning teams and last place teams (like this one). Multiple times, Andres Blanco has recovered from injuries that, combined with his bleak chance at ever playing regularly, could have forced him from the game. But he made it back.

That's the key aspect here: Andres Blanco has had a painfully rough career, and he's come out of it wiser and more understanding when dealing with young, struggling players. That's rare and valuable. And it's the formula that leads to a good coach. Think about it: from Kirk Gibson to Don Mattingly to Ryne stinking Sandberg, retired all-stars sometimes make gruff, unpersonable, mediocre coaches. Rather, it's former scrubs like John Farrell, Terry Francona, and Bruce Bochy, guys who've struggled and learned, who deal best with players. On a young team, the warmth and helpfulness he's already shown, the fruits of his struggles, could be hugely valuable in the clubhouse.

There are other arguments for turning Blanco into a full-time coach. For one thing, the Phillies coaching staff is hardly set in stone following the departure of Sandberg. That means the Phils front office has the chance to shake things up. In addition, naming Blanco a coach would preserve his leadership role while freeing up roster spots for the ‘youngins. 31-year old Coach Blanco could stand between the players and their much older coaches, alternatively representing both the way Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley (seemingly) did in the past. Finally, Blanco's knowledge of English and Spanish could prove helpful on a team that, currently, has five young Spanish-speaking starters.

Of course, I'm assuming that Blanco would actually want to coach right away. And that's a shaky assumption. He might want to play some more. The man has been to hell and back to play major league baseball, and now he's doing better than he ever has before. He deserves to give it another go. But baseball is a cruel business, and the coldhearted front office tacticians of the Moneyball era don't care about your comeback story when there are plenty of younger players with higher ceilings to put in the lineup. Blanco, who's been around the game for ages, knows that his value as a player is low. He'd probably only last a few more years, tops. But we've seen this year that his value as a mentor is far greater. By throwing himself fully into coaching like he already has, Blanco would help this team win for years to come.

From skinny Venezuelan youth to top prospect to benchwarmer to player-coach, Andres Blanco has been the kind of comeback story Philly fans love. His future is a question mark, and so is the Phillies'. If the stars align just right, those futures might converge. And that could be awesome for both parties.

I hope to see you back in South Philly, Whitey.