2020 Philadelphia Phillies Season News/Notes/Discussion

[California_Dreamin]

Hared to believe but true department...no team in baseball has gone longer without sweeping a DHer than the Phillies. Its been 8 years! On Sept 12, 2012 the Phils swept a DHer at home against the Colorado Rockies. Incredibly they have not swept even one double header. Granted, they don't play nearly the twin bills as they did many years ago but still...

Of course, they had dropped several double headers since 2012, including two this year.

[zambonir]

Posted about Hale in the trade deadline thread the other day. That seemed like an easy call. I'd also say Russ is too high a price for a guy who's been DFA'ed multiple times, but they probably had multiple offers, and swapping our reliever prospects for MLB-ready relievers is pretty much the only path they can take (that is, it beats swapping our top prospects).

[David_Criss]

Phillies.com cites Rosenthal. https://www.mlb.com/phillies/news/phillies-yankees-trade-david-hale
Who gets bumped off the 40-man? Who 2 Phillies players on the 40-man would the Red Sox want for Workman, who is a free agent at the end of the season?

[zambonir]

It doesn't have to be someone on the 40-man, just someone on the 60 (and people can still be added).

Workman is a much higher-value asset, it's hard to know given the quirks of this season. For one thing you are only getting 4 weeks instead of 8, question is would price by higher to strike now/preemptively, or higher if more teams get in a week from now? But you would normally be looking at a couple of Top 30 prospects, probably one of them in the teens.

The Phillies are in active talks with Red Sox to acquire closer Brandon Workman. Not final. But I hear multiple players are involved in proposed deal.

— Jim Salisbury ( @JSalisburyNBCS ) August 21, 2020

That could also mean we're getting more than Workman, in theory.

[bigegypt0417]

https://twitter.com/ToddZolecki/status/1296894488770748416?s=19

[andyb]

Austin Davis is the lucky DFA candidate. Guessing he will get through easily though if they make a larger Boston trade he could be an extra piece on the Phillies end since the Red Sox might need major league relievers (even if that definition of Davis is a bit shaky these days).

[zambonir]

That was an easy one.

And yeah - I read Salisbury's tweet as the Phillies wanting more than one player from Boston, not just that they would send multiple players (which would have been a given unless it was one serious prospect).

They've got 10 games to make a run, all against the first-place Braves and the (currently) last-place Nats. If they flop completely, they can always re-trade some of these guys, along with a few others. If they go 5-5 we're back where we were last year, neither big sellers nor big buyers, but a tweaked bullpen plus getting injured guys back would sure help.

[gmwannabe]

There goes Morales.
gm

[andyb]

In short term IL news, Alvarez to the IL and Romero stays with the team. Plus Harper not in the lineup tonight.

[LoneStarPhan]

Not sure if Harper not being in the lineup has significance or not. I hope Alvarez will be okay and back as soon as the ten days expire.

Maybe they want to give him a break and feel they have enough fire power in the lineup to fall just short of winning without Harper. Sorry, I can't help myself.

Phillies need to win the next two games with good starting pitching.

[zambonir]

That's too bad about Alvarez but I'm sure the pain is intense, and there could be bruising/bleeding. They just can't carry a dead roster spot in any case. I wonder if this is also why they might be accelerating the trade efforts.

[LoneStarPhan]

With or without Alvarez being available, the Phillies clearly need a couple more relief pitchers who are effective at the ML level. Hale should help and Morgan, Hunter, and Neris, in spite of some bad outings so far, are capable major leaguers. Add a Workman and get Alvarez back, and maybe we get a bullpen that can hold leads most of the time.

The Robertson signing was a good move - just the type signing that many of the GM's critics are calling for. He had a track record of solid performance over multiple years and a history of being relatively healthy. Sadly, it just didn't work out. That is always the risk of all free agent signings. Going into spring training 2019, I thought they finally had the makings of a solid bullpen, but multiple injuries took out the key pitchers that would have been in the pen. Several of those injuries continue into this season.

Related to our bullpen for this season,

Tim Kelly
@TimKellySports
> ·
> Joe Girardi says that Victor Arano, Ranger Suárez and David Robertson are all making progress. He still believes Robertson is the furthest away of that trio. Still, Phillies bullpen could very well look entirely different in the coming weeks.

[zambonir]

We need them, and they can probably pitch better than the guys we have now, but I wouldn't count on any of them either.

Arano hasn't done anything for almost two years (he didn't even make the team after a horrible spring, then pitched just a few innings before the injury...which was presumably the issue all along).

Suarez was promising, but that's all, and a guy who's been out for six weeks because of COVID-19 is probably not going to come roaring back. At this rate he may still be needed to start too.

Robertson will be a bonus, but his September will be more like a rehab stint.

I don't necessarily think they were wrong to choose youngsters over minor league vets, or journeymen over high-priced set-up men, but not one of them has even turned into a $10 scratch-off. Whatever went wrong in the off-season to not sign better bets, these are the guys the GM and manager and pitching coach decided to go with over a bunch of other guys, so was that bad judgment, bad execution, bad luck or has it really only been about money?

[HopeSpringsEternal]

Not sure if Harper not being in the lineup has significance or not.

Maybe he’s part of the trade package.

[julio]

Two sources tell me Phillies-Red Sox talks have really heated up and deal is very close. Phillies would get Workman and another reliever

— Jim Salisbury ( @JSalisburyNBCS ) August 22, 2020

[zambonir]

Workman and Hembree plus $ for Pivetta, Seabold

Phillies have acquired RHPs Brandon Workman and Heath Hembree and cash considerations from the Boston Red Sox in exchange for RHPs Nick Pivetta and Connor Seabold. pic.twitter.com/onrxWB1zFN

— Philadelphia Phillies ( @Phillies ) August 22, 2020

[nycphils]

Watch the Red Sox turn Pivetta into a real starter. I’m interested what more knowledgeable folks think, but it seems like a reasonable deal. Neither Pivetta nor Seabold are premium assets.

[zambonir]

I agree, I think on paper it's a steal for the Phillies and Seabold is not nothing, but the Sox brass, who are fresh from Tampa, obviously see some value left in Nick. Of course it might be the same value Kapler and Chris Young saw.

[HopeSpringsEternal]

I give Klentak some credit for getting this deal done now before the season gets away from us.

[Philsmania]

This is the kind of trade I was talking about. Trade future for now. Resign Workman