2022 Phillies Major League Regular Season Discussion

[bkox]

Maybe he’ll be the 27th man for the doubleheader coming up on Friday.

They are saying Falter will start one of those games so im thinking hes #27

[zambonir]

Falter's the 27th man Friday unless something changes. Gelb says Kelly will be the long man i.e. replacing Norwood as the lowest-leverage arm. Presumably if and when they call up Appel he will merit a bigger role - and can hopefully keep it.

Are they putting Sanchez back in the AAA rotation? He has certainly been de facto a multi-inning reliever.

[andyb]

More rehab updates. Seems Sherriff is ahead of the other options. JoJo's rehab was expected around this time too.

LHP JoJo Romero will begin a rehab assignment today with FCL Phillies. LHP Ryan Sherriff’s rehab transferred from Class A Clearwater to Double-A Reading.

— Todd Zolecki ( @ToddZolecki ) June 14, 2022

And one small update from the Athletic. Gelb is back.

Why have the Phillies started to surge? Start with the top of the lineup

[Taudawg]

6/14/22 Philadelphia Phillies selected the contract of 3B Yairo Munoz from Lehigh Valley IronPigs.

[Taudawg]

Moniak sent to Lehigh

[andyb]

Moniak optioned (for the ML roster spot) and Segura transferred to the 60-day IL for the 40-man spot.

Assume this is temporary till either Maton or Camargo is ready. It was pretty clear that Moniak was not ready and that Herrera deserved more playing time.

Munoz is in the lineup playing 2B tonight for Stott against the left-handed starter. Vierling in CF too. We were rolling out way too many left-handed batters against left-handed starters.

[bkeich]

At some point the team is going to have to admit that Moniak was a bust. A .746 OPS at AAA in one season is ok, but doesn't scream "need to move up" and a .424 OPS in 84 PA in the majors is not a good start (over 3 years).

The bigger problem is that he strikes out almost 50% of the time in the majors and only has one extra base hit so far. He looks extremely overmatched in almost every at bat, way too many 3 pitch strike outs. Pitchers have no fear of throwing him strikes and he can barely even put the ball in play.

Just because a guy is a #1 pick doesn't mean he should be in the majors. If he was a 20th round pick we would have already moved on from him and sadly he doesn't have any elite skills (in fact he is below average in almost every way, fielding, power, bat control) with only average speed.

I think next year is his last with an option. After that they will lose him or have to hide him on the 26 man roster.

No one is so clearly easy to be thrown into a deal while he still has minuscule value. Next year he will have none after he once again proves that there just isn't anything to get excited about with him.

[andyb]

Everyone got so excited over him in Spring Training though we have seen that play out before. Even Kingery had more regular season high minors success than Moniak when he made the team. I am not closing the book on Moniak. He does have the tools to be a 20 HR CF with average defense. He just needs more AAA time and probably needs to show he can be an 800+ OPS bat there. He is pressing in every single at bat. Stott was too early in the season, but Stott is a better hitter and he adjusted.

Moniak is actually younger than Stott, so it is not like improvement is impossible. If he were a 20th round pick we probably would not have given up on him either. We would have promoted him more slowly and he would have probably had better minor league stats because of that. But if he kept putting up a 750 OPS in the minors at each level that 20th round pick would have been in AAA this year anyway at age 24. He just would not have gotten the perception that he should be on the major league roster after beating up on fringe pitchers in Spring Training.

[Austinfan]

What's wrong with Segura, his velocity was fine, but his command has been off all season.
60 day IL doesn't sound good.

My bad, my brain mixed up Segura and Suarez.
Guess it's time for Maton to come back from injury, this is his shot (before Kingery finds his stroke!).

[BaseballCat]

Given Moniak's spring training numbers and his work with Long, I think he deserves a chance to go down to AAA and see if he can regain his swing. This may be his last shot, but I think he deserves the shot and feel sorry we can not judge him coming off his hot spring. Yes we have seen it before, but we were all excited to see what he could do coming out of ST. I wish him well.

[Austinfan]

He should never have been brought up, he needed a month in AAA to rediscover his ST groove.

[andyb]

Segura was always a 10-12 week injury. Just did not need a 40-man spot until now.

[zambonir]

Clearly Moniak needs to be in AAA and his fate was likely sealed once Vierling regained his spot, since that always made more sense than having two LH CFs (even with Harper still not playing). But I'm afraid this also probably means either Maton or Camargo will be out a lot longer than we know.

OTOH maybe they really did just want a better line-up against Rogers (and to not play Vierling at 2B again).

[David_Criss]

Munoz would have been selected over Kingery last week but he fouled a ball of his foot that very night. It would be nice to see Kingery and Monica force their way back onto the roster, but Im not going to hold my breath.

[zambonir]

Two very different situations. Like andy noted Moniak is still younger than Stott. It's more than fair to call him a bust at this point and it never made sense to me that one spring training (especially this spring training) meant he'd figured it all out all of a sudden. Nor that there was a place for him and Herrera on the same roster. But this is still a guy who didn't really play in 2020 and only has 356 AAA ABs and may still have a future, even if it's still just on a bench. And barring trades, he'll still be needed if any OF gets injured.

Kingery, OTOH, is not a kid anymore and to even think he can come to spring training next year with a chance at a major role (be it starting 2B or top bench guy) is a stretch until he puts together a couple of good months in AAA. If I were him I'd still be hoping for a release, or to get thrown into a trade. Seems like he could use a change of scenery and there's likely nobody in the organization in his corner (GMs, head scout, dev guy all changed - twice in some cases! - since they drafted him).

However it shakes out, they are back to the four-man bench with two IFs and one OF once the extra pitcher has to go. Not ideal when the DH isn't available in the field, but nothing about the Harper situation is ideal.

[zambonir]

Gelb says Romero will probably use all 30 days of his rehab

Matt Gelb: The Phillies started JoJo Romero's 30-day rehab... - The Athletic

He's got two more stories up today - obviously playing catch-up - and also Gammons has a story that is largely about Appel.

Former top pick Mark Appel is still trying to make MLB, and it may be the right...

“There are opportunities everywhere because the pitching supply is ravaged,” says one American League personnel director. “We’re all out there looking at pitchers for whom a change of scenery, delivery, grip and pitch mix might turn him into, at the least, a useable, fungible three-to-six out arm.”

The same day the A’s announced Koenig would start, Adonis Medina — claimed by the Pirates from the Phillies on March 16, sold to the Mets on April 7 — closed out the Mets-Dodgers series.

[Philsmania]

Knebel out as Phillies closer.

Corey Knebel out as Phillies closer, team will use committee approach for now

[Austinfan]

Knebel was actually throwing harder, but he can't throw his curve for strikes, as Alvarado shows, even a 100 MPH FB can be hit if you can sit on it b/c you don't have to worry about a secondary pitch.

Brogdon might be the best choice, when his change is working, it makes his 97 MPH FB unhittable.
SD probably needs a couple more months to build up strength and sharpen his stuff.
Not sure anyone else has anything approaching closer stuff.

[zambonir]

We've seen this movie before. Unless he goes on the IL he'll probably be back pitching a 9th inning before we know it. Thomson already said as much (from the Inquirer's story):

“He was very professional about it,” added Thomson. “He wants the ball. He’s a competitor. He wants that ninth inning, and I want that ninth inning [for him] as well. And hopefully in a couple days we’ll get him back.”

[Aquapong]

5 games against the Nationals. Can’t mess around with these guys as we have SD, STL, and ATL coming up.