2022 Phillies Minor League Assignments/Rosters

[Squire]

Some other organizations are starting to announce theirs though I suspect our announcements are not imminent.

But I thought I would create a thread anyway.

[julio]

Some other organizations are starting to announce theirs though I suspect our announcements are not imminent.

But I thought I would create a thread anyway.

Well, we'll need it soon. But unless there really has been a culture change, the Phillies will be among the last organizations to announce the rosters (or anything else, really).

[andyb]

The strangeness of AAA starting before the majors is forcing some early announcements. I think AAA heads north tomorrow with the other teams on Saturday.

AAA assignments are also somewhat tricky. One could have Stott play the first 3 games there and then send him to Philly for opening day for instance. And those last reliever roster decisions will be in lots of flux the next 7 days.

[allentown]

Here's an interesting question, which I've been wondering about: If Stott, Bohm, and Moniak start in AAA for those few days, but then are with Phillies in time for first MLB game, and are on roster through all 162 games, does the very brief time in AAA mean the Phillies have expended an option? If they play those 3 games in AAA, how long must they wait until they can be brought up to Philly?

[andyb]

With Bohm and Moniak who are on the 40 - yes. With Stott no since he is not on the 40 yet. If Stott started the season with the Phillies and got sent down later it would be an option.

Now the trick with Bohm and Moniak is that they can't be recalled for 10 days without an injury. Not sure if they could finesse the Herrera injury to give Moniak 3 games and call him up.

[julio]

If Stott, Bohm, and Moniak start in AAA for those few days, but then are with Phillies in time for first MLB game, and are on roster through all 162 games, does the very brief time in AAA mean the Phillies have expended an option?

Not unless the MLB Rules about options have changed. Under the rules (through 2021), a player had to be on optional assignment for a total of 20 days during the regular season for the assignment(s) to "count" as using an option year. Note that this is cumulative during a season - four five-day options in one season would count as using an option year.

The wrinkle with the 2022 "temporary" rules is that an option prior to May 2 does not count as one of the five permitted such assignments in one season (this five-option limit is a new rule for 2022 and future seasons), but there has been nothing said to suggest that time spent on such a pre-May 2 optional assignment would not "count" toward the seasonal 20-day threshold to consume an option year.

[phillychuck]

In another thread it was reported that options prior to May 2nd don't count against the options limits for players. Never mind--Julio said it better above!

[zambonir]

But there's no reason to send anyone who's likely to make the team to Lehigh Valley for a few days when they can still be playing major league exhibitions. If anything it's just the opposite - they don't have to add Stott to the 40 or make a final decision on Bohm until the 8th.

Now, if they already know for sure that they want to option Bohm they may as well just let him start the AAA season. And if they are leaning towards keeping Maton or Torreyes (whatever the latter may require) they may want those last two spring training games to be played with something very close to the final roster.

Relievers (and even the "chunk" guys) are another story of course.

[Squire]

LHV and Reading teams fly out tomorrow. Steve Potter indicates that rosters have been posted internally but have not been made available.

[andyb]

Here is that report from Steve Potter. Apparently Bohm batted in every inning of the AAA game today in addition to late in the big league game. And will start tomorrow. Looks like they are pressing to make a decision on him.

LHV and Reading scrimmage Sunday.

3/31/22 : Today in Spring Training

[allentown]

Thanks.

[zambonir]

There is a clear distinction within the organization on how players are viewed: those drafted by Brian Barber, whom the Phillies hired as their amateur scouting director before the 2020 season, and those who were not. It might be a generalization, but Barber is held in high regard and has applied a different strategy to how the Phillies draft. They have targeted upside, which comes with a certain risk, as opposed to prospects with higher floors. The “safer” picks didn’t work well for the Phillies, so they’re shooting for a greater reward.

Phillies minor-league season preview: Camp standouts and players to track

A few more notes from that:

Marchan is currently hurt, AAA catchers are Sands and Wynn.

Muzziotti and Ortiz to Reading. Ditto O'Hoppe, McArthur and Morales (as closer).

Kingery is still not ready to leave Clearwater, still rehabbing.

Not sure how they are going to have a AAA rotation the first month.

[bkeich]

Am I the only one who reads things like this and thinks "you must do a mixture, some with high floor, some with high ceiling". It applies to literally everything else in life, how are they struggling to figure that out?

[zambonir]

And I'm sure in reality they do in fact do that, that is just Gelb's analysis. It's also really more about the first-rounders of whom we only have a two-player sample (but picking two high school pitchers instead of college fielders is definitely gambling on ceiling over floor).

The more interesting part of that is the confirmation that they don't rate the Almaraz picks in general, which feels like more than speculation (especially at this point).

[Squire]

From that article

LHV
C Donny Sands (Marchan has an injury)
C Austin Wynns
RHP Hans Crouse
RHP Nick Nelson - still at Majors camp
LHP Cristopher Sanchez - still at Majors camp
LHP Bailey Falter - still at majors camp

Reading
RHP James McArthur
LHP Erik Miller
RHP Francisco Morales - as a closer
RHP McKinley Moore
OF Jhailyn Ortiz
C Logan O'Hoppe
OF Simon Muzziotti
OF Matt Kroon

Jersey Shore Rotation
RHP Mick Abel
RHP Christian Hernandez
RHP Ben Brown
RHP Christian McGowan
RHP Dominic Pipkin
RHP Griff McGarry (has an oblique issue so will have some early limitations)

Also at Jersey Shore
OF Ethan Wilson
MIF Luis Garcia
MIF Casey Martin
RHP Matt Russel

Clearwater
RHP Andrew Painter
RHP Micah Ottenbreit
RHP Oswald Medina
CF Yhoswar Garcia
INF Hao Yu Lee

Currently Injured
1B Jordan Viars
INF Scott Kingery
LHP Samuel Aldeghiri
OF Josh Stephen

[andyb]

Beyond the first few picks there are always many more high floor guys. I think this is the new philosophy (higher ceiling) which I like and it is primarily geared for the top 5 rounds though I guess it also suggests adding pitchers in the mid 90s with control/command issues later in the draft.

We have a bunch of pitchers who throw really hard suddenly in this organization and it is not all waiver claims near the majors. We are starting to have a pretty long pipeline of good arms that need lots of refinement (like Jose Pena Jr who we got in the 6th round I believe last year). He may not even make Clearwater this year but I think I am more excited to have him and guys like Ottenbreit over the Connor Seabold and Thomas Eshelman types.

[allentown]

The high ceiling approach was also the older Phillies methodology. For most of the time that they followed this methodology, they simply lacked the ability to properly identify the high ceiling athletes, leading to some truly laughable first round picks. The philosophy under Almaraz was a reaction to the many failed first rounders drafted based on a bizarre definition of high ceiling: alternately the ability to run fast or batting practice power. Our 2008 WS stems from a brief period when we scouted and developed high ceiling players very well: Burrell, Rollins, Ruiz, Howard, Utley, Hamels -- except for Burrell, none were truly primo picks (as in top 10 in draft). Rollins and Howard not first rounders, Ruiz not big bonus and not a sought-after 16-year old LA talent. Some good LA and H.S. pitching talent traded. Idenfied Victorino as a Rule guy and Werth as a dumpster dive. Also Happ, Madson, Myers, Kendrick. The big question is how did the Phillies lose that golden touch, going from superior scouting/development to ranking in bottom 5 of organizations? Something changed dramatically. The same sort of light-switch change as when Bill Giles savaged our Dominican Republic operation and slashed spending on minor leagues. Let's hope the current organization is more like the golden age of amateur acquisition and development than what we have seen from this organization for over a decade.

[andyb]

Arbuckle left. And some of the smarter player development bosses went with him or aged out of it. The Arbuckle period was focused on high ceiling though their smarter picks might have been the second rounders like Rollins and Rolen. After Arbuckle we started to emulate other organizational strategies and were not too good at it, leaving to a weird mix of high and low ceiling talent that often was not very good.

[allentown]

That certainly a big part, but there also seemed to be some big changes in philosophy.

[andyb]

Wolever seemed like an Arbuckle-light. Wanted to emulate the cost-effective college strategy of the As even though the organization was just way behind on the analytics. Tried to please too many people and ended up without a real coherent philosophy. Plus at the same time we started losing all our number one picks and that did not help.