2024 Phillies Season Discussion

[zambonir]

Technically Turnbull has taken Covey's spot. Which was also going to be Ortiz's spot. Brogdon also had one of them for a few days. And then in addition to Ortiz there's Marte, who have options. In a perfect world Covey never comes back because the Phillies bullpen is both healthy and effective (and the rotation too), and when they acquire someone at the trade deadline he replaces Ruiz or they cut loose Soto (who also has options, but...). In the real world a lot of other stuff will probably happen. Or maybe Ruiz is this year's Hoffman.

If and when Covey if pronounced healthy and completes his rehab it's probably 50-50 whether he's immediately called up or immediately DFA'ed. You do have to wonder if the injury is being slow-played on purpose. He gets his major league salary ($850K) though he would only lose that if the Phillies DFA'ed him and he went unclaimed and went to AAA.

[BostonRoss]

I believe that if Soto were right-handed or Marte left-handed, the Phillies might consider sending Soto down to try to get him straightened out when Marte returns. They did something similar with Alvarado.

[zambonir]

And with Neris too, once upon a time. But Soto is a lot further down the food chain than those guys were.

I don't really think he's pitched that badly either. He actually had a nice little streak of good appearances the past two weeks until the last couple, and you can't really count the extra inning stints the same way. Doesn't seem like a guy mired in an epic, you need to go to Allentown struggle. At the same time not sure he's ever going to be more than he is. An elite LOOGY in a game that no longer allows them. But Thomson has given him more rope than that.

For Alvarado it was a career crossroads, and largely mental stuff (and conditioning) to hear him tell it. If Cotham and his team haven't been able to make Soto better by now not sure he'll get any better in Allentown.

[andyb]

Sosa batting 2nd today with JT getting another rest day. Stubbs gets to face a decent LHP.

[zambonir]

This would explain why the Phillies have been moving Castellanos up in the most recent games. Process before outcome (but yesterday they got the outcome).

for the first time all season, Castellanos collected two extra-base hits in a game.

He did that 13 times last season.

Wednesday was the first time he hit four balls that hard in a game since June 2, 2023.

Maybe this is the breakthrough.

If anything, Castellanos had been building toward Wednesday’s three-hit game. He has put 13 balls in play at 98 mph or harder over his last nine games. In the 17 games before this stretch, he had 12 batted balls at 98-plus mph. Hitting the ball hard is integral to everything. His current .333 slugging percentage is 135 points below his career average. It’s also the highest it has been all season.

Phillies takeaways on Castellanos' uptick, Walker's splitter, bullpen depth...

[zambonir]

Additional interesting notes there: they can skip Walker in London if they want (though, I might just sacrifice him to the jet lag gods), perhaps creating a decision point after the trip. His problem is the splitter just isn't working like last year yet.

And there's a guy named Ryan Burr in AAA with a major league opt-out Saturday. He has options and would likely be able to join another team in the majors if they don't keep him. He's got elite AAA numbers this year but more fungible ML history. But hey we've seen that before.

[andyb]

He has options and would likely be able to join another team in the majors if they don't keep him. He's got elite AAA numbers this year but more fungible ML history.

Sounds certainly like someone they can trade for a lower level prospect. With Ruiz pitching well and Marte due back at some point we really don't have room now. They could also guarantee a bit more salary to the kid if they wanted to keep him and could not trade him. Northing like an extra $100K to avoid being bounced around minor league systems for a summer if he is happy where he is and could actually be an insurance arm on a good team (the Phillies) in the Fall.

[RolenRules]

Blue Jays To Acquire Ryan Burr From Phillies

I hadn't seen this posted.

[zambonir]

I think MLBTR missed the news on this one.

Burr signed a minor league contract with Philadelphia in January. He was not on their 40-man roster and won’t need to immediately occupy a spot on the 40-man for the Jays (unless his contract contained some kind of upward mobility clause that spurred the trade). Burr has posted huge numbers for the Phils’ top farm team, so Toronto could decide to quickly call him up.

What Gelb wrote:

The stipulations of his contract state that the Phillies cannot simply add him to the 40-man roster, then option him to Triple A — in essence, a paper move. If he asks for his release, the Phillies must put him in the majors at the beginning of June to retain him.

[Philsmania]

Sounds like he was one of those opt-out if not on the ML roster by a certain date situations.

[Callison]

About the 3rd inning of the last Walker game, the pitching coach came out to talk to Walker. The announcer observed something like, "This discussion is going to be short. Get that ball DOWN." Guess that's another way to say his sinker isn't working. He's had one good game since he's been back in the rotation, but looked unprepared last outing. I get the Phils' commitment to Walker. He's got 2 years remaining. But performances like the last one have him headed for a trade or long relief.

Similarly, the Phils are still committed to Nitro-Covey and Nitro-Marte. They get called "Nitro" because they can blow up at the drop of a hat. The Phils just refuse to be discouraged with these two. If they remained on the DL for the rest of the season where they can't cause trouble, that would be the best thing.

Feeling sorry for Turnbull, who proved his worth only to be dumped into long relief, where he seems to have lost his edge.

Disappointing squared road trip which was likely overdue from the incredible season preceding it. Losing 2 to the Giants, a team full of rooks - one game they even shut the Phils out with their pen!!! - is just losing concentration for the Phils. So let's start the next streak.

[Jazzhead]

What are we going to do with Sosa once Trea gets back? We can't keep him out of the lineup (minutes before I'm writing this he smacked, no, annihilated a two-run homer).

I think we need to see if he can play left field. We have a surplus of good infielders, and a lackluster outfield. He's played a handful of games in the outfield; I can't believe he wouldn't be at least competent out there.

[zambonir]

Or RF or CF lol.

Worth considering but you can find him four starts a week in the IF. Stott sits against LHP anyway, Bohm is not unsittable at this point and Trea should probably not play so much. And Sosa is better defensively than all but Stott

[Aquapong]

Good problem to have. We can ease Turner back in.

[BostonRoss]

Going into tonight, Sosa was second on the team in WAR (among non-pitchers), just behind Harper. He might have caught Bryce with that homer. Turner (who has about 50% more plate appearances than Sosa) is tied for third with Marsh.

After Turner returns, if Sosa is still hot, I'd try to play Sosa, Turner, Stott, and Bohm about 3/4 of the time each. Maybe even give Harper, Schwarber, and Castellanos some selected days off with Bohm playing 1B and Sosa 3B. I don't think the Phillies will do that, but it's easier to deal with than Walker/Turnbull.

[Austinfan]

Can Turner play OF? He has the speed and arm, and I'd say Sosa is as good or better at SS, but Turner has more talent for OF if he can track balls.

[xogfog]

The Phillies can bring 3 extra players as a taxi squad to the London games, and they can have 27 players for the games. but the extra player has to be a hitter, who do they bring?

[Jazzhead]

Can Turner play OF? He has the speed and arm, and I'd say Sosa is as good or better at SS, but Turner has more talent for OF if he can track balls.

Turner started 44 games for the Nationals in 2016 in center field, so he's actually got more experience out there than Sosa. However, the experiment didn't continue after that..

Another possibility is to expand the rotational scenario proposed by @BostonRoss by including Schwarber, playing him in left field from time to time and freeing up the DH spot for Sosa or whatever infielder is being rested.

[VoteForKalas]

I do not think we need to force Sosa into the lineup and make radical changes. As someone said, it is a good problem to have.

[DurhamBull]

Last night I dreamed that I tuned into a game in the 9th and the Phils were up 31-6 and still batting. Harper had 10 RBIs. I hope that dream comes true!