Phillies Off-Season 2024-2025 (Part 2 including Spring Training)

[andyb]

It's a bad sign if Phillips is on the roster. Lots of guys are more or less freely available who are better.

I think Mercado profiles as a better bullpen guy than Phillips if we are purely talking baseball. If Ranger is only going to miss a week or two it is not as if they won't have to DFA Phillips at some point anyway. Good chance he'll get through waivers at this time of year also. Every team needs 40-man spots now.

I thought Crismat might have the inside on this extra spot also though I guess the Phillies may not have liked what they saw in his start. At least Ross pitched pretty well yesterday in 2 innings.

[zambonir]

I just figured they like Crismatt enough that they don't want to add him to the 40 and potentially lose him. He has a June 1 opt-out so we'll probably see him then if not before.

[LoneStarPhan]

Nice to see the Phillies come back to win today. Down 7-0 after 8 innings, the Phillies score 8 to win, 8-7.

In battle for last bench spot, Kennedy managed to make two outs in the 8 run top of the ninth. Clemens made the final out of that inning but had a hit his first time up in the ninth and also doubled earlier in the game. For me, Clemens has earned the roster spot.

Francisco came on to earn a save as he held the Yankees scoreless facing four batters. He walked the first two. Luckily, I remained calm and he quickly got 3 outs from the next two batters.

Phillies out hit the Yankees, 13 to 5.

Only in spring training games can we see Luzardo get only one out before bringing in a reliever in a 4 run fourth inning, but then come back to pitch a scoreless 5th inning.

[andyb]

I wish Luzardo had pitched better. At least the back of the bullpen (Romano, Alvarado, Kerkering) has looked great so far.

[phillychuck]

I always see us coming out of Spring Training with a couple of flat tires and a bad fuel pump. Schwarber is slumping a bit, Turner is hitting .188, Casty is hitting .162, Realmuto is hitting .222, Marsh, Marchan, and Stott have been OK...

High points have been Kepler, Clemens, Sosa, and Harper. Rojas, who knows with the injury?

Starting pitching hasn't been as good as expected except for Sanchez and Wheeler. Luzardo scares me, and I guess Nola will be solid but not a #1 anymore.

I hope they can finish April over .500 and reply play good ball in the first half.

[bkeich]

I assume the plan for Painter is still somewhere around June 1. Is he throwing at all yet? Long tossing?

[bkox]

I know Painter is very valuable so they are being conservative.. but this feels very conservative. Normally they say 12-18 months for recovery. We are on month 21.

[andyb]

Remember he already pitched in Arizona. The usage this year is more about setting a conservative innings limit and having him available for the playoffs potentially too..

Painter is throwing to hitters, just not in games. He threw to Stubbs (hitting) I think yesterday.

[zambonir]

I don't think they are being conservative about his recovery, just that he has a firm innings limit that they are carefully parcelling out. I think bkeich meant by June 1 he might be in the Iron Pigs rotation but still with short outings or in a six-man. By the All-Star break. MLB.

[Matt_Winkelman]

It will be hard to truly measure his innings because of what is ramp and what is full effort plus we don’t really have unofficial innings from last year, but he probably has 80 to 120 innings this year (my guess is 100-110) and they have to allocate them, they are choosing to just give him a 1-3 month delay and then have them late, so right now he is in the throw bullpens and BP and mess with pitch shape feel stage (he has talked about changeup feel)

[andyb]

My point is that whatever they do they want to allow for 15-20 potential playoff innings and not do the shutdown that the Nats did famously with Strasburg. If he is not part of the playoff rotation then they are fine being conservative and not having him throw those innings too.

They also have the luxury of a deep rotation, so there is really no need to rush. If a problem occurs in April and May they can probably accelerate his trip through the minors if he performs well too. There are leaving themselves with options.

[Austinfan]

My suspicion is with modern tools to monitor pitchers, it'll be less about innings than about monitoring any signs of fatigue that can lead to bad habits/mechanics and injury. So Painter will dictate his usage by his physical response.

[zambonir]

Seems likely to be correct. And that today's line-up is the line-up, though the 5-7 and 8-9s could always move around.

Boy, it sure seems like Kyle Schwarber might remain leadoff hitter | OnPattison

[julio]

‪Matt Gelb‬ ‪@mattgelb.bsky.social‬ - 2h

Phillies optioned RHP Michael Mercado to Triple-A.

It likely means Matt Strahm will be on the Opening Day roster. If Ranger Suárez isn’t ready to make his first start, Taijuan Walker would start. Tyler Phillips would take last bullpen job.

[julio]

Suarez to the 15-day IL; just announced by Thomson, being interviewed on the radio broadcast.

[zambonir]

Options are king.

I believe today is the first day a guy can go on the IL anyway.

[dcsman]

I really would love to see a lefty bat in the 2 spot so that when the lead off hitter gets on there is a bigger hole on the first base side to put one through. But obviously, Thomson doesn't like the idea of two lefties batting back-to-back so I still think Turner should try to lead off with Harper batting second, Bohm third, and Schwarber four. I just think having Schearber lead off means too many solo HRs.

I know this has been discussed before though.

[zambonir]

I suspect (as the article also revisits) Bryce really doesn't want to hit second either.

But we'll see. It's still possible he'll change it up depending on the opposing starter. Or if things don't go well, which is how Schwarber got the job in the first place (after Turner slumped and Stott wasn't up to it).

I think it would be worse for Schwarber to get fewer ABs over the course of the season than to have fewer men on base when that has already been working for both him and the team. I think in the DH era, and with this team's line-up, it's up to Stott and Marsh to be on base for him (if the 8-9 hitters are Rojas and Marchan, that's a different story).. Also, those lead-off first-inning home runs seem to have an unquantifiable impact (as well the quantifiable one, that the team that scores first wins more).

[David_Criss]

Is now the time to trade Clemens? His value is as high as it might get while in a Phillies uniform.......

[zambonir]

I'm sure they are taking and making the calls, but his value is probably still not all that high, and neither is Kennedy's (in terms of possibly losing him). Clemens probablly gets traded after DFA, not before, and if he makes the roster probably sticks until Wilson's ready.

Everyone is still one injury away too of course. Clemens has only ever really been in the majors for that reason to begin with (Harper in '23, Turner last year).