Most of the Phillies’ work this past offseason was done early. The signings of Zack Wheeler and Didi Gregorius arrived in December for about a week.
And from that point on, from the second week of December until now, the only player the Phillies signed on a major league contract was reliever Tommy Hunter.
Any other signing was a minor league deal with an invitation to camp. The Phillies head office under Matt Klentak has made plenty of these signings during his tenure, choosing to add additional men without guaranteeing a full season’s salary.
When those movements work, you save money. When they don’t, reception offices take a no harm, no foul approach. The problem is when most of those players fail to join the team, either for financial reasons or because they weren’t good enough.
Josh Harrison, Logan Forysthe and Francisco Liriano seemed ready for the opening list and they all got their releases. With at least Liriano and Harrison, money seems to have been a factor.
Bud Norris, Anthony Swarzak, Drew Storen, they all left. Where this matters most is in the bullpen by far the most unstable unit in the Phillies, and one we’ve seen can derail a talent roster. The Phillies are set to enter 2020 with just a few proven relievers on Héctor Neris, José Álvarez and Adam Morgan. Only one of them, Neris, ranks as a late inning reliever you would send with online play in the ninth inning. And what happens if Neris fails? Who would you trust to fill that role for a short time?
Of all the players the Phillies signed in minor league deals this offseason, only Neil Walker made the opening roster on opening day.
The Phillies acquired players in other ways this offseason: Kyle Garlick was acquired from the Dodgers; Robert Stock, Reggie McClain and Deolis Guerra were claims for exemption. Garlick, McClain and Guerra formed the team on Thursday, while Stock was designated for the assignment.
If the Phillies bullpen is struggling, their decision to forgo adding proven relievers to add pitchers to the dump heap will come back under the microscope, just as it happened last summer when the Phillies’ only midseason bullpen additions were the cast of other teams. offs.
Avoidance of paying the luxury tax has played a role in all of this, as have failed bullpen signings like David Robertson and the amount of money paid to Pat Neshek and Tommy Hunter, who were injured by large parts of their businesses. . Mistakes like that can make a GM fear weapons. The Phillies would certainly be in a different position for 2020 if Robertson was healthy and ready to be the man of configuration or closer.
Sergio Romo, Steve Cishek, Héctor Rondón, David Phelps, Yoshihisa Hirano and Pedro Strop signed one-year agreements with teams ranging from $ 1.5 million to $ 6 million. Any one of them would have had a prominent role in the bullpen here. It would be one thing if young Phillies relievers with potential like Ramon Rosso and Damon Jones played a big role, but neither is on the 40-player list yet. (Update: Rosso had his contract selected Thursday afternoon and made the team.)
The depth of each team will be tested in 2020. The Phillies start the season by playing 22 games in 23 days. Baseball’s universal topic of conversation this summer has been: “You must start quickly.” Nothing can derail a promising start like a bad bullpen, and if the bullpen turns out to be bad, it will be a reflection of how it was built.
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