- Phillies reliever Luis Ortiz is set to restart his throwing program today after he was shut down due to right shoulder inflammation. “We don’t think it’s anything, but we’re just taking it easy on him,” Phils manager Rob Thomson told MLB.com and other media. A sprained ankle in his first game of the season sent Ortiz to the 15-day IL back on March 31, and he made Triple-A rehab appearances on both April 23 and 25 before his new shoulder issue popped up. Ortiz had a 3.32 ERA in 19 relief innings for Philadelphia last season, amidst many shuttles up and down from the majors and Triple-A.
Phillies Rumors
Phillies Acquire Tyler Gilbert From Reds
The Phillies have acquired left-hander Tyler Gilbert from the Reds, reports Matt Gelb of The Athletic on X. Since Gelb uses the word “purchased,” it seems the Reds will receive cash considerations in return. The southpaw wasn’t on the Reds’ 40-man roster and therefore won’t need a roster spot with the Phillies.
Gilbert, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Reds in the offseason. He has made seven appearances, three of them starts, logging 11 2/3 innings. He has an awful earned run average of 13.11 so far, though that’s obviously a tiny sample and there are some other numbers that are more favorable.
The lefty has a massive .545 batting average on balls in play so far and 43.3% strand rate, both of which are unsustainably unlucky. His 20.6% strikeout rate and 9.5% walk rate are close to average and he hasn’t allowed a home run yet this year, so his FIP is actually 2.94 in his brief 2024 showing. Regardless, it seems the Reds are willing to move on take the cash while letting the Phils take a chance on him.
Gilbert has 91 2/3 innings of major league experience, working as a swingman with the Diamondbacks over the previous three seasons, famously throwing a no-hitter in his first career start. He currently sports a 4.32 ERA in his career, with a 17.1% strikeout rate and 7.5% walk rate. He was outrighted by the Snakes at the end of last year, which led to his minor league deal with the Reds.
The Phillies don’t really need starting depth in the short-term. Taijuan Walker recently returned from the injured list, which bumped Spencer Turnbull to the bullpen despite having a 1.67 ERA on the year. The rest of the rotation consists of Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suárez and Cristopher Sánchez. There’s also Max Castillo, who is on the 40-man roster and starting in Triple-A. Prospect Mick Abel isn’t yet on the roster but is also starting at the Triple-A level. Andrew Painter could be rehabbing at some point later this season after undergoing Tommy John surgery in July of last year.
But pitching depth can often be thinned out in a hurry, which is why there’s the old saw that you can never have too much. It’s also possible that the Phils may envision Gilbert focusing more on relief work as a way to unlock another gear with him. If he cracks the roster at any point, he still has one option year remaining and less than two years of service time.
Latest On Alec Bohm
- The Phillies suffered a major injury scare last night when third baseman Alec Bohm exited the club’s win over the Giants with right hip tightness. The move was labeled precautionary by manager Rob Thomson (as noted by Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer) in the aftermath of yesterday’s game and Bohm himself indicated to reporters (including Coffey) that he isn’t particularly concerned about the issue. That Bohm seemingly won’t require a trip to the injured list is surely a massive relief for Phillies fans, as the club lost Trea Turner to the shelf yesterday and he had been the club’s second best hitter behind Bohm this year. MLBTR’s Darragh McDonald recently took a look at Bohm’s hot start this season, during which he’s hit a whopping .364/.435/.579 in 138 trips to the plate.
Phillies Place Trea Turner On 10-Day Injured List
1:43PM: The strain is a significant one, as Turner told The Athletic’s Matt Gelb and other reporters that he’ll miss a minimum of six weeks.
12:56PM: The Phillies announced that Trea Turner has been placed on the 10-day injured list due to a left hamstring strain. Infielder Kody Clemens was called up from Triple-A to take Turner’s place on the active roster.
The placement isn’t a surprise, as Turner’s injury forced him to make an early departure from yesterday’s 4-3 Phillies win over the Giants. In the fourth inning, Turner was on second base when Jordan Hicks threw a fourth ball to batter Bryce Harper, and the ball bounced off catcher Tom Murphy’s glove for a passed ball. Turner hustled down to third base and then all the way home to score on the play, but at a cost, as Edmundo Sosa took over at shortstop for Turner in the top of the fifth.
After getting off to an infamously slow start in 2023 (the first year of his 11-year, $300MM deal with Philadelphia), Turner has been far better in the early going of the 2024 campaign. The shortstop is hitting .343/.392/.460 with two home runs, 27 runs scored, and 10 steals in 11 attempts. A whopping .421 BABIP and a .379 wOBA that is far above his .330 xwOBA indicate that Turner has enjoyed some good fortune in posting his bottom-line numbers, even though Turner’s excellent speed has always led to strong BABIP results.
Turner has been one of the chief reasons why the Phillies have a league-high 22 wins. There’s no easy way for the Phils to replace that production, and the team can only hope Turner’s strain is minor enough that he can return quickly and fully recovered. Sosa will get most of the playing time at shortstop in Turner’s absence, with Clemens stepping into Sosa’s role as the team’s utilityman. Philadelphia could also possibly use Bryson Stott at shortstop and deploy Whit Merrifield more often at second base, though Merrifield is off to a slow start at the plate.
Ricardo Pinto Elects Free Agency
TODAY: Pinto has elected free agency, the Phillies announced this evening. He’ll return to the open market with an eye toward finding a fresh deal elsewhere.
May 2: The Phillies announced that right-hander Ricardo Pinto has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A LeHigh Valley. This is his second career outright, meaning he has the right to reject this assignment and elect free agency, though it’s not yet clear if he’s chosen to do so.
Pinto, 30, signed a minor league deal with the Phils in the winter and was added to their roster a few days into the season. He made six appearances, tossing 10 2/3 innings, but allowed 13 earned runs in that time. He struck out eight batters and walked five.
He likely didn’t deserve to have results quite that bad. His 59.1% ground ball rate was quite strong while his .405 batting average on balls in play and 51.7% strand rate are both on the unlucky side. His 6.04 FIP and 4.19 SIERA each paint a nicer portrait than Pinto’s ERA. Regardless, he was bumped off the Phillies’ roster and none of the 29 other teams decided to take a chance on him. He previously pitched in the big leagues in 2017 and 2019 but those stints didn’t go well either, so he now has a career ERA of 9.07 in 42 2/3 career innings.
As mentioned, Pinto has the right to elect free agency but he’s listed on the roster of the IronPigs, which seems to suggest he’ll stick with the Phils as non-roster depth.
Phillies Considering Multiple Ways To Keep Spencer Turnbull In Rotation Mix
Right-hander Spencer Turnbull has been a revelation in the Phillies’ rotation after filling in for the injured Taijuan Walker to begin the season. While Walker’s return from the injured list might have seemed like an obvious means of pushing Turnbull back into a long relief role earlier in the season, Turnbull has pitched so well that the Phils likely feel they can’t take him out of his current spot.
Indeed, manager Rob Thomson told the Phillies beat yesterday that the club will consider creative means of keeping Turnbull in the mix — be it piggybacking him with another starter or alternating between Sanchez and Turnbull in the fifth spot of the rotation depending on the opponent they’re facing (links via Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia and Todd Zolecki of MLB.com).
The Phillies’ rotation, as a whole, has been remarkable this season. Philadelphia starters rank first in the majors with 190 2/3 innings pitched, second with a 2.50 ERA, second with a 26% strikeout rate, tenth with a 7% walk rate and third with a 52% ground-ball rate. Their collective 3.28 FIP is also second-best in MLB, and Phillies starters lead the league with a 3.22 SIERA. By virtually any measure, they’ve been outstanding.
Righties Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola are both out to excellent starts. Wheeler, in particular, is sitting on a sub-2.00 ERA with his typical blend of plus strikeout, walk and ground-ball rates. Nola is sporting a 3.20 mark with a roughly average strikeout rate and a strong 7% walk rate. He’s been a bit homer-prone for what’s now a second straight season, but he’s generally pitched well in the first season of his new seven-year contract.
Left-hander Ranger Suarez has arguably been the team’s most effective starter. He touts a team-best 1.32 ERA through his first six turns on the mound. He’s logged 41 innings with a plus 27.8% strikeout rate and elite walk and ground-ball rates (3.5% and 60.8%, respectively). He won’t sustain a .189 BABIP and 92.9% strand rate, but the skill components of his performance have been terrific.
Fifth starter Cristopher Sanchez has been solid, recording a 3.68 ERA in 29 1/3 frames. His 22% strikeout rate is barely south of average, and while his 9.8% walk rate is on the high side, he’s helped mitigate some of those free passes with a massive 62.2% grounder rate. Righty Taijuan Walker just returned from the injured list and was hit hard in his first start, but he was a quality innings eater for the Phils last year (4.32 ERA in 31 starts) and is being paid $18MM this season to fill that role again.
Turnbull’s run-prevention thus far is right up there with Wheeler and Suarez. Through six starts, he’s pitched 32 1/3 innings of 1.67 ERA ball with an excellent 28.7% strikeout rate against a 7.9% walk rate that’s about a percentage point better than average. He’s not sitting at Suarez/Sanchez levels with his ground-ball rate, but his mark of 49.4% is still comfortably north of the 43% league average.
A piggyback situation with Sanchez or some kind of alternating fifth starter role could make particular sense for Turnbull, who missed the 2022 season recovering from Tommy John surgery and pitched only 57 innings between the big leagues and minors last year. At some point, his workload could become a factor, as his body simply hasn’t endured a full season of innings since the 2019 campaign, when he started 30 games for the Tigers and pitched 148 1/3 innings.
The more straightforward solution would be to go to a six-man rotation, but Thomson has suggested in the past that the team doesn’t consider that a likely arrangement. However they proceed, it seems Turnbull — who has already wildly outperformed his modest one-year, $2MM deal — will continue to factor prominently into the team’s pitching staff as he gears up for what seems likely to be a much more lucrative trip through free agency again next winter.
Phillies Select José Ruiz
The Phillies announced that right-hander Yunior Marté has been placed on the 15-day injured list due to right shoulder inflammation. Right-hander José Ruiz was selected to the roster in a corresponding move. The Phils already had a vacancy on the 40-man since they designated Ricardo Pinto for assignment earlier this week.
Ruiz, 29, signed a minor league deal with the Phillies in the offseason. He’s already tossed 11 innings for Triple-A Lehigh Valley with a 1.64 earned run average. He has struck out 31% of batters faced so far while walking just 7.1%.
That’s a small sample size, of course, but Ruiz also has some decent work on his major league track record. He tossed more than 60 innings for the White Sox in both 2021 and 2022, with a combined 3.80 ERA in that time. His 10.8% walk rate in that stretch was a tad high but he also punched out batters at a strong 24.4% clip.
Last year wasn’t as successful for the righty. He was lit up in his first four outings for the Sox, allowing nine earned runs, and got designated for assignment. He was flipped to the Diamondbacks and tossed 40 2/3 innings for that club with a middling 4.43 ERA. He was outrighted off their roster at the end of July and spent the last few months of the year at Triple-A Reno, posting a 4.10 ERA in 26 1/3 innings.
He reached free agency at the end of the year, which led to his minor league deal with the Phils. Since he’s been posting good results, he’ll get a chance to come back to the majors and fill in for Marté. Ruiz is out of options and therefore can’t be easily sent back down to the minors later in the year. But he has less than four years of MLB service time, meaning he could be retained beyond this season if he sticks on the roster all year long.
Phillies Designate Ricardo Pinto For Assignment
The Phillies announced that they’ve designated right-hander Ricardo Pinto for assignment this afternoon. The move opens up a spot on the active roster for right-hander Taijuan Walker, who the club activated from the 15-day injured list ahead of his start against the Padres in San Diego this afternoon.
Pinto, 30, signed with Philadelphia on a minor league deal back in February and got the call to the majors shortly after Opening Day. He’s struggled mightily in a multi-inning relief role int he majors this year, pitching to a 10.97 ERA with a 6.07 FIP in 10 2/3 innings of work across six appearances. He’s struck out just 13.6% of batters faced with the Phillies while walking 8.5%.
Given those brutal numbers, it’s hardly a surprise that the Phillies decided to pull the plug on Pinto, who first came up to the majors as rookie with the club back in 2017. Since then, he’s pitched in the Rays, White Sox, and Tigers organizations in addition to taking a sojourn overseas to pitch for the KBO’s SK Wyverns. While he’s posted a decent 4.43 ERA in 347 2/3 innings of work at the Triple-A level throughout his career, he’s never managed to pitch effectively in the big leagues as demonstrated by his career ERA of 9.07.
Looking ahead, the Phillies will have seven days to either work out a trade for Pinto or attempt to pass him through waivers. Should he clear waivers, the club would have the opportunity to assign him outright to the minor leagues, though Pinto would have the opportunity to reject that assignment in favor of free agency as a player who has previously been outrighted in his career.
Pinto’s departure from the roster makes room for the return of Walker, who has not yet made an appearance in the majors this season after starting the season on the IL due to a shoulder impingement. Walker is entering the second year of his four-year, $72MM contract with Philadelphia and enters the 2024 campaign on the heels of a decent 2023 season that saw him post a roughly league average 4.38 ERA with a 4.53 FIP in 172 2/3 innings of work. Both Walker and the Phillies are surely hoping that the right-hander will return to the form he showcased with the Mets in 2022, when he pitched to a solid 3.49 ERA (111 ERA+) with a 3.65 FIP in 29 starts.
In the meantime, the biggest question brought up by Walker’s return is what the club will do with righty Spencer Turnbull. Initially signed to act as a long reliever and swingman, the 31-year-old righty has been nothing short of dominant to this point in the season with a 1.33 ERA and 3.12 FIP in 27 innings of work across five starts. Per recent comments from club manager Rob Thomson, the club won’t decide what’s next for Turnbull until after Walker’s start tonight.
Phillies Notes: Walker, Turnbull
- Taijuan Walker is expected to be activated from the 15-day injured list on Sunday to start the Phillies’ game against the Padres. A shoulder impingement delayed Walker’s 2024 debut, and it also created an opportunity for Spencer Turnbull to open some eyes as the fill-in starter in Philadelphia’s rotation. With an outstanding 1.33 ERA over 27 innings and five starts, Turnbull has certainly pitched well enough to remain in the starting mix, but Rob Thomson told the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Alex Coffey (X link) and other reporters that a decision will be held off on Turnbull’s next step until after Walker throws on Sunday. Turnbull could get a proper start on Tuesday, or be part of a piggyback start with Cristopher Sanchez in Monday’s game. With Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez, Sanchez, and Turnbull all looking great thus far in the season, Walker’s return gives the Phillies a rare pitching surplus at the moment, and creates a nice problem for the team to navigate.
The Evolution Of Alec Bohm
The Phillies are out to a strong 16-10 start here in 2024 and a portion of the credit has to go to third baseman Alec Bohm, who is out to a scorching-hot start at the plate.
The lanky corner infielder has taken 104 trips to the plate this year over 26 games and has a batting line of .333/.423/.556. That translates to a wRC+ of 170, indicating he’s been 70% better than the league average hitter so far this year. Among qualified hitters, that makes him the 12th best in the majors so far on the young season.
He probably can’t stay quite this hot over a longer stretch of time. His .386 batting average on balls in play this year is well above his career rate of .324 as well as the .290 league average. Since his exit velocity numbers are pretty similar to previous seasons, the BABIP will likely regress a bit going forward. However, he’s also made some gains in the plate discipline department that could perhaps be more sustainable, as they fit a pattern of growth that goes back a few years.
Bohm went through three minor league levels as a prospect in 2019, going from Low-A to High-A to Double-A. He walked in 10.6% of his plate appearances and only struck out 13.5% of the time. Prospect evaluators had praised his eye at the plate and those numbers tracked with that. He hit .305/.378/.518 that year across those minor league levels for a 161 wRC+.
In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, Bohm shot onto the scene with a huge major league debut. He hit .338/.400/.481 for a 138 wRC+. His 20% strikeout rate and 8.9% walk rate weren’t quite as strong as in the minors the year prior, but that was fairly logical for a guy skipping Triple-A and getting to the big leagues for the first time.
But it seems the league adjusted the next year, as Bohm endured an awful sophomore slump in 2021. He took 417 trips to the plate that year and was punched out in 26.6% of them. His walk rate also fell to 7.4%. He only hit seven home runs on the year, leading to a paltry line of .247/.305/.342 and a 77 wRC+. He was optioned to the minors for a time, spending just over a month on the farm from late August to late September.
Since that awful season, however, Bohm has been gradually climbing in terms of his results and approach at the plate . In 2022, his walk rate dropped to 4.9% but he only struck out at a 17.4% clip, almost a ten-point drop from the prior season. His .280/.315/.398 batting line wasn’t amazing, leading to a 98 wRC+, but it was still progress relative to the prior year.
Last season, he continued down that path by dropping his strikeout rate even further to 15.4%, with his walk rate ticking up slightly to 6.9%. He also set a new career high with 20 home runs, leading to a .274/.327/.437 slash and 105 wRC+.
As mentioned up top, Bohm has a huge slash line this year, which is at least partly fueled by his strong BABIP. But he’s also drawn walks at a massive 13.5% clip, almost double where he was at last year. He’s swinging at just 27.8% of pitches outside the zone so far this year, whereas he chased at a 33.4% rate in prior seasons. Even when he does chase, his 79% contact rate on pitches outside the zone is far higher than the 71.2% rate he had coming into the year. On pitches in the zone, he’s making contact at a 93.6% rate, compared to his 86.7% rate coming into the year.
Looking at his swinging-strike rate, there is a direct downward trend from his sophomore slump year in 2021 to the present. It was 11.7% that year but dropped to 9.6% the year after, followed by 7.8% last year. He’s down to just 5.1% this year. Going forward, BABIP results will sway with luck as they often do. But the fact that he swings and misses less as time goes on suggests that he has been maturing in the areas he can control.
What’s also encouraging is that he’s been doing damage against both lefties and righties this year, whereas he had seemed to be leaning towards a short-side platoon role in previous years. He currently has a career 143 wRC+ against southpaws but just an 87 otherwise. As recently as last year, those figures were 142 against lefties and 92 against righties. So far this season, he’s at 205 and 149, still a big split but well above average regardless of who he has faced.
Defense is also important for Bohm, as he’s never been considered an especially strong third baseman, nor one who was destined to stay there for a long time. Going into 2020, the Baseball America scouting report on Bohm contained this passage: “Kris Bryant and Troy Glaus are the only players 6-foot-5 or taller to play more than 200 games at third base in MLB history. Bohm is unlikely to become the third.”
Well, Bohm has already gone past that 200-game threshold, having already played 388 contests at the hot corner. The results have not been great, however, as he has career tallies of -49 Defensive Runs Saved and -11 Outs Above Average.
Last year, the Phillies started playing Bohm at first base more with Rhys Hoskins injured, but Bryce Harper eventually took it over. Though Harper was previously an outfielder, he returned from Tommy John surgery as a designated hitter and then eventually moved into first base due to the lesser throwing demands at that position.
After the 2023 season, it was announced that Harper would stay at first base going forward and would not be returning to the outfield. Since Kyle Schwarber is effectively a full-time designated hitter now, Bohm is locked in at third.
It’s possible to see some evolution in his glovework at third as well, depending on which metric you trust. DRS has continued to be extremely pessimistic, with Bohm at -10 or worse in each of the previous three campaigns. He’s already at -3 DRS so far this year, not even a month into the season. But OAA is bit more hopeful, since Bohm bottomed out by that metric with a -9 in 2022, before getting to +1 last year. Though that was in a smaller sample size since he spent roughly half his time at first base, where OAA gave him a -6 on the year. He’s still at an even zero at third base so far in the early parts of 2024, meaning OAA considers him roughly average at the hot corner going back to the start of last year. Even if one buys into that more optimistic view, Bohm will likely have to move off third at some point.
Schwarber is a free agent after 2025, which could perhaps allow Bohm to share first base and designated hitter with Harper. On the other hand, Nick Castellanos is under contract through 2026 and is also considered a weak defender, so perhaps he becomes the DH when Schwarber’s contract is up. The club has had past interest in trading Castellanos and he’s currently hitting .177/.233/.198, so there’s definitely a chance he’s no longer with the team by 2026 (whether due to a trade or release).
Bohm is controlled via arbitration through the 2026 season and could perhaps be extended beyond that point if the club really believes in his bat. But it’s not a perfect roster fit even after Schwarber and Castellanos are gone. Harper’s contract goes all the way through 2031, and it seems he’ll stay a first baseman and designated hitter for the rest of his career. Having Harper and Bohm locked in at those two spots isn’t ideal roster construction, as clubs often like to have at least some ability to rotate their regular players through the DH spot for a bit of rest.
For now, Bohm will stick at third and the club will likely be happy to live with his defense as long as he’s good in the batter’s box. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said as much a few years ago. “His key is he has to hit. If he hits well enough, you’ll live with the defensive aspect of it,” said Dombrowski after Bohm’s rough 2021 campaign. With Bohm’s results so far this year, he’s making things easy on Dombrowski and the Phils, and will continue to do so if he can keep it up.