The Phillies announced that Cody Asche will be optioned to Triple-A and converted into an outfielder. That move seems all but certain to herald the return of top prospect Maikel Franco, a third baseman. As Ryan Lawrence of the Philadelphia Daily News tweets, Philadelphia will wait until at least Friday to formally move Franco up, which will ensure that the club will add an additional year of control.
- Meanwhile, Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. says that the club is continuing to talk with other clubs, as Todd Zolecki of MLB.com tweets. “We’ve been in dialogue about a lot of things,” said Amaro. “That really hasn’t stopped since the offseason.” Obviously, with Philadelphia having long been established as a seller, plenty of homework and groundwork has already been accomplished heading into the summer.
- Jung-ho Kang continues to produce at the plate for the Pirates, and Ron Cook of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette says that it isn’t too soon to increase his workload. The Pittsburgh front office and field staff is favorably impressed with Kang’s effort to adapt to his new environment, both on and off the field. Colleague Adam Bittner, meanwhile, offers a counterpoint, arguing that both Josh Harrison and Jordy Mercer have enough of a track record and promise in their peripherals to warrant continued patience.
- Rockies GM Jeff Bridich addressed his club’s pronounced struggles, as MLB.com’s Thomas Harding reports. “We have a good collection of players,” said Bridich. “And at this point, meaning the last two weeks of the season, they’ve added up to a bad team.” Colorado’s head baseball decisionmaker went on to discuss the fundamental problems he sees, such as a failure to move runners and hit when runners do reach scoring position (on the offensive side) and issuing too many walks while failing to attack the strike zone (for the club’s pitchers). While there may be plenty of truth in that assessment, and while it would surely be hard for Bridich to say much else at this stage, the fact remains that a broader roster shake-up looks like an increasingly strong option for the front office to consider.
Cody to the Giants for Belt, one disgruntled player , the other needs one position .
I hope that’s a joke, Cody Asche, if anything, is an average-ish player. Belt, on the other hand, offers some nice upside, I’d take Casey over Asche, Belt could get better than that.
Ya.. No.
I didn’t know J Hay was struggling as much as he is. I know he was a lot of fun to watch last year. On other news, I would love to see the Orioles somehow get CarGo from the Rockies. I really would.
Another rumor was that the angels were also looking at Cargo
Oh no, the Phillies are intentionally keeping Franco down a few days to delay his FA. Somebody alert Scott Boras!!!
And sent Cody Asche down 4 days early just to thumb their noses, to boot.
Franco isn’t nearly the prospect Bryant was; his minor league stats make him look like the new Kevin Kouzmanoff.
Could this transition be just as beneficial to him as it was to Alex Gordon? We shall see…
Asche doesn’t have nearly the prospect pedigree of Alex Gordon. A better comparison might be Brock Holt.
I don’t know how many outfielders the Phillies need. They already have too many on the big league roster and they have Jordan Danks, Brian Bogusevic & Domonic Brown in AAA. The last thing they need is another outfielder
Asche has not shown well as a second baseman while in the minors. If Franco meets hopes, he’ll be the third bagger for some time. Asche is a gamer who could surpass projections with hard work but he needs a new position. He may end up as a utility player but I think he’s a big leaguer. By the trade deadline if not sooner, Asche should be recalled.
Asche reminds me of Ryan Flaherty. Decent utility player who can swing it a little v. RHP.
They have two dead spots on the major league roster in the outfield in Sizemore and Francouer, so they could open up some slots by just releasing those guys.
Are any of these players big league starter quality? The Phillies are looking for outfielders in trades. It’s one of their biggest needs.
Brown has shown marked improvement in his time at AAA post-rehab, and he’s been surprisingly good in RF, considering how terrible he was in left.
He’s also not young, but young enough that his upside is still in the “possible” range, rather than simply “unlikely.”
All of those mentioned are just fillers. None have a future with the club, as in none of them will be around when the Phils are competitive again…. Brown needs to come back soon and show if he could sink or swim and if anything, build a little trade value. Asche had no future at 3B with this organization, so not sure what they hope to get out of this…heck, depending on who Phils land in a trade for Hamels (Seager, Devers?), Franco may still end up at 1B.
But, depending on how bad a situation any team may be in,and especially if they need a left-handed bat….they could be emergency situation major leaguers…I actually think Bogusevic was more deserving to be on the big league club than Sizemore….
Play Kang until he stops hitting. With the Bucs anemic offense, how can you not play a guy with a .900+ OPS? Seems to field 3b well to boot. Harrison can go back to super-utility. He’ll stop pressing eventually. Josh has hit a lot of at-em balls the past week, so it’s only a matter of time. Mercer is an OK SS, not a superstar and certainly not irreplaceable. Right now Bucs need offense, so the solution should be obvious as to who gets the starts.
Excellent point about josh hitting a lot of “at-em” balls. Those balls will start to find holes soon and start showing as a positive in his slash line
What took so long? The Phillies knew Franco was coming on strong and waiting in the wings. Asche should have started his conversion in Spring Training — it’s not like the OF candidates back in March were going to prevent him from ever seeing time out there. Classic Phillie bungling of a simple situation that was seen by everybody months earlier.
I saw a rumor that the giants were looking at Asche
Franco’s young, had only played one season at AAA and didn’t do too well in his 2014 call-up, plus the team was going nowhere this year regardless of who played 3rd. Asche, however, showed significant promise last year, so he was given a chance to try to prove he could stick – while Franco’s D had been less than adequate prior to 2014 (which is why there was all the talk of him displacing Howard at 1st).
The Phillies have bungled many things, but not bringing up a 22-year-old 3B early enough in a lost season that they lose an additional year of control? That ain’t one of ’em.
You misunderstand what I meant. I simply meant they bungled not having Asche work in the OF to make him more useful to the team when the opportunity came earlier. The Phillies clearly want Franco to be the 3B of the future and, if that’s where they’re headed, Asche is left without a place to play. Since he’s proven capable at the Major League level why wouldn’t you see if he could handle the OF during Spring Training? It’s not like the cast of characters the Phillies had working in the OF during February and March were going to make it impossible for Asche to get time out there.
Asche is young enough and cheap enough, plus the Phillies outfield (both presently and in mid-tier prospects) is full enough, that he’s a trade candidate. With that in mind, 3Bs are worth significantly more than LF (which is the only outfield space Asche will ever even temporarily occupy), and it also happens to be the position that he has the most experience playing.
If Asche did well this year, with Franco also doing well, you can see about trading the former for something you need (like a young catcher or a 2B), or hanging onto him and converting him then. Doing so now indicates that the team has lost faith in his ability to hack it as a 3B, which was certainly not the case to start the season.
My impression was that 3B was Asche’s job to lose, and he lost it. Poor defense, strikes out all the time, not much power. Not sure if I would expect to see him back in Philly anytime soon whether he learns the outfield or not. I can’t think of another team he would start for as an outfielder or third baseman. Would someone even pick him up if he was out of options and released? Somewhat doubtful.
I imagine a team would take him if he were released. He’s got enough potential, and he’s young (enough) that he’d be like a free Rule 5 pick.
Research it a little and you will find he did get work in the OF in spring training. He focused on 3rd because that is his primary position and he went into the season as the 3rd basemen but they did try him in the OF in February.
J-Hay and Mercer are on the Hot seat no question. Hurdle will rotate Mercer and J-Hay in and out to get them some at bats so they hopefully recover from the rough start. J-Hay can play most anywhere so shouldn’t be much of an issue.
I’m wondering if Kang will have a ‘rookie’ slump where he does really good and pitchers figure him out and he does bad. Kang does seem to adjust well and fairly quick.
That home run Sunday was a perfect example of how well he is adjusting. It was an 0-2 count so he held back the leg kick and still homered. I’m sure he’ll slump at some point but for right now ride the hot bat and work in J Hay when you can. I do feel Mercer is all but assured a spot every day since he’s the only proven glove at SS and went through the motions last year to still finish with a productive season.
Waiting until the end of the week will assure the Phillies Franco won’t be a Super 2. They already have control for 6 full seasons after 2015.
Actually no. Because he was in the big leagues September waiting until Friday will ensure they have 6 seasons after 2015 and that he will be a super 2.
Yeah, we don’t find out until the end of the season what date the Super-2 cutoff is/was.