Phillies right-hander Jesen Therrien underwent Tommy John surgery earlier this week and could miss the entire 2018 campaign as a result, as Jeremy Filosa of 98.5 FM Sports in Montreal (Therrien’s hometown) first reported, on Twitter.
[Related: Philadelphia Phillies depth chart]
The 24-year-old Therrien made his Major League debut this season, appearing in in 15 games and totaling 18 1/3 innings. As Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer notes, his 92.6 mph average fastball in the bigs was diminished from his minor league velocity, and Therrien’s results were nowhere near the promising output he showed in the minors. Therrien obliterated minor league opponents, posting a ridiculous 1.41 ERA with 10.2 K/9 against 1.4 BB/9 in 57 1/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A. In the Majors, he logged an 8.35 ERA on 24 hits and seven walks with just 10 strikeouts.
The loss of Therrien for the 2018 campaign will deprive the Phils of one of their more promising relief prospects next season, though Therrien is certainly young enough to bounce back and make meaningful contributions when the Phils are closer to contention in 2019 and beyond.
In the meantime, the Phillies will turn to a bullpen group that is likely to feature Hector Neris, Luis Garcia, Edubray Ramos, Kevin Siegrist and Adam Morgan next year. Other candidates will include young arms such as Victor Arano, Hoby Milner, Ricardo Pinto, Yacksel Rios and Zac Curtis, though the Philadelphia front office could certainly look to augment its internal options with some veterans on the free-agent and/or trade markets this winter. President Andy MacPhail, GM Matt Klentak and the rest of the Phils’ front office brought in veterans Pat Neshek and Joaquin Benoit last winter, both to help stabilize a group of inexperienced relievers and for the potential to emerge as summer trade chips.
Damn. Hopefully he can come back strong like he was in the minors
They blew $56 million last winter so why not do it again?
The Phillies owned the first pick in the 2018 MLB Draft right through the first week of September.
Not anymore!
Now the Phillies look set to overtake the Mets for fourth place in the N.L. Least and pick fifth next year.
Awesome rebuild! The Phillies are carving out a two year window of winning as if they were located in a far flung suburb of Kansas City.
There’s very little difference between licking 1st and picking 5th. Its baseball, not basketball.
Based on his comment I doubt he knows the difference.
How do you know you’re talking to an MLB incompetent?
They tell you the draft or the postseason is a “crap shoot”
Those are a crapshoot. The Phillies best player was a 5th rounder, and the WC team has won like 3 of the last 6 WS
Here we have a fine example of what I wrote in Brixton.
The easiest way to win your division is to have the best starting pitching in MLB and two hammers in the pen to back them up. Those seven can carry a team to a high nineties victory total even though their position players are only good for catching and throwing the ball.
When the first round of the playoffs is over that team will be going home because they can’t hit. If you can’t hit you can’t win.
Set up a team with a dynamic lineup and three top of the rotation pitchers – can be three #2’s – and two hammers in the pen and if that team can fill the fourth and fifth slots during the season enough that they can get the wildcard they can easily be the best team in the postseason.
The Cubs won the WS with their lineup. If that isn’t spectacularly clear to you then you do not understand MLB.
I wrote “spectacularly”.
To be fair, there is a bit of a difference now, due to the slot bonus pool. Picking first gets you about $2.5-3MM more to spend on signing bonuses (over the entire draft) than picking 5th.
However, it’s also true that, unlike in the NFL or NBA, those players won’t be making a difference to the team in likely their first 3 years at least. More likely 4-6. And because of that development period, the likelihood of pick 1 working out more than pick 5 is negligible.
Casey there has been extremely vocal in his desire for the Phillies to pick 1-1 pretty much all season, though (I recall him saying something along the lines of the Phillies being incompetent if they managed to win any from the Padres in the series before the ASB), so I wouldn’t expect him to back down from that position now.
Neshek,Benoit,Kendrick and Hellickson weren’t waste…they were all signed to flip at that deadline, and they all got traded. Buchholz got hurt, Saunders was horrible.thats the only money that was wasted.
none of them were really brought in with the thought that they’d help us compete with the Nats in the east, or the Dodgers or Cubs in the nl..they were brought in to buy time while the prospects developed.
They cost the Phillies $41 million this year. Justin Upton made $22 million. Imagine spending that money on two years of Upton instead of spending it the way they did. Yes, they flipped a few of those players but the return wasn’t much. None of the players they got are top 15 in their system. They’re unlikely to be good big leaguers.
I’m not gonna imagine using that money for 2 years of Upton, because Upton got a 5 year contract. And I’d rather have Nick Williams.
3 of the prospects acquired are in our top 30 right now.Dom Brown was once our top prospect, Cesar Hernandez was once a prospect nobody ever heard of. All prospects are risky,but they were still good moves for where the team was last year.
The Phillies are rebuilding. They should have topped the Red Sox bid for Yoan Moncada, but John Middleton only likes Latinos who are cheap.
No, none of the prospects acquired could sniff the bottom of a Top 300 list in MLB.
What are those Iggles up to? Why don’t you go find out?
Jose Gomez,Mackenzie Mills,Jd Hammer, all in our top 30.
And I’m aware what the Eagles are up to.they just lost a game to a team that is a legit super bowl contender.
“Our Top 30”
Are you an employee of the Phillies?
I wrote: No, none of the prospects acquired could sniff the bottom of a Top 300 list in MLB.
You don’t even understand what I’m referring to.
Nick Williams is a risky player. He strikes out a lot and doesn’t walk much. He has a .375 babip this year and that’s only gotten him an .816 OPS. The best players in MLB history have .350 lifetime babips. He has Dom Brown written all over him.
Upton is a proven star. If everything goes right for Williams he might be nearly as good as Upton.
Most prospects are players no one ever heard of at some point. Hernandez was the Phillies #14 prospect in 2013, higher than any of these guys. Mediocre prospects can become good MLB players, but few do. A mediocre prospect isn’t a good get because another mediocre prospect once was successful.
They actually spent $68 million as they got nothing for Saunders, Gomez, and Buchholz. I don’t think spending $68 million to pick up 3 mediocre prospects is a good use of the money.
Except Justin Upton isn’t going to pitch 150 innings, and play 3 positions simultaneously. It’s disingenuous to imply the money spent on 6 players could be redirected to 1 and yield superior results.
I’m a Philly sports fan, and yes I use we,us, and our. That’s not gonna change.you don’t,that’s fine, but don’t expect me not to.
Upton is a borderline star,maybe.
Williams is a rookie.For the Phillies right now,I’m taking Williams potential to grow over Upton,who is what he is.
When Moncada signed,Franco was playing good at 3rd, and we just used 1st rd picks on Crawford and Kingery.Im ok that they decided to let them develop rather than spending 50mil on a prospect that doesn’t really offer much more potential.
You develop to build a winner,you spend to push ya over the top.Im ok with what they’ve done during this rebuild.
There is no savings account for a MLB team. Whatever is not spent is removed by the owner at the end of the season never to return to the team or the fans.
And I’ll never be mad about any businessman for making money.
And fans don’t spend as much when a team is losing, so that profit isn’t the same as when they’re winning.
They’re on their way back up.the lineup is coming together,but the pitching isn’t coming together the way they hoped.but now they have a better idea of where to spend the money.
If they gave Upton his contract,probably would’ve had to top Detroit’s offer,then we’d be stuck with a of logjam and the same holes in the rotation and bullpen.if we go into 2019 and they still didn’t invest,then I’ll have a problem.but I believe we will,in pitching.
picking*