10:07am: Reliever Tommy Hunter was pushed to the 60-day injured list, opening the needed 40-man spot. He will not be eligible to return to the majors until the end of May.
9:36am: The club has announced the move and selected the contract of infielder Phil Gosselin. He’ll take the open active roster spot but will also need a 40-man slot, meaning that another transaction is still coming.
9:19am: The Phillies have made an early-season change in their rotation by optioning down struggling righty Nick Pivetta, Matt Gelb of The Athletic is among those to cover via Twitter. He’ll be replaced in the starting five by just-recalled righty Jerad Eickhoff, with a corresponding roster move as yet unknown.
This is a notable move for a variety of reasons. Among other things, the team’s control rights are implicated. Pivetta entered the season with 1.129 years of service and now sits at 1.149. He’ll need to be on the active roster for at least 23 more days this season to pass into a new service class. The demotion all but ends any possibility that he’d be a Super Two player this fall.
Service time considerations surely didn’t drive this decision. The Phils are locked in an intense divisional battle and need every bit of quality they can muster on the MLB roster. Pivetta just hasn’t had it; through four starts and 18 1/3 innings, he has coughed up 17 earned runs on 31 hits with a 16:8 K/BB ratio. His swinging-strike rate has dropped from 12.0% last year down to 8.5% in 2019.
It makes sense to allow Pivetta some time to work things out; likewise, it’s understandable that the club wishes to give Eickhoff an early run in the rotation. He has already shown the ability to be a high-quality MLB hurler, with a 3.87 ERA through 385 2/3 innings. Injuries intervened, but the hope now is that he’s ready to return to his previously established ceiling.
Eickhoff, now 28, certainly had a promising season debut yesterday against the Mets. His velocity was back at its customary 91 mph level. Eickhoff threw four scoreless frames in relief, striking out six while allowing just three baserunners. That stood in contrast to Pivetta’s own, messier effort over the first five innings of a contest that turned out to be a rotation face-off.
This switch is notable, but doesn’t come with particularly high stakes for the team. Pivetta can always be brought back up; he’d be a fascinating multi-inning relief candidate if there’s no need or desire to return him to a starting role later this year. If neither pitcher is up to the task, there are alternatives. Enyel De Los Santos, Ranger Suarez, and Drew Anderson all have 40-man spots, prior MLB experience, and rotation jobs at Triple-A. The summer trade market should offer some opportunities. And there’s always a possibility that the Phils will come back around to still-unsigned veteran Dallas Keuchel, who was a reported target at times over the offseason.
DFA Harper
He’s only been on base in every single game.
Is this the guy they got for paplebon or Byrd?
They got him for Papelbon.
Correct. They received Ben Lively for Byrd. Lively was selected off waivers from the Phillies by KC and is currently pitching on their AAA team.
and Eflin for Rollins, was it? with LA?
Yes, they did get Eflin for Rollins.
Eichkoff looked real good last night and was decent from 2015-2017 while Pivetta is way too hittable and homer prone
I guess outdueling Steven Matz last night wasn’t enough to keep him in the majors.
he was mediocre at best yesterday.
But at least he made it out of the first inning
LOL out dueling? He labored through five innings after being handed a 10 run lead!
“That’s the joke” – Rainier Wolfcastle
You suck, McBain!
With a 10 run lead he still looked uncomfortable. You should pitch way better than he did with a 10 run lead
Lol. Your offense puts up a 10 spot in the first certainly helped.
He could’ve given up 13 runs and still “outdueled” Matz.
For what it is worth, his Super Two dreams for this upcoming offseason aren’t quite dead yet. If he is on option for fewer than 20 days, he gets that service back and could still end up with a full season of MLS.
He’s been horrendous. Ironically, the offense has given him 2 wins.
Eickhoff looked good last night so he’ll be taking his place. I hope Pivetta can figure things out, but throwing him out there was a huge liability. We keep hearing about the “great stuff” Pivetta has, but when he pitches balls fly out of parks. I feel for the kid, but he has to work things out.
I’m not concerned about his Super Two status in the slightest. He would need to EARN that status. Right now, he is not. The kid has a lot of potential but needs to try and get himself right. He had a short leash this year. Thankfully Arrieta and Velasquez have both looked steady in the early going.
Gosselin…? He’s an infielder, so it looks like the Segura “tweak” may be worse than reported. Phillies don’t have an off day for a couple of weeks…..they’ll need that extra arm in the bullpen methinks….
He is an infielder, but for the sake of Phillies fans I hope they don’t plan on having Gosselin play any SS.
Ever thought about a shift to the bullpen for him? He’s got a lot of strikeouts in that arm.
He has been giving up walks, hits and homers early. I don’t think he’s bullpen material unless the manager need to give up some runs for sports betting purposes.
Fortunately, Pete Rose isn’t calling the shots in Philly.
Pivetta was everyone’s “ breakout “ pitcher. Watching last night, he was working quicker and trying to pound the zone, but it almost seemed he was working too quickly and as a result was all over the place, including the middle of the plate.
Glad to see Eickhoff back .
He was understandably upset from the demotion. He’ll need to get it together and perform, as of now, I’m not even sure he is the first one called up between himself DLS, Anderson, and Irvin. To make matters worse, I don’t think Eickhoff is giving his spot up. Now factor in a trade to bolster the rotation, I’m not sure Pivetta makes it back to the Phillies rotation. Maybe the bullpen. As a side implication, it will be interesting to see how VV responds, he was expected to have a shorter leash than Pivetta.
I’m willing to bet one of eick or Velasquez will get hooked at some point. It’s not as if Velasquez has cemented his slot. He has one solid 5 inning start against WSN and a 6 inning start against Miami. Both solid enough but he could certainly get axed with a couple bad outings. He’s historically a fly ball pitcher with control issues. That’s not exactly a great recipe in citizens bank park so I think we’ll see pivetta again if he irons out his own issues.
Yea, despite Pivetta’s demotion, I think he still has the greater potential to put it all together on a consistent basis than VV does, simply because Nick’s got more weapons in his arsenal. He just can’t keep that ball down, though, so he’s not fooling anybody and just gettin clobbered. The stuff has decent movement (we’ve been hearing about Nick’s ‘stuff’ for quite a while, and he does have it), but if it’s up in the zone and moving out across the middle of the plate, MLB hitters are going to feast on that. Eflin just got rocked last time out, but if you take a look at his recent quality starts, they’ve been based on his ability to keep the ball down while still enticing hitters to swing and either miss or make weak contact. Nick’s just gotta to the same. Happier than ever to see Eickhoff back; just hope he can stay healthy. I liked what I saw out of DLSantos last year–I think he replaces VV within a month.
This is why pitcher “wins” are such a terribly overrated stat – Pivetta has two of ’em.
When Pivetta pitches I hear Tom Hank’s (as Forrest Gump) in my head saying “Nick is like a box of choc-o-lates….you never know what you’re gonna get”. It happens when Scare-us Neris takes the mound as well. On a related note, I am quite happy I don’t have a weak heart, Today’s 9th inning would have done me in.
Scare-us Neris is so true. He doesn’t seem like he can ever get things together.
As for Pivetta, I see him as more of a deal sweetener piece at this point. A bit better than a throw in, but certainly not someone a trade is built around.
Destined for long relief.
Strange service time implications are discussed in this case but were completely ignored in Ian Happ’s case, despite him entering the season with similar service time.