In a few weeks, we’ll be running a two-team mock expansion draft here at MLBTR – just for the fun of it! Currently, we’re creating 15-player protected lists for each of the existing 30 teams. You can catch up on the rules for player eligibility here.
The American League results are in! Click here to see who’s protected and who’s available for each AL team.
Click here for previous entries in the series. The Phillies are up next.
First, we’ll remove free agents J.T. Realmuto, Jay Bruce, Tommy Hunter, Jake Arrieta, Didi Gregorius, Jose Alvarez, and David Robertson from consideration. Bryce Harper and Jean Segura will make the protected list due to their no-trade clauses. As Baseball America Top 100 prospects with a 2020 ETA, Spencer Howard and Alec Bohm will also make the list. We’ll protect a total of 11 players out of the gate:
Bryce Harper
Jean Segura
Spencer Howard
Alec Bohm
Aaron Nola
Rhys Hoskins
Scott Kingery
Zack Wheeler
Zach Eflin
Adam Haseley
Hector Neris
That leaves four spots for the remaining 19 players. Check out the Phillies’ contract statuses here.
Vìctor Arano
Austin Davis
Enyel De Los Santos
Seranthony Dominguez
Edgar Garcia
Kyle Garlick
Deivy Grullon
Deolis Guerra
Cole Irvin
Andrew Knapp
Reggie McClain
Andrew McCutchen
Adam Morgan
Nick Pivetta
Roman Quinn
Robert Stock
Ranger Suarez
Vince Velasquez
Nick Williams
With that, we turn it over to the MLBTR readership! In the poll below (direct link here), select exactly four players you think the Phillies should protect in our upcoming mock expansion draft. Click here to view the results.
Arano and Suarez have to be locks
Agree on Suárez but it doesn’t seem like the majority of people agree.
he’s vastly better than VV and Pivetta and anyone who watches this team knows that. The latter two are proof stuff doesnt equal performance. even as RPs last year both were horrid.
Dominguez health issues are troublesome but he is 25 and would be protected. Also Quinn is young and cheap(injuries aside) he is worth protecting. The rest of that list is a bunch of garbage and missed potential(VV, Pivetta)
Who was the one person who voted for Robert Stock?
lol i dont know
They put a lot of stock into his one year with the Padres where he showed promise I suppose.
Wonder if they meant to click Suárez or Quinn?
Probably Robert Stock
Pitching pitching pitching. Might lose Grullon, Quinn, or someone. That’s okay. Keep every arm possible.
I can’t name four pitchers on the list that are clearly better and more important to the Phillies than Deivy. As for Roman Quinn, I’m not sure what contributions he makes that have more impact than 5 or 6 other guys on the list. I’d go with Deivy Gruollon, Arano, Suarez, and Seranthony Dominguez. Cutch will probably not get picked since he has a large contract.
That’s exactly who I went with. I don’t understand protecting Cutch’s contract coming off the ACL, and I’ve seen enough of Pivetta and VV that I’d risk losing them over the younger arms. And you need Grullon in case JT walks. There’s no guarantee he re-signs.
I agree. Pivetta and Velasquez are okay but there are just other players that are better and more important to the club long-term.
I chose:
Dominguez
Suarez
Velasquez
McCutchen
McCutchen is still good, and with the outfield Philly has, I think you have to keep him. Dominguez is a lock IMO, because despite injuries, you can’t weaken that pen anymore than you need to. Velasquez I heard might be the closer, so Philly fans, please tell me if that is true. Suarez is young and has tons of potential.
Flip cutch with Arano and i’d be fine with that. VV is interchangable.
Arano, Suarez and Dominguez are the best guys there
I’ve heard Girardi wants to make him the closer but the front office wants to give him one more shot at starting.
I’d ease him into the closer role. Let him come in the 9th in a 6-1 game or whatever and let him get a feel for finishing games. On the road in a tie game in the 9th, VV could go 2, 3 even 4 innings in that situation if needed in extras.
VV needs to be in the pen because hes brutal the 2nd and 3rd time through the order.
Surprised McCutcheon was so high.. Need his offense but in an expansion draft, I’d gladly see his contract go….
Didn’t vote for Arano or Suarez but if Arano is healthy, I’d keep him .
Garlick has potential and Gruillon is the bridge catcher to the younger guys if they lose JTR.
Do we get to name the expansion team?
I would go for the Bulldozers.
Depends on location.
West Coast like Oregon? Waves or Battle Axes.
West Virginia? 63s, year it became a state,. or Ironheads?
Oklahoma? Twisters or Cyclones?
Although it would be a fun series to name an expansion team on here based on city/state
Let commenters list the names, most likes gets voted for that team.
Then have a mock draft of players left unprotected for the new expansion teams. No trades. Each day or week do a round until roster is finalized. Rank who’d be taken 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th.
The Austin Armadillos would be unique (kind of has a AAA feel though). Personally, I think the Round Rock Express has a really good name for a AAA team (and cool uniforms), that could be the name of an MLB team.
Bring back the Atlantic City Surf!!!
How about the Bolts as the name of the expansion team?
My four:
CUTCH–even at his age, his production + two more years of team control make him worth keeping for a team that needs to start competing.
DOMINGUEZ–a bit of an unknown after the injury, but his upside is worth betting on.
DE LOS SANTOS and SUAREZ–they edged out Arano. A bit younger, two extra years of control, and Arano’s injury concerns (plus, already protecting two players coming off injuries). Arano was the toughest guy to leave out.
Grullon was also a tough one to leave off, especially with Realmuto as an unknown. The Phils need to extend JT ASAP.
I’m surprised Pivetta and Velasquez are getting so many votes. Pivetta just isn’t very good. Velasquez would only have one year of team control left, and he isn’t good enough to keep over guys with four extra years of control.
A Realmuto extension is basically going to be market value at this point.
Surprised more people didnt vote Pivetta actually. I wouldnt pull the plug on that project just yet. Cutch wouldnt be selected because of his contract unless theh wanted that savvy vet to be the leader of the team.
Velasquez, Arano, Suarez, Williams
I’m guessing this may already be in the works/the idea… but it would be cool at the end of this to see what a team(s) could be created if a draft were to happen and players were selected from the “available” players.
It is. In a couple weeks after the lists of protected players are made they plan to do a two-team mock expansion draft.
Kingery as one of the 15? Could have fooled the Artificial Stupidity GM in the OOTP simulation of this season! It “sent” Kingery to AAA after he started the season batting .333..The simulation is forcing the Phillies to play with one hand tied behind their backs without Kingery and that has made me have very little interest in the simulation.
I’ve noticed quite a few aberrations. Missing players, silly boxscores. MadBum pitched an eleven inning CG SHO. Eh, better than nothing, I suppose.
No Adonis Medina ?
Depressing how weak this squad is. Eflin? Wouldn’t protect him. Would protect McClutch and Arano. Rest are scrubs.
Maybe Suarez too.
Eflin is the team’s 3rd best pitcher, but okay
I think that speaks to how much of a question mark the Phillies rotation is rather than how good Eflin actually is. He wouldn’t even be in a starting rotation on many teams. You have to hope Arrieta actually bounces back and pitches like their third best pitcher this year also.
Gotta protect Suraez. He has the will and determination to be good. Hes left handed and can spot start and pitch multiple innings out of the pen. He looked really good in the abbreviated spring.
I might be in the (vast) minority but Id kick the can on Pivetta one more time- I think Philly feels theres more under the hood as well even though they are probably beyond frustrated right now
Suarez Quinn Deivy finish off this list – Surprised Quinn is so low, even as a 4th OF w speed he has enough value to keep, I think he has starter capabilities in the tank as well
I dont see how you come near McCutch with a 10 ft pole with a 2/35 left after this year- The expansion teams not sinking 20 mill to Mccutch Yr1 to start its books off
I agree on Pivetta, I mean clearly he’s been a disaster more often than not BUT I think you’re right in that there’s hope that he’s got something more there if he can just put things together. He’s obviously got the talent as evidenced by 2018’s big-time K #’s and overall being relatively effective for many of his starts. It’s just a matter of consistency and maintaining things with him — but if he could get things together I think the potential may be worth the gamble
Yea I mean hes an expansion teams wet dream with still 3 yrs remaining by then-
Its always been about the big inn with him or just the downright bad start from the get go-
Very odd case study, Id guess off hand if you take his top 80% of his best inns and avg them it would look elite……I know all pitchers #’s would look great like this but Pivettas would take an extra noticeable leap….
2018 there were signs
2019 around the As break there were signs for awhile, they just seem to blow up in 5 Er inns
You dont know Pivetta at all. even as a RP he looked bad. it wasnt about 5 run innings. Pivetta could rarely get through an inning without allowing a run. I would pray someone takes him, he’s absolutely terrible.
We are at 390 career inns in 3 yrs
He pitched 164 of those inns 2018 to a 3.79 Fip with 188 k’s
2019- From May to end of July he had a 4.00 FIP, K/9, 1.22 whip, and a 3;1 k;bb ratio. (60 inns total outta his 94 he totaled in 19′ lay in this sample )
Theres def been some ugly but theres also been a lot more bright spots than I think your willing too admit. April was a disaster and he didnt end strong last year
You wouldn’t have to pray, this is exactly the type of gambles an expansion team would want to take
DS830. I agree on Pivetta I would let him walk in this fantasy scenario. At the same time I’m praying for better results going forward under the new PC, but I am not holding my breath. He’s a mental lightweight given his pouts last season.
If the expansion team wants a very well known and very well liked veteran who fans will love on the field, and will do tons of PR off the field, not to mention work to help develop young players, McCutchen would be the perfect veteran to be the face of new team marketing.
Very true it really depends on what kind of payroll we are talking here with the new owner. Is it Mark Cuban or ” ” financial group
In my head Im thinking even 100 mill might be a stretch right out the gates-
McCutch would be 20% of that budget…..the (Gm geek) in me just cant do that despite the leadership- I mean hes only signed for 2 years and we probably aren’t going to be close then anyways, who says he wants to start a re-build…..he might want one (first) last chance at a ring with Philly
dear everyone protecting Pivetta – you all make me sick and i need to lie down
It made me sick too but I chose him !
He has more upside than anyone on the list and still 4 years left to find it
Id rather take a chance on a guy like this than one with limited upside, you might just be too close to the situation, understandable
he has less upside than anyone on this list. you’ve clearly never seen him play. his “upside” is fraudulent.
As far as MLB level upside, yea he has more upside than anyone on the list, although I do like a healthy Quinn if thats even a thing
Pivetta has had a huge problem with the 1 big inn, look at his start logs….Im not saying thats not a huge problem, runs are runs but the guy is clearly capable of mowing down MLB lineups for stretches. Couple that with hes more than a k/9 guy and Id want to give him a 3rd/4th go around as painful as that might seem to Phillies fans
Ive seen plenty of Pivetta starts, they usually entail 4 clean inns with a 1 Whip and a blow-up 4 er inn….its a problem no doubt, but looking past the overall numbers I think there Might be something still there
I agree with much of this. In South Jersey here, we get all the Phils games, I’ve seen nearly every appearance Nick has made. Great arm, clearly, but not only does he get rattled by the big inning, he is so gun shy from getting pulled quickly, you can, quite literally, see him looking over at the dugout, which leads to further concentration issues. If he can ever get his head together, I feel he may still be a successful big league pitcher. Whether that’s as a starter or reliever, remains to be seen.
Arano, Dominguez, Grullon, and Suarez are my guys. like what ive seen from that bunch and id see any of them being Round 1 selections.
Vinny, Pivetta, Ranger Suarez, and either Roman Quinn or Deivy Grullon.