The Phillies announced they’ve designated minor league righty Tyler Phillips for assignment. The move clears space on the 40-man roster for utilityman Luke Williams, who has been activated from the COVID-19 injured list. Outfielder Mickey Moniak was optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley to open active roster space for Williams.
Phillips joined the Philadelphia organization in July, when they added him via waiver claim from the Rangers. He’d spent his entire career up to that point with Texas, who drafted him in 2015. Phillips posted quality numbers throughout much of his low minors tenure, but he struggled a bit upon reaching Double-A two years ago and was knocked around in his first four Triple-A appearances this season.
The Phillies assigned Phillips to Double-A Reading after adding him, but he was tagged for nine runs (eight earned) in 11 1/3 frames of work in that hitter-friendly setting. 2021 has been a struggle for Phillips no matter where he’s pitched, as he’s managed just a 6.13 ERA over 39 2/3 total minor league frames. That has come with subpar strikeout and walk rates, as the 23-year-old has punched out 22.7% of batters faced while issuing walks at an elevated 12.7% clip.
Obviously, things haven’t gone as planned for Phillips this season. But he’s not far removed from being seen as a potential back-end starter by public prospect evaluators. Eric Longenhagen of FanGraphs ranked him 29th in the Rangers’ system this May, projecting Phillips to overcome fringy raw stuff because of potential plus-plus command.
Indeed, Phillips had doled out free passes to only 4.6% of opponents in his career entering this season, making his sudden strike-throwing woes quite perplexing. It’s certainly not of the question he could again find that kind of feel for locating and reemerge as a decent prospect. The Phillies will place him on outright or release waivers in the coming days.
ah poor Tyler, hopefully he can pull it together and play in MLB one day
I got Harper hands down NL MVP winner this year and over in the AL I got it Guerrero Jr Perez and Ohtani in that order.
Who says no on Harper?
Ohtani will win in the AL. He’s a 4.5 WAR hitter and a 4 WAR pitcher. Vlad’s obviously better offensively but voters will favor Ohtani’s versatility and WAR totals. Semien will be third instead of Perez.
It’s a toss-up between Harper, Tatis, and Soto. I’d say Harper has the edge but Soto’s been on a tear for the last two months and isn’t slowing down. These last two weeks will be a tiebreaker.
It’ll be the first time in a long time that neither MVP comes from a playoff team.
Padres and Phillies can still make the playoffs, and even though that shouldn’t matter, one of the two making it can very likely determine the MVP.
I mean yeah theoretically they could take that second WC spot but they won’t lol
I don’t think that either team making the WC game will be enough to automatically put one over the other. The Phillies and Padres both have a ton of talent and they were both expected to be a lot better than the 83 win-pace teams they actually are
Actually Phillies were expected to have exactly 83 wins. But only because the division was expected to beca lot better. Phillies are 2 behind Atlanta. So I think they can possibly win the division. But that’s a longshot.
Oh dang I didn’t realize the Phillies were projected that poorly. I’d vote for Soto only because I like him more haha
rWAR favors Tatis and Soto, fWAR I’m assuming favors Harper since fangraphs kind of looks past defense and baserunning a little more. I’m pretty sure both sites have Ohtani at first place in WAR, also, so he’ll probably win unanimously.
Wow. The Phillies are throwing in the towel.
They have done this all year. They win four in a row on the road then lose at home to the worst team in baseball. This team loves to drive it’s fans crazy.
It’s the problem when you have an all-or-nothing lineup. Harper has carried this team, and that’s an issue. Segura stepped up at times. No one else really. They can’t do it by themselves. Realmuto is not seeing the ball well and the bottom of the lineup is full of automatic outs. So they’ll win big at times, but then go on losing stretches. Their opponents don’t matter. They beat themselves. If you can’t hit, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing.
At the end of the day, the Phillies really handled the NL East, but they lost keys series to the Pirates, Diamondbacks and Rockies. So far they lost the 1st game to Baltimore. That right there is why the Phillies are not in first.
I think Vlad should win the AL MVP, but Ohtani will probably win it by a pretty good margin because the writers/voters are so in love with what they haven’t seen before, a P/DH/OF who has hit 45 HRs stolen 20+ bases and pitched with success. However, Vlad being a 22 year old who may win the triple crown as well as lead the Majors in all 3 categories & more. In the NL, I think Harper should win it unless he just slumps the rest of the way and the Phillies lose 1/2 of their remaining games. When Tatis was not in the lineup (2 10 day trips I believe?) The Padres still played winning ball. If you took Harper off of this Phillies lineup, they may be the worst offense in baseball. Soto, has been hot lately, but he was ice cold early in the year, and his team may not have traded Scherzer and Turner otherwise.
What Vlad is doing is amazing, but what Ohtani is doing is historic. He’s putting up more impressive stats than Babe Ruth.