The Phillies have announced several roster moves ahead of tonight’s series opener in Toronto. Since unvaccinated players aren’t eligible to cross the Canada-U.S. border, each new home series for the Blue Jays leads to a handful of players on the opposing team landing on the restricted list instead of making the trip. In the case of the Phils, they have four players not with the team up north. Catcher J.T. Realmuto, infielder Alec Bohm, right-handers Kyle Gibson and Aaron Nola have all been placed on the restricted list. To fill two of those roster spots, catcher Rafael Marchan has been recalled, while right-hander Nick Duron has had his contract selected. Both Marchan and Duron were identified as “substitute players,” meaning they can be returned to the minors without being exposed to waivers.
Duron, 26, will make his MLB debut as soon as he gets into a game. Originally a 31st round pick of Boston in 2015, he spent a few years in the system of the Red Sox and then the Mariners. The Phillies signed him to a minor league deal in the offseason and sent him to Triple-A.
Through 28 innings with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Duron has a 2.57 ERA, 30.3% strikeout rate and 42.6% ground ball rate. However, he also has a concerning 12.3% walk rate, something that has been a theme for his in recent years. The last time he posted a walk rate lower than 10.6% was back in 2018. Still, the strikeouts are helping limit the damage enough to earn a big league look. It’s likely to be just temporary, however, with Duron likely to be removed from the roster once the Phillies get back from Toronto.
Imagine this team missing out on the wild card by the number of games they potentially drop in this series. “What might have been?”
It’s a 2 game series. Neither Gibson or Nola were scheduled to pitch and honestly not having Bohm or Realmuto in the lineup for 2 days will not make or break the Phillies season
The unvaxxed players unable to play in Toronto combined with the Suarez and Eflin injuries causing an absolute cluster f.
I think Cyr and Guthrie should fill the other two spots. Doesn’t hurt to give two players who have done well in Lehigh a quick cup of coffee
Cyr’s been a little shaky coming back from his injury and I wouldn’t want them to have to risk exposing Guthrie to waivers in sending him back down (which they would need to do if they couldn’t find someone else to boot off the 40 after this series in his place).
true about Cyr, but as COVID replacements they wouldn’t have to be exposed to waivers so Guthrie would be safe
I think they are only getting two spots for Covid replacements given Nola and Gibson weren’t scheduled to start.
oh ok that makes sense, thanks
So I’m guessing they only got permission to fill Bohm and JT’s slots. Duron is an interesting promotion, but I’m kinda shocked Emanual wasn’t promoted over him.
I read somewhere they’ll also get a replacement for Gibson on Thursday since it will be 3 days since he pitched by then.
Good to see Marchan was not seriously injured by that dirty slide into his ankle.
I missed last night’s game but it looks like Bohm was pulled after his first AB
Jammed finger on a bad slide. Would probably be day to day if he could travel
Bohm, wouldn’t have played until Friday at the earliest. It is worse then a jammed ring finger, it is dislocated.
Bohm thought he had broken his finger, but it was only dislocated. They popped it back in place. Probably won’t need to go on the IL, but the time off from the Toronto visit will certainly help him recover quicker.
What great teammates. I hope we don’t have a World Series this year in Toronto
You mean you hope the Phillies aren’t in the W.S.?
I didn’t realize hope was needed for the Phillies to not be in the WS.
That would be very interesting. What would be even more interesting is how active Toronto is in the trade market. There are obviously some guys that cannot be traded to the Jays. It is just such a competitive disadvantage.
It’s one thing for these guys to miss a 3 game series, but imagine having to miss half your team games including half the playoff games. It could probably be worked out for a starting pitcher with a lot of finagling, but a position player would be useless.
The ruling only applies to visiting players. Any member of the Blue Jays can play regardless of their vaccination status. If that makes any sense at all, that is what it is.
That’s not actually how it works, the US border has the same rules for people coming into the US. The Blue Jays players are all fully vaxxed because otherwise they would forfeit half their salaries (live in the US and play road games or live in Toronto and only play home games). That was mentioned on a Jays broadcast at the beginning of the year.
It certainly is disadvantage at the trade deadline, because it limits the Blue Jays pool of potential trade targets to guys that are vaccinated, whereas the other teams don’t need to worry about that.
Conversely, the Jays are at an advantage all year playing shorthanded teams in Toronto.
@calgary
Not really. Losing half your salary can be a great motivator for rolling up your sleeve.
@tarheelfan
Apparently they are, and it has nothing to do with sacredcow.
I don’t think either team has much to worry about there…
Realmuto took all that money only to be a coward about a needle because Alex Jones told him to, pathetic. Phillies should sue him.
Phillies should sue him for forgetting how to hit.
Imagine if the Red Sox had Kept Duron. They could have him and Duran on the same team. That team would be hungry as a beast!
The word you’re looking for is Wolf.
They were willing to disregard the science and purpose for the vaccinations. These are people who meet with the public fairly often and travel a lot. They visit hospitals with sick kids and elderly there. what if they had passed the virus on to somebody who was far from a 31 year old athlete in prime condition. Not getting the vacine was a selfish, thoughtless thing to do. It shows who they are. We dont need players/teammates in Philadelphia that show so little thought for others. Trade them!
The Phillies will likely tear down the team as currently constructed, but it will be for a lack of competitiveness, not vaccines.
We are also going to fold up shop soon. The pitching-only experiment has failed.