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Phillies Outright Fernando Salas

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1:55pm: Salas has accepted the outright assignment, tweets MLBTR’s Steve Adams.

12:46pm: The Phillies announced today that righty Fernando Salas has been outrighted to Triple-A after clearing waivers. He had been designated for assignment recently.

Despite throwing forty innings last year with the D-Backs, Salas opened the current season in the Mexican League before joining the Phillies on a minors pact. The 34-year-old ultimately received a three-game audition with the Phils, but the results weren’t promising. Opposing batters were as likely to get a base knock as to make an out, rapping eight hits and plating two runs in his 2 2/3 innings of work.

It is not clear at this point whether Salas will elect to remain with the Philadelphia organization, but he’ll have an opportunity instead to return to the open market. Through nearly five hundred career innings at the game’s highest level, he carries a 3.91 ERA with 8.7 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9.

Phillies Have Discussed Boyd, Greene With Tigers

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The Phillies have had recent trade talks with the Tigers, and general manager Matt Klentak will be travel to Detroit to get an in-person look at the Tigers’ trade candidates, reports Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. Of particular interest to the Phils are lefty Matthew Boyd and closer Shane Greene, although Salisbury suggests that the two teams have at least discussed outfielder Nicholas Castellanos and left-handed starter Daniel Norris.

Both the pitching staff and the bullpen are logical areas of focus for the Phillies, who recently demoted Nick Pivetta to the bullpen in favor of a dice roll on Drew Smyly (whose first start as a Phillie was excellent). Aaron Nola scuffled through a sluggish stretch earlier in the season, while Jake Arrieta is pitching through a bone spur that’ll eventually require elbow surgery. Righty Zach Eflin has been a solid mid-rotation piece, but Pivetta, Vince Velasquez, Jerad Eickhoff and rookie Cole Irvin have all struggled in their starts.

The bullpen has been an entirely different brand of problematic. David Robertson, Seranthony Dominguez, Tommy Hunter, Pat Neshek, Edubray Ramos and Victor Arano have all missed significant time due to injury in 2019, which has frequently left the Phillies to rely on questionable arms. Of late, closer Hector Neris has become extraordinarily homer prone after what had been a strong two-month run that saw him yield one homer in 22 1/3 innings.

The Phillies are only a half-game back of the Nationals for the second NL Wild Card spot and, at 7.5 games behind the Braves, are technically still within plausible reach of a push for the division — although unseating Atlanta for the division crown is admittedly a long shot. Because of those long odds, though, it’s perhaps more natural to see the Phils paying particular interest to players who can be controlled beyond 2019. Dealing significant prospects for a rental when the most likely playoff scenario involves a one-game playoff is a tough sell for any front office.

Philadelphia has about $110MM committed to next season’s payroll — about $51MM less than the team is currently carrying. They’ve also seen their opening day payroll climb as high as $177MM back in 2014. With that level of financial breathing room — Nehsek, Hunter and Juan Nicasio will all be free agents; Maikel Franco could be non-tendered — the Phillies will be able to be aggressive in reloading for another run in 2020 regardless of this season’s outcome. Adding some salary right now in proactive moves to bolster this year’s Wild Card push and next year’s division chase is only logical.

Whether that proves to be some combination of Detroit’s controllable arms, at this point, is an unknown even to the Tigers and Phillies themselves. Team president Andy MacPhail recently expressed reluctance to deal from the very top tier of the farm (e.g. Alec Bohm, Spencer Howard), and the asking price on Boyd alone is known to be enormous. Reports have ranged from seeking a young, established “star”-caliber player to a Jose Quintana-esque haul. (The Cubs sent the White Sox a four-player package headlined by Eloy Jimenez and Dylan Cease.) Salisbury suggests something similar to the latter in referencing a four-player package with two potential stars — and that’s just for Boyd.

If the Phils are to look elsewhere, USA Today’s Bob Nightengale again connects the team to Arizona ace Zack Greinke as well as D-backs left-hander Robbie Ray (Twitter link). It’s not at all clear whether the Diamondbacks will move either player, but the Phils have previously been linked to Greinke, in particular. The aforementioned payroll capacity would surely come into play in any talks involving the righty. Greinke is still owed $75MM+ in base salaries between now and 2021, plus a yearly $3MM payout on his annualized signing bonus. Beyond that, a substantial portion of his yearly salary is deferred. He’ll be paid $12.5MM annually from 2022-26.

The Phillies could certainly help alleviate some of that fiscal burden for the Diamondbacks, but Greinke is also enjoying a strong season and wouldn’t be traded away for pure salary relief. The two sides would, in all likelihood, need to agree on some combination of financial aid and still-appealing prospects. That’s a tall order under any circumstances but is especially cumbersome with a nine-day clock on negotiations at a time when the D-backs, with a 50-50 record, aren’t even decided deadline sellers. As if all of that isn’t a sizable enough roadblock, the Phillies are also on Greinke’s limited no-trade list.

Phillies Announce Drew Smyly Signing, Designate Fernando Salas

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The Phillies announced the signing of left-hander Drew Smyly, who will start Sunday. The club designated reliever Fernando Salas for assignment to make room for Smyly.

This is already the second time the Phillies have designated Salas since signing him to a minor league contract June 7. As was the case before, the 34-year-old will have the option of declining an outright assignment to the minors if he clears waivers. Salas hasn’t been part of the solution for the Phillies’ bullpen, though he has only thrown 2 2/3 major league innings this year.

Desperate for help in their starting staff, the playoff-contending Phillies are now turning to the once-respectable Smyly at the expense of Salas’ roster spot. The 30-year-old Smyly endured a disastrous stint earlier this season as a member of the Rangers, with whom he mustered an 8.42 ERA/8.06 FIP in 51 1/3 innings. Smyly then joined the Brewers on a minors pact July 1, but he opted out of it Thursday to accept another big league chance with the Phillies.

Phillies Acquire Mike Morin From Twins For Cash Considerations

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The Philadelphia Phillies have acquired right-handed pitcher Mike Morin from the Minnesota Twins in exchange for cash considerations, the team announced. Seranthony Dominguez was transferred to the 60-day injured list to make room for Morin on the 40-man roster.

The Twins designated Morin for assignment earlier this week in order to activate Eddie Rosario and C.J. Cron from the injured list. The 28-year-old gave the Twins two solid months of production out of the bullpen. He ends his Minnesota tenure after 23 appearances with a 3.18 ERA across 22 2/3 innings.

In contrast with his sparkly ERA figure, fielding independent pitching pegs Morin’s runs per nine at 4.50. Taken in conjunction with a 4.4 K/9 and .230 BABIP, and there’s cause enough to suspect Morin benefited from a tough of good luck while pitching for the Twinkies. Still, by pounding the zone (5.5 BB%) with an arsenal of downward driving sinkers, changeups, and sliders, Morin has suppressed opponents’ launch angle to a below-average 8.2 while limiting hard contact to just under 30% (league average is 34.4%).

If Morin keeps generating groundballs as he has for the Twins (47.4 GB% versus a career mark of 42.3%), he would fit the profile of someone capable of outperforming his FIP with some regularity – but that’s not been the book on Morin in the past. He is, however, prominently featuring a sinker for the first time in his 6-year career. Morin’s career resume includes a 4.48 ERA across 209 relief appearances for the Angels, Royals, Mariners and Twins.

For the Phillies, Morin provides another low-cost option for a pen that has thus far been unspectacular. Phillie relievers rank in the bottom-10 league-wide in ERA and FIP while pulling 29th with a -0.7 fWAR so far in 2019.

Phillies Interested In Jake Diekman

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Royals left-handed reliever Jake Diekman continues to generate a solid amount of interest leading up to the July 31 trade deadline. Along with the previously reported Nationals and Dodgers, Diekman is on the Phillies’ radar, according to Jeffrey Flanagan of MLB.com.

Notably, Diekman entered the pros as a 30th-round pick of the Phillies in 2007 and then pitched for the team from 2012-15. The Phillies said goodbye to Diekman in the last of those seasons when they dealt him and Cole Hamels to the Rangers in a blockbuster swap.

This year’s Phillies won Friday to improve to 50-47, but their so-so record puts them 7 1/2 games back of the NL East-leading Braves. While the Phillies are tied for the NL’s second wild-card spot, it’s up for debate how aggressive they should be heading into the deadline. President of baseball operations Andy MacPhail suggested last week the Phillies aren’t necessarily in position to make blockbuster additions before the end of the month. It’s unlikely his mind has changed in light of the up-and-down way the team has continued to play since MacPhail assessed its performance.

If Philadelphia is focused on making modest pickups to better its chances at earning a wild-card berth, Diekman would qualify. While the 32-year-old’s 4.89 ERA and 5.35 BB/9 in 38 2/3 innings say he wouldn’t do much to help the Phillies’ woeful bullpen, the rest of his numbers indicate otherwise. Diekman has notched a 3.60 FIP, 13-plus strikeouts per nine, a 47 percent groundball rate and induced infield flies at a 20 percent clip. He has also produced useful results against both lefties (.299 wOBA) and righties (.307).

Diekman does have a $5.75MM mutual option for 2020, which could make him more than a rental for an acquiring team if he pitches well down the stretch. Regardless, with the Royals nowhere near contention, he’s one of their prime trade chips remaining. The club has already dealt fellow veterans Homer Bailey and Martin Maldonado within the past week.

Phillies Move Nick Pivetta To Bullpen

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The Phillies will shift righty Nick Pivetta into the bullpen, manager Gabe Kapler tells reporters including Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Twitter). He’ll be available in a relief capacity beginning this evening.

This’ll be the second time that the 26-year-old has been bumped from his rotation spot. The first time, he was sent down to Triple-A in hopes he’d be able to work out the kinks. Pivetta has mostly struggled since returning to the majors and currently owns a 5.74 ERA over 69 innings, with 7.6 K/9 against 3.3 BB/9 and 16 long balls marring his record.

The expectation is that lefty Drew Smyly will step right into the open rotation spot. His recently reported deal still is not official, but he’s now clearly destined to move onto the MLB roster if and when it hits the book.

Pivetta threw 2 1/3 hitless innings before his latest appearance was interrupted by rain, but he also allowed four walks to go with his four strikeouts. He’s now carrying an ugly 15:13 K/BB ratio in his past 24 frames over a five-start stretch. After turning in a 12.0% swinging-strike rate in 2018, he’s sitting at 9.3% this year.

It’ll be interesting to see how the hard-throwing Pivetta functions in a relief role. Already a hard thrower, with a fastball that has traditionally been clocked at around 95 mph, it’s certainly possible his stuff will play up in shorter bursts. Whether the Phils will consider utilizing him in a multi-inning capacity remains to be seen.

The Phillies are also curious to find out what they’ll get. Kapler says the team elected to bump Pivetta to a relief role rather than Vince Velasquez because the latter has already shown the organization what he looks like in each spot. (Via Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia, on Twitter.)

Even as they hope for a boost from Smyly, the Phillies are said to be looking hard at other possible rotation upgrades. Given the team’s situation in the standings, though, it’s arguable that it shouldn’t push too hard for near-term improvements. It seems likely that the club will target hurlers who are controllable and/or require mostly cash (rather than prospects) to acquire.

Latest On Phillies’ Pitching Targets

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July 19: The Phillies have also shown some level of interest in Blue Jays righty Marcus Stroman, tweets Jon Morosi of MLB.com. Given that Stroman is eminently available and arguably the most likely pitcher in baseball to be traded in the next two weeks, it’d be a surprise if Philadelphia (or any other team eyeing rotation upgrades) hadn’t reached out to Toronto to express interest.

July 18: It’s already been a busy day on the Phillies rumor mill, as we’ve heard reports connecting the team to such names as the Rangers’ Mike Minor, newly-minted free agent Drew Smyly, and (before he was dealt to the Red Sox) Andrew Cashner.  Since pitching is such a priority for the arm-needy Phils, it’s no surprise that they’ve cast a wide eye across the pitching market, as NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury reports that the Phillies have also had talks about Giants southpaw Madison Bumgarner, Tigers lefty Matt Boyd, and Diamondbacks right-hander Zack Greinke.

The Phils also looked into Homer Bailey before the Royals dealt Bailey to the Athletics last weekend, indicating that Philadelphia is looking at all ends of the pitching market.  As Salisbury notes, the Phillies aren’t keen on giving up several top prospects to land a top starter, as rival teams are still putting high price tags on their best trade chips.

Lower-level targets like Cashner, Bailey, and Smyly are therefore also being explored to help stabilize at least the back of the Phillies’ rotation.  Of course, the Phillies are arguably in need of multiple arms already, and that need will only become more severe if Jake Arrieta ends up requiring season-ending surgery.  Trading for two top-of-the-market starters is almost surely too steep a price for the Phillies, so a tactic of acquiring just one of those top-flight arms and then signing a pitcher like Smyly could be a more viable strategy if Philadelphia does intend to pick up more than one starter.

Recent comments from team president Andy MacPhail suggest that the Phillies aren’t going to give up top prospects for a rental player (if at all), and perhaps could be more inclined to pursue trades that would see the team take on salary rather than move much in the way of notable minor league talent.  This stance would seem to make it less likely that the Phillies make a strong push for Bumgarner (a free agent after the season) or Boyd, who will be relatively cost-controlled through three arbitration-eligible seasons but is only available for a team that meets the Tigers’ heavy asking price.

This leaves Greinke as a potentially very intriguing candidate, as the Diamondbacks are likelier to accept a lower-level prospect package just for the sake of getting the righty’s salary off the books.  While Greinke has largely been excellent over his tenure in Arizona, his contract takes up such a big percentage of the team’s payroll that it has left the semi-rebuilding D’Backs somewhat hamstrung in terms of financial flexibility.  Greinke is owed roughly $83.1MM in salary and signing bonus allotments until the end of the 2021 season — to put it in perspective, Greinke alone accounted for almost 28 percent of the Diamondbacks’ player payroll in 2019.

Trading for Greinke would probably put the Phillies over the $206MM luxury tax threshold, as Roster Resource currently projects their number as $196.36MM.  The Phils could try to move some other salaries to carve out some extra payroll space, or perhaps just accept going over the tax limit as the cost of doing business for a run at the postseason.

Then again, this could all be a moot point since Greinke said in February that he didn’t want to be dealt anywhere, and the Phillies are one of the 15 teams on his no-trade list.  While it’s possible Greinke’s feelings have changed in recent months, it could take some further negotiating to get Greinke into the fold, perhaps so much so that the Phillies could prefer to just move onto another trade target.

Phillies To Sign Drew Smyly

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9:15am: Smyly could make a start for the Phillies as soon as this weekend, tweets Matt Gelb of The Athletic. That’d certainly suggest that his agreement with Philadelphia is of the Major League variety.

6:56am: The Phillies have agreed to a contract with left-hander Drew Smyly, reports Jon Heyman of the MLB Network (via Twitter). Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reported last night that Smyly, who opted out of a minor league deal with the Brewers yesterday, was drawing interest from the Phils.

Smyly opened the season with the Rangers, who acquired him at the beginning of the 2018-19 offseason when the Cubs needed to shed his salary in order to exercise their option on Cole Hamels. Smyly had signed a two-year, $10MM contract with Chicago, knowing that his first season would be spent rehabbing from 2017 Tommy John surgery.

At the time, the deal looked like a potential high-reward pickup for Texas. Smyly had solid career numbers prior to his surgery — 3.74 ERA, 8.7 K/9, 2.5 BB/9 — and had shown a penchant for missing bats while limiting walks. A return to that form would’ve given the Rangers at least a solid trade chip and at best could’ve fueled a surprise postseason push.

Instead, the Rangers received a worst-case scenario. In his first MLB work since that Tommy John operation, Smyly was hammered for an 8.42 ERA with 9.1 K/9, 6.0 BB/9 and an eye-popping 3.33 HR/9 mark. Home runs have always been a bit of an issue for Smyly, an extreme fly-ball pitcher, but the league-wide home run boom has proven particularly problematic for the southpaw. Texas ultimately released him last month, and Milwaukee picked him up on a minor league deal on July 1.

His time with the Brewers was brief but a bit more encouraging. Smyly made three starts with Milwaukee’s top affiliate in San Antonio, where he allowed seven runs on 10 hits (two homers) and three walks with 18 strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings of work.

Philadelphia currently has an all-right-handed rotation, and they’ve received particularly shaky work from fourth and fifth starters Nick Pivetta (5.74 ERA in 69 innings) and Vince Velasquez (4.97 ERA in 50 2/3 innings). The Phillies have also gotten 10 starts out of Jerad Eickhoff (5.40 ERA) and three from Cole Irvin (5.60 ERA) with little success to show for it. While Smyly himself is somewhat of a shot in the dark at this point, there’s little harm in taking a look to see if he can help the big league club. The Rangers are on the hook for Smyly’s salary, so the Phillies need only pay him the prorated league minimum for any time spent on the active roster.

Can The Phillies Justify A Win-Now Deadline?

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It’s obvious on the face of the standings that the Phillies haven’t been playing great ball. After setting the pace in the NL East through early June, the club took a spill (dropping 11 of 13) and has limped along ever since at about a .500 rate of play. The Braves are largely cruising. The Nats just streaked past. The Mets are even back on their feet and in pursuit.

This is what all of that looks like in Fangraphs form: a bunch of jagged lines that signify devastating changes to the Phillies’ odds of appearing in the postseason. That chart, at least, shows that there’s still at least something like a one-in-five chance … at a coin-flip game to get a full playoff series. The division is the real prize. How are things looking there? Well, the descending jags are beginning to flatline.

More worrying still is the fact that the Phillies’ record may not even accurately reflect the team’s true state. Entering play today, the club was carrying a negative-20 run differential. By measure of BaseRuns — which looks not at actual runs or actual wins, but reasonably expected runs (and by translation wins) based upon underlying performance — the Phils have outperformed their theoretical win expectancy by a whopping seven games. The good news is that the team does not actually sit five games below .500. The bad news is that they have (broadly speaking) played like such a team, and project to play sub-.500 ball going forward.

I can already hear some readers’ alarm bells going off … what happened didn’t really quite happen? you can predict the future? Phooey! None of those fancy stats are gospel, true, though they do provide critical context for understanding outcomes that necessarily depend upon a vast array of factors. And it’s not as if other means of analyzing the situation provide cause for greater optimism. Phillies pitchers — especially starters — are giving up home runs by the bucket. (Analytical aside: the Phils’ three most successful starters — Aaron Nola, Zach Eflin, and Jake Arrieta — have also outperformed their FIP/xFIP/SIERA numbers.) Closer Hector Neris is suddenly on the ropes. What appeared at the outset to be a loaded lineup is now without one of its best pieces (Andrew McCutchen) and carries a distinctively middle-of-the-road .243/.322/.420 collective output.

This is a club that entered the season with huge expectations after promising its fans significant spending and going on to secure the services of McCutchen, Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Jean Segura, and David Robertson. It’s not as if it’s totally out of the picture. Still, it doesn’t feel like a time for anything close to an all-in push.

And yet … here we are, reading about the Phillies’ broad canvassing of the starting pitching market. The club is reportedly looking into just about every starting pitcher named on MLBTR’s list of the top sixty free agents — including pure rental players, highly paid veterans, and younger/more controllable hurlers. From public reports, anyway, it seems to be the sort of open-ended approach that would seem better suited to a club in a clearer position to contend.

But it may be that we shouldn’t read too much into the laundry list of starting pitching targets. It would behoove the club to have a good sense of the price of all the arms, after all. And at some point, it’d be worth going ahead with a move even for a pending free agent if the acquisition cost is low enough. There’s no particular reason to believe the team would act in an overly rash manner, even if it has an obvious interest in seeing through its significant offseason investments. President Andy MacPhail and GM Matt Klentak have plenty of contractual security, so their incentives should be fully in line with those of the organization itself.

Notably, the club’s leadership hasn’t been shy about acknowledging the predicament. MacPhail seems quite realistic about the situation. It’s no question whether the team is “one trade away from the World Series,” he said: “We don’t believe that. I don’t believe that.” Well then. That doesn’t mean that the club won’t pursue additions, but the declining postseason odds will clearly influence the nature of the pursuit. MacPhail suggested the Phils would “be more judicious with [their] playing talent,” while noting that such hesitancy to give up high-end prospects “doesn’t mean you can’t make a deal where a component is taking on somebody’s salary.”

So, where do and where should the Phillies stand when the deadline hits? That’ll obviously depend upon the final run of play, but presuming the situation remains roughly the same, there’s little doubt that a true all-in deadline approach would be unwise. The odds of a division title are minuscule; chances at a Wild Card are rather low. That said, there’s unquestionably value in pursuing even a play-in opportunity. Drawing fans down the stretch, convincing season-ticket holders to re-up for 2020, maintaining roster morale, preparing for another offseason of player recruiting (free agents and extension targets), adding players who’ll feature on future rosters … there are causes aplenty even beyond that of boosting the odds of a postseason berth itself. And even a Wild Card comes with an approximately 50/50 shot at earning a full series … and who knows from there?

What’s most interesting here is the fact that the Phillies are obviously especially willing to throw their financial heft into acquisition efforts. That may not be possible for quite a few other teams — even traditional big spenders have their limits and are facing luxury tax concerns — and opens up many creative possibilities. Perhaps a rental target or controllable starter could be packaged with a more expensive (albeit potentially still useful) player to reduce the prospect burden. Or the Philadelphia org can simply focus in on the higher-priced segment of the market as things shake out under the pressure of the impending deadline. Plus, while the Phils are seemingly clinging to prospects … who isn’t? There’s plenty of reason to think they can compete with cash — and, more importantly, that it could make bottom-line sense from both a financial and baseball sense to do so. If they fall short in their pursuit of new arms, the Philadelphia front office can sleep easy knowing that it did its best … and, quite possibly, forced the club’s long-term rivals to pony up additional young talent to shut down the 2019 Phils.

Drew Smyly Elects Free Agency

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5:29pm: The Phillies have interest in Smyly, according to NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury (Twitter link).

1:10pm: Veteran left-hander Drew Smyly has opted out of his minor league contract with the Brewers, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports (on Twitter). Smyly had signed a minor league pact with Milwaukee back on July 1 after being cut loose from the Rangers.

Smyly made three starts with Milwaukee’s top affiliate in San Antonio, where he allowed seven runs on 10 hits (two homers) and three walks with 18 strikeouts in 12 2/3 innings of work. It’s a small but slightly more encouraging showing than he had with Texas earlier in the year. Smyly, pitching in the big leagues for the first time since 2017 Tommy John surgery, was tattooed for an 8.42 ERA in 51 1/3 innings as a Ranger. While he averaged better than a strikeout per inning there, Smyly also walked 34 batters (6.0 BB/9) and served up a staggering 19 home runs (3.33 HR/9).

Prior to undergoing surgery, Smyly displayed a knack for missing bats and strong control skills, but home runs have long been an issue for him. He’s always been an extreme fly-ball pitcher, and the league-wide uptick in home runs hasn’t done him any favors in 2019. Smyly’s average fastball velocity is back to its career norm, and he’s avoided any trips to the injured list thus far, so it seems as though he’s back to full strength following that surgery. He’ll head back to the open market in search of a new opportunity with a club that has its eyes on some affordable rotation depth; any team that signs Smyly would only owe him the prorated league minimum for any time spent in the Majors.

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