Phillies Release Nick Hundley
The Phillies’ top affiliate announced today that catcher Nick Hundley has been given his release. He had joined the club on a minors deal after being cut loose earlier this year by the Athletics.
Hundley is closing in on his 36th birthday. A veteran of a dozen MLB campaigns, he’s a highly respected signal-caller and clubhouse member. He had signed on with the A’s on a minors deal but made the club out of camp.
Unfortunately, Hundley was not able to keep pace offensively in Oakland. Over 73 plate appearances in the majors, he scratched out a .200/.233/.357 batting line with just two walks and two homers. The struggles have continued at Lehigh Valley, where he struck out 17 times in just 36 trips to the plate.
The timing of the move will allow Hundley to catch on with another organization while retaining his postseason eligibility — if he inks a new deal tomorrow, before the end of the month. While it’s hard to imagine a contender planning for a playoff roster that includes Hundley, he’d be a useful insurance policy given his extensive experience.
Phillies Notes: Depth, Bruce, Neshek, Ramos, Franco
The Phillies made a variety of notable offseason splashes, adding significant talent in several areas of the roster. While it might have been hoped that other players would thrive in reduced roles, that simply hasn’t been the case. As Matt Gelb writes for The Athletic (subscription link), the Philadelphia bench has been abysmal this year. In particular, the reserves have lagged the entire rest of the National League in overall batting output. As we explored recently, the bullpen has also been a problem area. It’s easy to look back and blame the front office for failing to add additional roster pieces last winter and/or during the summer trade period, it’s fair also to note that a variety of injuries, failures of young players to make strides, and unforeseen circumstances (in particular, Odubel Herrera‘s suspension) have strained the roster.
If the Philadelphia org is to make its way into the postseason, it’ll need to squeeze value out of every corner of the 40-man. Here’s the latest on a few potentially key pieces:
- Outfielder Jay Bruce appears likely to return at some point this season, though it’s not clear whether he’ll be able to take the field. The veteran slugger is launching a minor-league rehab stint but won’t throw, as Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer was among those to cover (Twitter link). Bruce has been sidelined with a flexor strain. Fortunately, the Phils also picked up Corey Dickerson in advance of the deadline. Both of those lefty hitters have performed at approximately league-average rates since landing in Philadelphia. Bruce remains under contract with the Phils for 2020, though the Mariners are responsible for most of the tab.
- The Phillies’ veteran relief arms have not performed to expectations thus far in 2019. Now, Pat Neshek may join David Robertson and Tommy Hunter with a season-ending procedure. As the Inquirer’s Matt Breen tweets, Neshek’s injured hamstring may require surgery or a platelet-rich plasma injection. Both of those invasive approaches would put him on ice for the remainder of the campaign. Soon to turn 39, Neshek can be retained next season with a $7MM club option, but it seems quite likely he’ll instead be paid a $750K buyout.
- Righty Edubray Ramos may be a likelier late-season contributor, but he’ll have to avoid any complications as he works to return from a shoulder problem. The 26-year-old is launching a rehab assignment, per a club announcement, which puts him on track to make it back for at least a few weeks. Ramos was a big contributor in 2018, when he worked to a 2.32 ERA over 42 2/3 innings, but he has not repeated that showing in 2019. Through 14 frames this season, he has coughed up eight earned runs on 18 hits (four homers) with a 9:5 K/BB ratio.
- With those bench troubles in the backdrop, there were some questions about the club’s recent decision to send down Maikel Franco instead of Sean Rodriguez. As Lauber reports, the organization’s goal was to preserve versatility by keeping the multi-positional Rodriguez. (I’d add that the team also would have had to part with Rodriguez, since he can’t be optioned.) Skipper Gabe Kapler also emphasized that the aging utilityman holds an advantage over the younger Franco in his track record of pinch-hitting against left-handed pitchers. In any event, it seems fair to presume that Franco will be back as soon as the minimum ten-day option period is met. But as Lauber notes, it’s increasingly difficult to imagine him as part of the organization’s plans for 2020 and beyond.
LoMo Discusses Future
- Coming off an injury-shortened 2018 season, Logan Morrison went through a quiet offseason of offers before taking a minor league deal with the Yankees in April, and then opting out on July 1 and then catching on with the Phillies on another minors contract. This has led to appearing in seven MLB games for the Phils, though Morrison tells Fangraphs’ David Laurila that he is considering playing in Japan or South Korea due to both interest in a new cultural experience for he and his family, as well as recognizing his limited future opportunities in North American baseball. “You look at rosters and know that you’re better than guys, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter because of the economic situation,” the 32-year-old Morrison said. “Having someone under control for six years is more important than them actually being good. The game has turned into where being young is a tool. If you ask baseball people, and fans who want their teams to win, that shouldn’t be the case. Unfortunately it is.” While a lack of contractual interest wasn’t surprising following Morrison’s rough 2018 campaign, he also faced a cool market in the aftermath of a 2017 season that saw him hit .246/.353/.516 and 38 homers for the Rays. That big year only led to a one-year, $6.5MM guarantee from the Twins, with a club/vesting option that could have added another season and $10MM to the contract.
Pivetta Optioned Amidst Rough Season
- 26-year-old righty Nick Pivetta has been sent to Triple-A Lehigh Valley, courtesy of a Phillies organization that has watched him struggle to a 5.38 ERA in 88.2 innings in 2019. Pivetta, long touted as a potential breakout candidate due to his bat-missing abilities, has been particularly stung by the long ball this year, as 22.4% of flyballs against him have left the yard. Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports paraphrases manager Gabe Kapler as having said that Pivetta needs to use this demotion to “look in (the) mirror and show more accountability” (link).
Phillies Lead League In Defensive Improvement
- The Phillies are exactly in the middle of the pack in Defensive Runs Saved, as the Phils’ +12 DRS ranking 15th among all teams. This modest number, however, represents a gigantic upgrade for their glovework, as The Athletic’s Mark Simon (subscription required) explores in a look at the most improved defensive teams in baseball. Philadelphia’s minus-146 DRS was by far the worst in baseball in 2018, yet the team has shored up their defense due to a number of factors, such as the additions of J.T. Realmuto and Bryce Harper, and moving Rhys Hoskins back to first base after he supremely struggled as a left field last year. The other big gainers were the Blue Jays, who went from minus-100 DRS in 2018 (29th among all teams) to minus-1 DRS and 18th place this season, and the Dodgers, who have gone from being very good to a potentially record-setting defensive unit. Los Angeles finished eighth in the league with +47 DRS in 2018, and now lead all of baseball with a +125 score, giving them a shot at breaking the Diamondbacks’ record-setting mark of +157 from a year ago. The eight teams on Simon’s list share at least one of two commonalities — either the teams are shifting more frequently, or else they are simply using better personnel, whether those are new players joining the team or players who have personally improved their glovework since last season.
Phillies Could Lean On Aaron Nola Down The Stretch
As the Phillies quest for a playoff berth intensifies, manager Gabe Kapler looks poised to increase his ace’s workload in hopes that Aaron Nola can carry the team to the promised land. As Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports writes, the Phillies are considering starting the 26-year-old Nola every fifth day for the stretch run, regardless of intervening off days. Last year’s third-place NL Cy Young finisher has been far and away the most reliable of the Phillies’ starting rotation, which has sorely lacked for production outside of its ace. If the Phillies were to employ such a plan, Nola would make eight more starts over the next month-plus, which would place him at a total of 35 at season’s end. As Salisbury notes, though, Nola has often benefitted from a fifth day of rest and features considerably better career numbers with the extra day off. Of course, it’s undeniable that Nola is the Phillies’ best option to start games and the club is confident that, in a playoff race that may well be decided in the waning days of the season, their chances are maximized with Nola on the mound as often as possible.
Russell Martin Discusses Possible Retirement
Dodgers catcher Russell Martin is in the midst of his 14th and what could be his final Major League season, as the impending free agent told Sportsnet.ca’s Shi Davidi that he might consider hanging up his spikes if he can’t land with another contending team this offseason.
“I know I can do it physically. It’s going to be, do I have the desire? Am I going to enjoy myself doing it? I don’t know….I really like competing,” Martin said. “Being on a team like this is fun, but if I wasn’t on a winning team, I’d have to be really selective on where I would go. I’d have to have that perfect fit and who knows if that’s going to be available. There are a lot of things that are going to come into play in the decision. This could possibly be my last year. I don’t know. It could be. We’ll see.”
Martin will be 37 on Opening Day 2020, so it isn’t any surprise that he has been considering the end of his career. He has hit .211/.332/.304 over 205 plate appearances this season, continuing an offensive decline that began to sharpen in 2018. Martin has probably received more playing time than expected this season due to Austin Barnes‘ struggles, though the emergence of Will Smith as the Dodgers’ regular catcher has firmly placed Martin back into his original veteran backup role. Martin is still one of the sport’s better pitch-framers, and his .227 caught stealing percentage (5-of-22) is roughly middle of the pack, though Baseball Prospectus rates him as a below-average blocker.
The five-year, $82MM contract Martin signed with the Blue Jays prior to the 2015 season is up after this year, and one would imagine the Dodgers would have some interest in re-signing Martin as an inexpensive veteran mentor to Smith. Then again, Los Angeles also has another top catching prospect in Keibert Ruiz who could be close to the big leagues, plus the club still has to figure out what to do with Barnes, who is less than two years’ removed from himself seemingly being the Dodgers’ catcher of the future.
As Davidi notes, it’s also possible Martin could decide to retire on a high note if the Dodgers were to win the World Series, thus giving the catcher the championship ring that has eluded him through multiple trips to the postseason. If Martin did decide to keep playing, he’d certainly get calls from several teams (including contenders) about a contract in 2020.
One theoretical option could be Philadelphia, as Davidi writes that the Blue Jays’ offseason trade talks about Martin “came down to the Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies.” J.T. Realmuto is obviously locked as the Phillies’ everyday starter, though Andrew Knapp‘s rough season has left the club looking for further depth options.
Arrieta To 60-Day IL, Eickhoff Nears Return
- The Phillies transferred Jake Arrieta to the 60-day injured list today, the team announced. Arrieta was already known to be out for the year because of a bone spur in his elbow that requires surgery. This move is but the paperwork allowing Jerad Eickhoff to be reinstated and sent to Triple-A. Eickhoff should have the final ten days or so in August to fine tune with Lehigh Valley, as he would be expected to join the Phillies when rosters expand in September.
Phillies Place Roman Quinn On Injured List
The Phillies placed outfielder Roman Quinn on the 10-day injured list today, following his removal from Friday’s game with the Padres. It’s a right groin muscle strain for the 26-year-old Philadelphia product, as detailed by a report from Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Enquirer (link).
After managing a 97 wRC+ in 50 games in his rookie 2018 season, 2019 has been nothing short of a trial for the center fielder from Florida. Quinn already missed a month this season due to a similar injury, and he has only output a .213/.298/.370 slash when healthy. However, August had seen Quinn getting into a serious groove, with a .368 batting average, three homers, and four stolen bases on the month.
The pervasiveness of these lower-body injuries is especially troublesome for a player of Quinn’s profile, who bases much of his game on his 30.1 ft/sec sprint speed (6th among active players this year). In his stead, it is expected that fellow rookie Adam Haseley will receive a larger share of up-the-middle playing time.
Veteran Jared Hughes, whom the Phillies claimed off waivers from the Reds this week, was brought onto the 25-man roster to replace Quinn for the time being. The righty pitched a clean frame in tonight’s 5-3 loss to San Diego.
Jake Arrieta To Undergo Season-Ending Surgery
Phillies righty Jake Arrieta will undergo season-ending surgery later this month to remove a bone spur in his right elbow, Todd Zolecki of MLB.com reports.
Arrieta, 33, had been pitching through the injury since early in the summer, to less-than-stellar results. The 2019 season was the hurler’s worst since his days in Baltimore: though the righty somehow maintained a fastball velocity in the 92-93 MPH range despite the injury, he again struggled to miss bats, command the baseball, and keep it in the park. Though the second half of Arrieta’s season didn’t much differ from the first – apart from his outings often being truncated upon his reaching the 75-80 pitch mark – the pain seemed to intensify, and both team and player finally pulled the plug following a disastrous Sunday outing in San Francisco in which the 2015 Cy Young Award winner was touched for five earned in just three innings pitched.
Arrieta signed a three-year, $75MM deal prior to his age 32 season in 2018. The Chicago reclamation project anchored the Cubs staff for years, but his ERA, on the back of an otherworldly Cub defense, had long outpaced his peripherals, a gap which reached a head in his 2017 walk season, where ERA estimators pegged the righty at the top end of the fourth-starter range. He’s been about that or worse in Philly, where despite steady grounder and walk rates, the former fifth-rounder has seen his strikeout rates slide to worse than eight per nine and his gopher-ball rate ascend to below-league-average totals.
Like its bullpen, the Phillies’ rotation is mostly in shambles now. It can always count on ace Aaron Nola, but it’s now Vince Velasquez, Drew Smyly, Jason Vargas, and Zach Eflin beyond, a quartet that won’t inspire much confidence as the group charges toward its first playoff appearance since 2011.