Phillies Announce Five Roster Moves
The Phillies announced five roster moves in advance of today’s game with the Marlins. The Phils have selected the contract of right-hander Andrew Bellatti from Triple-A and also reinstated James Norwood from the bereavement list. Righty Connor Brogdon and left-hander Damon Jones were optioned to Triple-A, while Sam Coonrod was moved to the 60-day injured list to create 40-man roster space for Bellatti.
Coonrod has been dealing with a shoulder strain that initially shut him down at the end of March. The right-hander tossed only 1 2/3 innings of Spring Training action, so between the injury rehab and then making up for his lost preseason work, it was already expected to be a while before Coonrod made his 2022 debut.
The 60-day IL placement means that Coonrod won’t make it back until mid-June at the earliest, which represents another injury setback for the 29-year-old. Coonrod missed over two months last season due to forearm tendinitis, and over three weeks of the shortened 2020 season due a lat strain. That same season also saw Coonrod hit the IL late in the year with another shoulder strain.
Between Coonrod’s injury absence and Brogdon’s demotion, the Phillies find themselves without two of their better relievers from last season. However, since Brogdon has pitched in three of Philadelphia’s last four games, the move is probably just a way to get a fresher arm into the bullpen than indicative of a long-term stint in Triple-A for the right-hander. Brogdon had a rough outing last night, allowing two earned runs and two more inherited runners to score over two-thirds of an inning in a 9-6 loss to the Mets.
Bellatti signed a minor league deal with the Phillies in December after being outrighted off the Marlins’ 40-man roster at the end of last season. After tossing 23 1/3 innings for the Rays in his 2015 rookie season, Bellatti bounced around the minors before finally returning to the majors last year, pitching 3 1/3 innings of relief work out of Miami’s bullpen. Bellatti has a 3.77 ERA and 24.03% strikeout rate over his 547 career frames in the minor leagues.
Phillies To Sign Roman Quinn To Minor League Deal
The Phillies are set to bring Roman Quinn back into the fold on a minor league deal, per Matt Gelb of The Athletic.
Quinn was drafted by the Phillies back in 2011 and spent a decade with the organization. He was long viewed as an important prospect for the Phils, cracking Baseball America’s list of the team’s best prospects in seven straight years from 2012 to 2018. However, part of the reason he was on those lists for so long is because injuries kept him from playing enough to exhaust his prospect status. Despite appearing in five different MLB seasons, he’s still only played 178 games in his career and never more than 50 in any individual season.
Now 28 years old, 29 next month, Quinn is still viewed favorably for his speed and defense, as he always has been. The problem thus far, besides the injury issue, has been his bat. He’s only a .228/.306/.355 hitter in his MLB career, a line that amounts to a 78 wRC+. Though he does have 39 steals in that time. Last year, his season was shut down in June due to surgery on his left Achilles.
Quinn was eligible for arbitration for the first time after finally reaching three years of service time last year, but Philly designated him for assignment in November. He was signed by the Marlins to a minor league deal but didn’t crack the roster out of spring and was released.
For the Phillies, this deal is a no-risk way of bolstering their outfield depth, which has taken some hits in recent weeks, particularly in center. Odubel Herrera landed on the IL with a strained oblique. Adam Haseley was somewhat surprisingly dealt to the White Sox, with the club hoping to lean on a platoon of Matt Vierling and Mickey Moniak in center. However, Moniak hit the IL yesterday with a fracture in his right hand, further depleting their depth up the middle.
Phillies Place Moniak On IL; Recall Muzziotti
TODAY: The Phillies announced they’ve placed Moniak on the 10-day IL, and they’ve recalled Simon Muzziotti from Double-A. The 23-year-old Muzziotti, who hails from Venezuela, ranked 10th among Phillies prospects according to Baseball America. BA gave Muzziotti a 55 grade, noting he’s a plus defender and one of the best hitters in the club’s farm system.
YESTERDAY: Phillies outfielder Mickey Moniak recently suffered a fracture in his right hand, reports Mike Gill of 97.3 ESPN (Twitter link). Gill suggests he’ll miss four-to-six weeks, while Bob Nightengale of USA Today indicates it’ll be nearer to the end of that timetable.
Moniak was hit by a pitch in his final exhibition game. While initial x-rays suggested he’d suffered only a bone bruise, further testing revealed the more unfortunate diagnosis. Moniak is certain to wind up on the injured list, a disappointing development after the club announced this morning that he’d made the Opening Day roster.
The left-handed hitting Moniak has made 55 plate appearances in 29 big league games. He’s not coming off a great season, as he hit just .238/.299/.447 in 99 contests with Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Moniak has never developed into the kind of impact hitter the Phils were hoping when they selected him with the first overall pick in the 2016 draft. He has some speed and can play all three outfield positions, though, making him a possible fourth or fifth outfield option for skipper Joe Girardi.
Losing Moniak only further thins a center field group that already looks like the weak point on the Philadelphia roster. Presumptive starter Odúbel Herrera is on the IL as well after straining an oblique in Spring Training. Matt Vierling looks like the favorite for center field run in the early going, with prospect Simon Muzziotti a candidate for his first MLB call.
Vierling had a nice showing during his first big league run last September, but his .248/.331/.359 line with the IronPigs is far from overwhelming. Baseball America raked Muzziotti tenth in the Phillies farm system this offseason, praising his plus center field defense and athleticism but raising some concerns about his offensive impact. The 23-year-old only has twelve career games above A-ball.
Additionally, the Phils placed catcher Rafael Marchan on the 60-day injured list with a left hamstring strain, according to the club’s transactions tracker at MLB.com. The move clears a 40-man roster spot for top prospect Bryson Stott, who has been promoted to make his major league debut, as previously reported.
Bryson Stott To Make Phillies Opening Day Roster
The Phillies will carry top shortstop prospect Bryson Stott on the Opening Day roster, the team informed reporters (including Todd Zolecki of MLB.com). They’ll need to clear a spot for him on the 40-man roster before Thursday’s game. The team will also carry third baseman Alec Bohm on the big league club. Matt Gelb of the Athletic wrote yesterday that keeping both players on the roster was under consideration.
The pair of young infielders figure to see a good bit time together on the left side of the infield. Stott, presumably, will play regularly at shortstop. Bohm figures to handle the hot corner on most days, getting another crack to take hold of the position after a sophomore slump saw him optioned to Triple-A late last season.
It’ll be the first MLB look for Stott, whom the Phils selected 14th overall out of UNLV in the 2019 draft. The left-handed hitting infielder was regarded as a well-rounded shortstop prospect coming out of college, and he moved fairly quickly up the minor league ladder. Stott mashed in the low minors late in 2019, and he picked up where he left off last year after the canceled minors season.
The 24-year-old tallied 351 plate appearances with Double-A Reading, hitting .301/.368/.481 with ten homers. Stott posted solid walk and strikeout numbers and earned a late-season bump to Triple-A. Despite playing in only ten games with Lehigh Valley, he’ll step up to the major league level.
Each of Baseball America, The Athletic, ESPN, MLB Pipeline and FanGraphs placed Stott among the game’s top 100 prospects this offseason. FanGraphs was the most bullish of the group, ranking him the #34 prospect in the sport. General consensus among evaluators is that he’ll be a productive everyday player in the near future. Stott doesn’t get overwhelming grades for any of his physical tools, but he’s seen as a polished defensive shortstop with good bat-to-ball skills and average or better raw power.
Stott’s promotion figures to result in less playing time for incumbent shortstop Didi Gregorius. The Phils brought back the veteran on a two-year deal last offseason, but his 2021 production was disappointing. Gregorius hit just .209/.270/.370 in 103 games. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski acknowledged at the start of the offseason the 32-year-old wouldn’t be guaranteed the primary shortstop job, pointing to Stott as a possible internal alternative.
Jean Segura is lined up as the everyday second baseman, and carrying Stott and Bohm could push Gregorius into a utility role. The Phils also signed Johan Camargo to a one-year deal this winter, giving manager Joe Girardi a few options for juggling playing time. Much figures to depend on how well Stott and Bohm start the season. Bohm, a former #3 overall pick and top prospect, had an excellent rookie showing in 2020 but is coming off a season (.247/.305/.342) not too much stronger than Gregorius’. He still has a pair of minor league option years remaining, increasing the pressure to stake a claim to the everyday third base job early in the season.
As a consensus Top 100 prospect, Stott’s immediate big league promotion could result in the Phils accruing some extra draft capital down the line. The new collective bargaining agreement includes the so-called Prospect Promotion Incentive, a feature that could entitle the Phils to a bonus selection in the amateur or international drafts (if the international draft is ultimately instituted) depending upon his finishes in Rookie of the Year or MVP voting before he reaches arbitration eligibility.
Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Roster Notes: Twins, Marlins, Pirates, Yankees, Cubs, Phillies
With the season just a few days away, roster decisions around the game continue to trickle in. We’ll round up some notable non 40-man roster decisions here.
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- Twins pitching prospect Jhoan Duran has made the Opening Day roster, per a club announcement. He’ll initially work out of the bullpen. Ranked the #9 prospect in the Minnesota organization by Baseball America, Duran draws praise for an upper-90s fastball and a power splitter that have helped him run plus strikeout rates throughout his minor league career.
- The Marlins have informed outfielder Roman Quinn he will not make the Opening Day roster, reports Craig Mish of SportsGrid (Twitter link). It comes as a bit of a surprise, as Quinn had seemed the favorite for a fourth outfield role after the Fish released Delino DeShields Jr. over the weekend. Presumably, that job will fall to utilityman Jon Berti early on.
- Infield prospect Diego Castillo has made the Pirates’ Opening Day roster, tweets Jason Mackey of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Castillo, acquired in the trade that sent righty Clay Holmes to the Yankees, will make his big league debut the first time he gets into a game.
- The Yankees announced they’ve reassigned outfielder Ender Inciarte and left-hander Manny Bañuelos to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Inciarte has an opt-out clause in his minor league deal and tells ESPN’s Marly Rivera he hasn’t yet decided whether he’ll accept the assignment to Triple-A.
- The Cubs informed pitching prospect Ethan Roberts he’ll be on the Opening Day roster, he informed reporters (including Maddie Lee of the Chicago Sun-Times). A fourth-round pick in 2018 out of Tennessee Tech, the right-hander is the #33 prospect in the organization according to Baseball America. The reliever posted an even 3.00 ERA over 54 innings between Double-A Tennessee and Triple-A Iowa last season. The Cubs reassigned non-roster invitees Jonathan Holder, Robert Gsellman, Steven Brault, Stephen Gonsalves and Ildemaro Vargas to Iowa, tweets Jordan Bastian of MLB.com.
- The Phillies reassigned non-roster invitees Ronald Torreyes, Yairo Muñoz and Dillon Maples to Triple-A Lehigh Valley, tweets Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. Torreyes and Muñoz were competing for utility spots, while the hard-throwing Maples had been seeking a spot in the Philly bullpen.
Phillies Hire Jimmy Rollins As Special Advisor To Front Office
The Phillies announced this evening they’ve hired former NL MVP Jimmy Rollins as a special advisor to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. According to the team, Rollins will “periodically assist the major league club in an on-field capacity and advise the front office with baseball operations decisions.” He will also continue to broadcast some of the team’s games as an analyst for NBC Sports Philadelphia.
“The addition of Jimmy Rollins to our baseball operations department is a significant gain for the Phillies,” Dombrowski said in the team’s press release announcing the move. “As one of the franchise’s all-time greats, Jimmy brings tremendous baseball instincts and an institutional knowledge of what it takes to win in Philadelphia. We look forward to his continued contributions to the Phillies.”
The 43-year-old Rollins released a statement of his own, saying he’s “honored to move into baseball operations and assist Dave and his staff. The Phillies mean a great deal to me, and I’ll do whatever I can to help get this team back to where it belongs, and that’s deep in October.”
Rollins, of course, is one of the best players in franchise history. He spent 15 seasons of a 17-year big league career in Philadelphia, donning a Phils uniform from 2000-14. During that run, the switch-hitting shortstop blossomed into one of the sport’s best players. He finished in third place in NL Rookie of the Year balloting in 2001, earning his first of three All-Star selections that season and leading the Senior Circuit with 46 stolen bases.
The Oakland native earned some down-ballot MVP support during his debut season, one of five years in which he’d garner votes. The pinnacle came in 2007, when Rollins was elected MVP after putting up a .296/.344/.531 line with 30 homers and a Gold Glove award for his defense. That season kicked off a string of five straight postseason appearances for the Phillies, highlighted by a 2008 campaign in which they vanquished the Rays in a five-game World Series.
As Rollins implied, it has been a while since the Phils have gotten back to those heights. That streak of consecutive playoff appearances was snapped in 2012, kicking off a ten-year postseason drought the team is hoping to snap in 2022.
Padres Trade James Norwood To Phillies
The Phillies have acquired right-hander James Norwood from the Padres in exchange for minor league infielder Kervin Pichardo and cash, according to announcements from both teams. San Diego designated Norwood for assignment earlier this week.
Norwood, 28, tossed five scoreless innings of relief for the Friars last season and has 27 total innings of Major League work under his belt dating back to his 2018 debut with the Cubs. He’s logged a 3.67 ERA, albeit with a below-average 18.5% strikeout rate and a bloated 13.1% walk rate.
Norwood has a decent overall track record in Triple-A, where he’s pitched to a 4.05 ERA in parts of three seasons. He whiffed 37.2% of his opponents in 44 2/3 Triple-A frames this past season, which surely held some appeal to the Phils. Norwood is out of minor league options, meaning he’ll need to either break camp with the Phils or be designated for assignment once again. Given that Philadelphia sent a minor leaguer to the Padres, as opposed to a simple cash transaction or waiver claim, it would seem Norwood has a decent shot of being included in Philadelphia’s Opening Day relief corps.
As for the 20-year-old Pichardo, he’s a Bronx native who joined the Phillies in June 2019 as an undrafted free agent. He spent most of his time at shortstop after signing in ’19 but played more third base in 2021. Pichardo logged just 35 total games across three levels last year and batted .247/.476/.466 with two homers, six doubles, two triples, two steals and a 32-to-28 K/BB ratio in 105 plate appearances.
Phillies Trade Adam Haseley To White Sox
The White Sox and Phillies are in agreement on a deal sending outfielder Adam Haseley from Philadelphia to Chicago, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic (Twitter link). Minor league right-hander McKinley Moore is headed to the Phillies in return, reports Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. Both teams have since announced the trade.
Haseley, 25, was the eighth overall pick in the 2017 draft but has yet to establish himself as a fixture in the Philadelphia outfield. The left-handed hitter is a career .272/.331/.398 hitter against right-handed pitching and has drawn mostly solid defensive marks at all three outfield positions (10 Defensive Runs Saved, 3.3 Ultimate Zone Rating, -1 Outs Above Average). He’ll give the Sox a nice glove and a lefty bat to pair with right-handed-hitting outfielders Eloy Jimenez, Luis Robert, Adam Engel and Andrew Vaughn.
The bulk of Haseley’s experience in the big leagues came in 2019, when he logged a career-high 67 games and 242 plate appearances. He’s played in just 49 games and tallied 113 plate appearances across the past two seasons while battling wrist and groin strains. Haseley also stepped away from baseball entirely for a month last April, citing personal reasons. He went just 4-for-21 in limited big league time and batted .233/.313/.325 in the minors last season.
Haseley has a pair of minor league option years remaining, so he’s not necessarily a lock to make Chicago’s Opening Day roster. However, with Vaughn nursing a hip injury that’ll shut him down for one to two weeks, the outfield picture might be a bit more open at the moment than it appeared just a few days ago. Haseley has just a year and 132 days of Major League service time, so he’s under club control with the White Sox through at least the 2026 season — provided he plays well enough to stick on the roster that long, of course.
Although Haseley wasn’t slated to start in the outfield for the Phillies, he looked to have a clear path to at least a part-time role — particularly with Odubel Herrera currently battling an oblique injury that’s expected to prevent him from being ready for Opening Day. Haseley and right-handed-hitting Matt Vierling appeared ticketed for a center field platoon, with Bryce Harper locked into right field and Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos slated to split time between left field and DH (probably with the former seeing more time in the field than the latter). With Haseley now out of the picture, former No. 1 overall pick Mickey Moniak looks like the frontrunner to split time with Vierling early on — barring further player movement in the Philadelphia outfield mix.
Moore, 23, was the Sox’ 14th-round pick in 2019 out of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Listed at 6’6″ and 225 pounds, McKinley is a big, power-armed righty with an upper-90s heater and a slider that, per Baseball America, will look like a plus offering at times. Moore has fanned a huge 31.7% of his opponents in pro ball and also boasts a strong 51% grounder rate, but he’s walked far too many opponents (13.4%). He split the 2021 season between two Class-A affiliates, pitching to a 4.20 ERA through 40 2/3 innings.
Sam Coonrod Shut Down 5-7 Days With Shoulder Injury
- Phillies right-hander Sam Coonrod has been shut down for five to seven days with a shoulder strain, manager Joe Girardi announced to reporters (Twitter link via Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia). That puts his Opening Day availability in jeopardy, though that will depend on just how he fares when he’s reevaluated a few days down the line. The 29-year-old Coonrod may not be as familiar a name as some of his veteran bullpen-mates, but he’s in line to serve as an important member of the relief corps, if healthy. In 42 1/3 innings last season, the former Giants righty posted a 4.04 ERA with a strong 25.9% strikeout rate, an 8.1% walk rate and a brilliant 57.1% grounder rate. Coonrod averaged 98.8 mph on his heater, and between the velocity, strikeouts, walks and grounders, there’s potential for a breakout performance if this shoulder issue proves minor.
Giants Acquire Luke Williams From Phillies, Place Matthew Boyd On 60-Day Injured List
The Giants have acquired utilityman Luke Williams from the Phillies in exchange for minor league third baseman Will Toffey and cash considerations. Both teams have announced the trade. To create a 40-man roster spot, the Giants placed southpaw Matthew Boyd on the 60-day injured list.
Williams was designated for assignment by Philadelphia earlier this week when the Nick Castellanos signing became official. After six seasons in the Phils’ farm system and a brief stint in the Australian Baseball League, Williams made his MLB debut in 2021, appearing in 58 games. While Williams hit only .245/.315/.316 in 108 plate appearances, he made a mark with his versatility, making multiple appearances at every position except catcher and pitcher.
Williams began his career as a third baseman, but has more recently moved all over the diamond, with the bulk of his brief big league career spent as an outfielder. Giants manager Gabe Kapler is surely familiar with Williams from Kapler’s past job as the Phillies’ skipper, and San Francisco has frequently sought out multi-positional players in recent years. Williams is also a right-handed hitter, which could give him an opportunity for playing time given how the Giants’ projected starting outfield (Mike Yastrzemski, LaMonte Wade Jr., and Joc Pederson) are all left-handed bats.
Toffey has something of a similar resume to Williams, as Toffey is also a third baseman who has started to branch out at other positions. The 2021 season saw Toffey play both corner outfield positions, first base, and second base while playing with the Mets’ Double-A affiliate and the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate. San Francisco acquired the 27-year-old Toffey from the Mets last July, with left-hander Anthony Banda going back to New York in return.
Boyd signed a one-year deal with the Giants last week, and the former Tigers lefty is set to earn $5.2MM in guaranteed money in 2022. First, however, Boyd will have to fully recover from flexor tendon surgery last September. The 60-day IL placement was expected, as Boyd wasn’t expected to be ready until early June.