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Phillies Promote Spencer Howard

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August 9: Howard has officially been promoted to the Phils’ active roster. His addition comes with a couple of corresponding roster moves, as reported by Todd Zolecki of MLB.com: RHP Enyel De Los Santos was designated for assignment to clear a spot on the 40-man roster, and left-hander Cole Irvin was optioned off the active roster to the team’s alternate training location.

August 8: Phillies pitching prospect Spencer Howard is set to make his Major League debut on Sunday.  According to Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Howard has been told that he will be starting one of tomorrow’s games in the Phils’ doubleheader with the Braves.  Another transaction will need to be made in order to open room for the right-hander on the 40-man roster.

Howard, a second-round pick in the 2017 draft, has looked impressive in his brief pro career, posting a 3.28 ERA, 3.80 K/BB rate, and 12.0 K/9 over 211 1/3 minor league innings.  None of those innings have come at Triple-A, and Howard only tossed 30 2/3 frames at Double-A last season, due in part to some shoulder problems that limited his overall workload to 71 total innings in 2019.

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Nevertheless, there was speculation dating back to Spring Training that Howard would eventually suit up for the Phillies in 2020, even if the club was looking to manage his innings so as to not over-extend his arm.  As per Lauber back in March, the shortened nature of the 2020 season will help Howard in this regard, as he could now end up pitching quite a significant portion of the schedule for a team in need of pitching depth.  Due to the week of postponed games in the wake of their exposure to the Marlins’ COVID-19 outbreak, the Phillies have only played seven games, and Sunday is the first of six doubleheaders remaining on Philadelphia’s schedule.

While Howard’s lack of Triple-A experience provides a reasonable case for the Phillies in holding off on his big league promotion, it should also be noted that waiting until a couple of weeks into the season ensures the Phils an extra year of control over Howard before he gains enough service time for free agency.

Howard is a consensus choice as one of baseball’s top pitching prospects, with Keith Law, Fangraphs, Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, and Baseball Prospectus all ranking him between 22nd (from Law) and 36th (BP) on their preseason lists of the sport’s best minor leaguers.  A fastball that regularly sits in the mid-90’s and has gone as high as 99mph is Howard’s signature pitch, and he also has what Fangraphs describes as “three nasty secondary pitches” in a curveball, changeup, and slider, though all of these offerings are less consistent.  Howard’s control is also solid, as Baseball America’s notes that his “delivery is simple and repeatable.”

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images

Poll: Big-Budget Long-Term Payrolls

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Looking at long-range payroll commitments, there’s a fairly sizable gap between the top-five spenders and the number six club (the Padres, at a total of $396MM). Here’s that top-five:

Rank Team Total
1 Angels $651.00
2 Yankees $612.00
3 Dodgers $533.36
4 Nationals $488.68
5 Phillies $488.50

That list isn’t remotely surprising. Some other deep-pocketed teams have pared back or simply not yet agreed to blockbuster extensions with existing stars. The handful of teams listed above have each recently agreed to monster contracts with one or more superstars.

Looking at a team’s future outlook involves quite a bit more than its contractual commitments. We’d want to consider controllable young talent, the prospect pool, and a wide variety of business factors in assessing which organization is best-situated for the long haul.

Here, though, we’ll just focus on the deals that are already locked in. First, I’ll re-list each of those five teams’ eexisting commitments. Then, you will vote for the one that you’d most prefer to have were you operating a large-budget franchise. (Click on the links to expand the image.)

The Angels feature two mid-prime superstars, including the greatest player of this generation.

The Yankees have an ace, a former MVP who could still return to his former glory, and a group of quality players.

The Dodgers had only limited future commitments until they struck a bold deal to keep one of the game’s best players.

The Nationals are all-in on high-grade rotation pieces.

The Phillies spent big to pluck high-end talent from division rivals.

Which is the best slate of contract commitments? (Poll link for app users; response order randomized.)

Phillies To Resume Season Tonight

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The Phillies announced this morning that their latest wave of testing again revealed no new positive Covid-19 tests. The team is traveling to New York to play the Yankees in the Bronx tonight, per the announcement. Jake Arrieta is lined up to face Gerrit Cole in tonight’s series opener, and Aaron Nola is starting tomorrow night’s game, per the team.

It’ll be the first game for the Phillies since last Sunday’s game against the Marlins. The Miami organization housed Major League Baseball’s first team outbreak, prompting the Phillies’ season to be paused as the league conducted additional testing and contact tracing. The Phillies did wind up with positive tests among the team’s coaching and clubhouse staff, which might have served to further delay their return to the field, but their players have consistently tested negative. They’ll get back to game action tonight in New York but are well behind schedule, with just three games in the books to date.

In a season that would’ve only included six scheduled off-days, the loss of a full week right out of the gate is particularly tough for the Phillies. They’ll seek to make up for lost time with doubleheaders and some added games on what would’ve otherwise been days off. As it stands, they’re set for a four-game, home-and-home series against the Yankees this week before hosting the Braves at Citizens Bank Park next weekend.

Marlins To Resume Season On Tuesday; Updates on Cardinals, Phillies

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9:42AM: Yesterday’s testing of Phillies personnel revealed no new positive cases, according to a team press release.

TODAY, 9:04AM: For the second straight day, the group of Marlins players currently in Philadelphia haven’t had any positive COVID-19 test results, the Miami Herald’s Jordan McPherson reports (Twitter link).  The team is planning to head to Baltimore today in advance of Tuesday’s series opener.

AUGUST 1: Major League Baseball released a statement this afternoon providing updates on a number of clubs, including the Marlins, who have been out of action for the last week after a COVID-19 outbreak within the organization. As of now, Miami is set to resume its season on Tuesday with a four-game series against the Orioles in Baltimore, which will take place over three days and include a doubleheader. The Marlins will be the designated “home” team for two of those games.

MLB’s announcements, which also include the latest on the Cardinals and Phillies, can be found in their entirety here, courtesy of MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand.

For a second consecutive day, the scheduled Brewers-Cardinals matchup has been postponed. The decision comes after this morning yielded news that the Cardinals have several more positive tests on their hands. As of now, there’s no word on when the Cardinals can be expected to take the field again.

Meanwhile, the Phillies and Yankees will begin a four-game home-and-home series on Monday. The Phils were also sidelined this week after potential exposure to the coronavirus during last weekend’s series against the Marlins. However, it appears that Philadelphia has avoided the worst-case scenario, with MLB revealing that two of the three positive tests in the Phillies organization appear to have been false positives. No players have tested positive for COVID-19 since the team’s last contact with the Marlins on Sunday.

The proliferation of the virus within the Marlins organization has posed an early threat to MLB’s plans to conduct a baseball season amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, and the developing outbreak within the Cardinals could be similarly crucial to the outlook for the remaining two months of play.

These intra-team infections mean that the MLB schedule is fluid and evolving, with postponements forcing on-the-fly adjustments to the schedule. This can have a ripple effect throughout the league, as several other teams in MLB’s East division have been forced into schedule alterations despite maintaining comparatively good health. Health concerns notwithstanding, teams like the Phillies and Marlins might be faced with especially demanding schedules as they attempt to squeeze more games into a shorter time period for the remainder of the season.

Additionally, extended “break” periods like those endured by the Phillies and Marlins over the last week could interrupt players’ mojo during an already irregular season; whereas daily games allow players to establish a rhythm, a “stop-and-start” schedule means that players will be expected to jump right back into competitive games after several days off, perhaps akin to a team awaiting an opponent after handily winning a playoff series. We’ll have to see whether that produces any noticeable effects, and even then it will be an imprecise science, but it’s one of many difficult circumstances unique to the 2020 season.

Phillies Players Have No Positive COVID-19 Tests After Friday Testing

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For the second consecutive day, the Phillies haven’t had any players test positive for COVID-19, MLB Network’s Jon Heyman reports (Twitter link).  While this is obviously a good sign, it doesn’t necessarily mean a clean bill of health for all on-field personnel, of course, as the Phillies’ current schedule pause was due in part to positive test results from a coach and clubhouse staffer earlier this week.

Still, the Phillies will take part in a team workout today, NBC Sports’ Jim Salisbury reports (via Twitter) as they hope to resume action soon.  The Phils continue to be in limbo following their series with the Marlins last weekend, as the close exposure to a Marlins team in the midst of a coronavirus outbreak resulted in the Phils sitting out a week’s action, with seven games postponed.

Then again, Philadelphia’s next scheduled series is against Miami from August 4-6, and it is quite possible those games could be postponed due to the Marlins’ situation.  If the Marlins are unavailable, one option could be for the Phillies and Yankees to try and squeeze in their three games missed last week into a single game and double-header on August 3rd and 4th, as New York has a pair of off-days in their schedule — the Yankees are available since they moved up games against the Orioles to fill the gap left behind by the postponed Phillies games.

Phillies-Blue Jays Series Postponed

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4:05pm: Major League Baseball has formally announced the postponement of this weekend’s Jays/Phillies series and issued the following statement:

Out of an abundance of caution, the Philadelphia Phillies’ three-game weekend series with the Toronto Blue Jays, scheduled for Saturday, August 1st and Sunday, August 2nd at Citizens Bank Park, has been postponed. Major League Baseball will coordinate with health experts and the Major League Baseball Players Association in planning for the Phillies’ resumption of play, and will provide further scheduling updates as necessary.

12:34pm: The scheduled weekend series between the Phillies and Blue Jays has been postponed, Toronto skipper Charlie Montoyo tells reporters including Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet.ca (via Twitter). For the time being, the Jays will hang tight in D.C. and await further word after wrapping up their series with the Nats.

This adds to a still-building MLB scheduling pile-up that will require increasingly convoluted mid-season adaptations. The hope had been that the Marlins’ COVID-19 breakout would stay within that club. But it emerged this morning that two non-player members of the Phillies organization have come down with infections.

With two teams sidelined, their planned opponents are also on ice. In this case, the Jays and Nats may actually end up hanging out waiting in the same place. There’s no word yet whether the league will somehow attempt to stage contests between those two organizations in order to keep logging games.

Seranthony Dominguez Undergoes Tommy John Surgery

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Phillies righty Seranthony Dominguez has undergone Tommy John surgery, the club announced. He had long battled with elbow issues.

With the news, the reliever will all but assuredly miss most of the 2021 season. It’s certainly possible he could make it back late in the year, depending upon how aggressive a timeline he pursues, but it’d be hard to count on.

The news makes it quite possible that the Phils will non-tender Dominguez when the time comes. He stands to reach arbitration eligibility as a Super Two after the campaign. It won’t cost all that much to keep Dominguez, but it’ll be tough to tie up the roster spot throughout the offseason. Then again, the 25-year-old did throw 58 innings of 2.95 ERA ball in his debut season of 2018.

In other news, lefty Cristopher Sanchez will join the Phillies’ 60-man player pool. The 23-year-old is already on the 40-man roster, so he can now be called upon in the majors at any point if there’s a need. Sanchez has just one appearance under his belt over the High-A level. Last season, he worked to a 2.26 ERA with 8.7 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 75 2/3 total minor-league frames.

One Phillies Coach, One Clubhouse Staffer Test Positive For COVID-19

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The Phillies announced today that one member of the coaching staff and one home clubhouse staff member have tested positive for COVID-19. No players registered positive tests. The club has cancelled its scheduled workouts indefinitely.

While it’s obviously possible that these infections occurred elsewhere, it is impossible to ignore the possibility that they came about during the series last weekend with a Marlins club that is now riddled with coronavirus infections. It had been hoped that the virus had been contained to the Miami organization.

The plan had been for the Phillies to resume play on Saturday. Whether that is now in jeopardy isn’t known. The organization has already dealt with some infections earlier this year, but managed to avoid further spread within the club.

This is worrisome news on several levels. First and foremost, it’s concerning to see two more individuals in the game carrying this disease. Hopefully they’ll both make a swift and full recovery.

Beyond that, it’s obviously concerning to see that spread (presumably) occurred between the teams. Fortunately, the Phillies have not had further contact with other organizations since the series against the Marlins. But it seems quite possible that other members of the Phillies organization could still be harboring infections that haven’t yet triggered positive tests. It’s also hypothetically possible that transmission could’ve occurred from the coach and staff member to others, though one would hope the team has exercised stringent caution over the past few days.

Latest On Marlins Outbreak And Its Ripple Effects

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The most recent wave of COVID-19 tests among the Marlins produced another positive player, Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic reports (via Twitter). That brings the club’s total to an incredible 16 of the 33 players who traveled to Philadelphia for this past weekend’s series (the 30 on the roster plus a three-man taxi squad). The Marlins have also had two staff members test positive. Over at their alternate camp, every player tested negative on Tuesday, Craig Mish of SportsGrid reports (Twitter link).

The full list of Marlins players to have tested positive isn’t known, although MLB Network’s Jon Heyman added this morning that right-hander Sandy Alcantara is among the list. Speaking more generally, Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald tweets that the Marlins’ pitching staff has been hit particularly hard by this outbreak. As such, it’s not surprising to see that Miami has already claimed a trio of pitchers off waivers: Mike Morin, Justin Shafer and Josh D, Smith (not to be confused with Josh A. Smith, who is also with the Marlins as a non-roster player in alternate camp). Further additions for the Marlins seem quite likely.

For now, the Marlins remain in Philadelphia and are not yet certain when they’ll travel back to Florida, Jackson tweets. The hope is that they’ll be able to do so by Friday, but that situation remains fluid. As of right now, the Marlins aren’t slated to play again until next week, when they’re scheduled to host the Phillies, of all teams.

As for the Phillies, their entire roster and staff tested negative for a second consecutive day, per ESPN’s Jeff Passan (Twitter link). In fact, Jared Diamond of the Wall Street Journal tweets that outside of yesterday’s Marlins positive, there wasn’t a positive test with any of the 29 other teams. That’s certainly welcome news, although the fact that new positives are still arising with the Marlins is problematic.

The Phillies, Rosenthal tweets, won’t play on Friday as had been previously expected but will instead play the Blue Jays in a Saturday doubleheader and a third game Sunday. The extra day gives the league a bit more time to take caution and hopefully ensure that none of the Phillies players or staff members were infected in last weekend’s series. It’s not known what would happen if the Phillies had a positive test (or tests) between now and Saturday, but they’ll continue to be tested daily in the interim.

Phillies Add Three To Player Pool

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The Phillies announced that they’ve added right-hander Adonis Medina, infielder/outfielder Austin Listi and infielder Bryson Stott to their 60-man player pool. All three will report to the club’s alternate training site.

Medina, 23, entered the 2019 season ranked among baseball’s best pitching prospects, but he struggled to a 4.94 ERA with 7.0 K/9 against 3.5 BB/9 in a pitcher-friendly Double-A setting last year, causing his stock to drop a bit. Armed with a mid-90s sinker that has typically generated above-average ground-ball rates and a well-regarded changeup, he’ll give the Phillies a relatively advanced arm to lean on for depth while also continuing to get some critical developmental reps with the rest of the player pool. Medina is already on the 40-man roster.

Listi, 26, has played all four corner positions in the Phillies’ minor league system. First base has been his most frequent position, but he has at least 323 innings at each of left field, right field and third base as well. Listi split the 2019 season between Double-A and Triple-A, batting a combined .252/.344/.434 with 19 home run, 24 doubles and a pair of triples in 545 plate appearances. He walked at a 10.5 percent clip and punched out in 19.4 percent of his plate appearances. Given his ability to handle multiple positions and his experience up through the Triple-A level, Listi could emerge as an option at the MLB level in 2020.

Stott, meanwhile, was the team’s first-round pick in 2019 and seems like much more of a long shot to be considered for the big leagues in 2020. The Phillies took a conservative approach with the UNLV product last year, assigning him to their Rookie-level affiliate and then short-season Class-A club — where as a first-round college bat he was much more advanced than most of his competition. Stott did what one would expect of an advanced bat in that setting, as he logged a strong .295/.391/.494 slash in 193 plate appearances. Even though he seems unlikely to be called up this year, Stott will benefit from simulated game reps and work with the team’s staff in Lehigh Valley.

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