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Phillies Notes: Cashner, Farm System, Bruce

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The latest from the City Of Brotherly Love…

  • Before Andrew Cashner was dealt to the Red Sox, the veteran righty also drew some trade interest from the Phillies, but they ultimately “backed off in part due to concerns about the pitcher’s makeup,” The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal writes (subscription required).  While personality is always a factor when adding a player to the roster, it could be that the Phils are putting a particular focus on such matters this season given that, as per Rosenthal, “several of the Phillies’ acquisitions last season did not mix well in their clubhouse.”
  • The Phillies’ multi-year rebuilding plan hoped to follow the model established by the Cubs and Astros earlier this decade, but as ESPN.com’s Buster Olney (subscription required) notes, Philadelphia’s efforts have been hampered by a lack of consistent reinforcements from the minor leagues.  Aside from Rhys Hoskins and Aaron Nola, several of the Phils’ more highly-touted prospects or draft picks in recent years have either not produced much in the big leagues, or have yet to even arrive.  (Perhaps most troublingly, first-rounders Mickey Moniak and Cornelius Randolph have both seen their prospect stock drop, as both are posting unspectacular numbers at Double-A.)  Olney discussed the Phillies’ farm system with ESPN colleague Keith Law, who felt the problem could stem from a conservative approach to drafting pitching, as well the team’s “tendency to push [position] players to low-A Lakewood before they’re physically ready for it.“
  • Jay Bruce is hopeful that his injured list stint could just last between 10-15 days, as the veteran outfielder told MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki and other reporters that his side injury was only a sprained right intercostal muscle.  “It’s not nearly as bad as an oblique could be, so that’s a positive….I think it’s more on the mild side, the shorter side of the timetable, fortunately,” Bruce said.  That would be a good scenario for both Bruce and the Phillies, who were already facing a lack of outfield depth prior to Bruce’s injury.  The veteran has been something of a one-dimensional bat since joining the Phillies earlier this season, as Bruce has hit .256/.273/.564 with 10 homers over his 121 plate appearances in a Philadelphia uniform.

Phillies Select Fernando Salas

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The Phillies announced Thursday that they’ve selected the contract of veteran right-hander Fernando Salas for the second time this season. Philadelphia also recalled southpaw Cole Irvin from Triple-A Lehigh Valley and, in a pair of corresponding moves, optioned lefty Austin Davis and righty Edgar Garcia to Triple-A. The Phillies had a 40-man vacancy, so no DFA or 60-day IL placement was required to add Salas to the 40-man roster.

Salas, 34, pitched just one inning in his previous stint with the Phils, allowing a solo homer and recording a strikeout. He was designated for assignment shortly thereafter and accepted an outright assignment upon clearing waivers. Since returning to the IronPigs, Salas has surrendered two runs on five hits and no walks with eight strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. Overall, he has a 2.51 ERA and a 14-to-3 K/BB ratio in 14 1/3 innings of work in Triple-A this year.

Of course, Salas is also a seasoned big league veteran, having spent nine seasons in the Majors prior to 2019. He tossed 40 innings with the D-backs last year and carries a lifetime 3.91 ERA with 8.7 K/9, 2.7 BB/9 and 1.1 HR/9 in 488 innings between the Cardinals, Angels, Mets, Diamondbacks and Phillies. He’ll add a fresh arm to an injury-ravaged Philadelphia bullpen that went through five relievers yesterday after starter Nick Pivetta lasted just 2 1/3 innings due to a lengthy rain delay.

Hector Neris, Noe Ramirez Receive 3-Game Suspensions

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5:03pm: Angels righty Noe Ramirez has also been suspended for a trio of contests after also being deemed to have thrown at the head of a hitter. In his case, he went after Jake Marisnick in apparent retribution for the outfielder’s own recent actions, which resulted in an injury to Halos catcher Jonathan Lucroy and a two-game ban for Marisnick.

Halos skipper Brad Ausmus also took a one-game ban, which he’ll serve tonight. Ramirez will appeal the suspension, he tells reporters including Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register (via Twitter).

4:44pm: Major League Baseball has announced a three-game suspension for Phillies righty Hector Neris. He was deemed to have thrown intentionally at Dodgers infielder David Freese.

Here’s video of the incident. MLB cited the fact that the pitch was thrown “in the area of the head” of the hitter in explaining its decision.

Neris, the Phils’ closer, will appeal the suspension, according to Matt Breen of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Twitter). If he loses or abandons the appeal, the punishment will take him out of the ninth inning for a brief stretch. Some might say that poor performance had already threatened such a move.

It was a brutal showing for Neris last night, as he coughed up three-run bomb to blow his fourth save. All of those have come since June 14th, with three coming since June 27th alone. Neris had a 1.88 ERA in mid-June; that has ballooned to 4.08. He evidently decided to take out his frustration on Freese, who strode to the plate after the ill-fated pitch.

Phillies Reportedly Extended Klentak, MacPhail Prior To Season

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The Phillies never announced contractual lengths for president Andy MacPhail or general manager Matt Klentak upon hiring the pair to spearhead the organization’s baseball operations department, and Matt Gelb of The Athletic reports (subscription required) that the team was similarly quiet about a pair of previously unannounced extensions for that duo. According to Gelb, MacPhail signed a three-year extension back in 2017 that runs through the 2021 season, while Klentak was extended through the 2022 campaign four months ago.

The extension for Klentak came on the heels of an offseason in which he aggressively reshaped the Phillies’ lineup by signing Bryce Harper and Andrew McCutchen while acquiring several players via trade (headlined by J.T. Realmuto and Jean Segura). The Philadelphia offense has improved in 2019, though probably not quite to the extent the front office had hoped. Phillies hitters have posted a combined .245/.323/.423 batting line and scored 460 runs — up from .236/.319/.390 and 411 runs scored at this same point in 2018.

Philadelphia’s defense has seemingly improved as well. After turning in a stunning -146 mark in Defensive Runs Saved and a -8.0 UZR/150 in 2018, the Phillies have logged a collective +3 DRS and +5.1 UZR/150 to this point in the 2019 campaign.

Unfortunately for the Phillies, the pitching staff has gone in the opposite direction. The offseason efforts put into bullpen acquisitions have been torpedoed by a near-unparalleled level of injury among the Phillies’ relief corps. David Robertson, for instance, has been baseball’s bullpen iron man over the past decade. However, since signing a two-year deal with the Phillies due in no small part to that durability, he’s been limited to 6 2/3 innings as a result of elbow troubles. High-priced bullpen pickups from the 2017-18 offseason like Tommy Hunter and Pat Neshek haven’t been able to stay healthy in 2019. Promising younger arms like Seranthony Dominguez (UCL injury), Victor Arano (arthroscopic elbow surgery) and Edubray Ramos (shoulder impingement) have also fallen victim to injury.

As one might expect of a team that has essentially lost an entire bullpen’s worth of solid MLB arms, Philadelphia relievers are tied for the game’s fifth-worst ERA (4.97). But the more alarming struggles have arguably come in a rotation that went largely unaddressed in the offseason. While the modest price the club paid to extend ace Aaron Nola still looks like a shrewd move, the 26-year-old hasn’t been as dominant in 2019 as he was in 2018. Jake Arrieta, meanwhile, is pitching through a bone spur in his elbow with understandably mixed results. Zach Eflin has been solid but not spectacular. Beyond that trio, the Phillies have received a combined ERA well north of 5.00 from the group of Vince Velasquez, Nick Pivetta and Jerad Eickhoff.

The end result is a Phillies club that has underachieved to the point of falling 8.5 games back of the division-leading Braves. Philadelphia is still three games over .500 and holds a half-game lead over Milwaukee for the second spot in the NL Wild Card race, so the season is far from lost. But the quietly extended front office regime will also have its hands full in endeavoring to address some of the flaws that have led to the current predicament. Gelb writes that, to this point, the Phillies “have not displayed an overwhelming sense of urgency” in their efforts to do so, although they’re hardly the only team that has not jumped into action; to this point in the “trading season,” there have only been three deals of even moderate note consummated (Andrew Cashner, Homer Bailey and Martin Maldonado).

The extent to which the Phillies ramp up that level of aggression could well be dependent on the current roster’s play in the next couple of weeks, but it still seems likely that the club will function as a buyer in the next 14 days.

Jay Bruce Exits With Oblique Strain

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Phillies slugger Jay Bruce exited Tuesday evening’s contest with a strained right oblique muscle, the Phillies announced. There’s no word on a a trip to the injured list, but the Phillies will likely have additional info after the game.

The majority of oblique strains send players to the injured list, and it’s not uncommon for position players to miss around a month with even a Grade 1 strain. Losing Bruce would be a blow to the Phillies’ lineup; while he’s only mustered a paltry .277 OBP since his acquisition, Bruce entered play Tuesday hitting .266 and slugging a whopping .574 with the Phils. He’s already drilled 10 long balls and six doubles with Philadelphia, and he’d plated 29 runs in his first 32 games with the team.

Bruce’s acquisition helped to offset the loss of Andrew McCutchen, who suffered a torn ACL earlier this season and won’t return until 2020. An absence for Bruce could open the door for the return of Nick Williams — the one-time top prospect who has yet to solidify himself as a big league regular in the manner most envisioned when he was rising through the minor leagues. The 25-year-old Williams logged an ugly .173/.221/.259 slash through 86 plate appearances with the Phillies earlier in 2019 before being optioned to Triple-A, but that poor output came in an extremely limited role that was surely foreign to him.

Since being sent to Triple-A for regular at-bats, Williams has laid waste to International League pitching. In 120 trips to the plate, he’s recorded a superlative .358/.417/.651 with six homers, 10 doubles and two triples. He’d be the obvious candidate to replace Bruce on a short-term basis, but one can only wonder whether the Phils would again look to the trade market for another outfield option. While the Phillies have quickly faded in the NL East race, they’re still very much in the thick of the NL Wild Card mix. And after such an aggressive offseason, it’d be a disheartening concession for the team’s decision-makers to operate as anything other than a deadline buyer.

Multiple Teams Showing Initial Interest In Robbie Ray

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TODAY: You can add the Brewers to the stack of club’s showing initial interest in Ray, Morosi tweets. It seems safe to presume that just about every organization with a rotation need will at least take a look at the southpaw.

YESTERDAY, 10:25pm: The Yankees are also among the teams interested in Ray, Jon Heyman of MLB Network tweets. Considering they’ve historically liked Ray, that’s not surprising.

4:48pm: Diamondbacks starter Robbie Ray is one of the top rotation targets on this summer’s trade market. The Arizona organization will have to decide whether the time is right to cash in on the southpaw, who’s earning $6.05MM in 2019 and can be controlled via arbitration for one more season beyond the present.

The Astros and Phillies are two of the teams showing “recent interest” in Ray, according to MLB.com’s Jon Morosi. It’s unsurprising to see this particular connection; both of those organizations is in obvious need of starting pitching and already pursued Ray over the offseason. No doubt other organizations are also taking a look at Ray in anticipation of the Snakes entertaining offers.

At this point, it’s unclear just how the Arizona organization will behave at the deadline. The club itself does not fully know, GM Mike Hazen has indicated. Final decisions will surely come down to details that aren’t yet known: where exactly are the Snakes in the Wild Card standings? And what package of young talent can they achieve for Ray and others?

The ’Stros and Phils are surely interested in gaining an understanding not just of what kind of pieces the D-Backs would want, but how inclined they are to pursue a deal in earnest. While the Houston organization will surely be in on rental assets, it has reasons to prefer controllable arms. It makes much more sense for the Philadelphia club to focus on the latter class, given its recent struggles.

It’ll certainly be interesting to see how negotiations progress on Ray. He’s a particular target for strikeout-loving teams — so long as they can live with his walk issues and a few more long balls than might be preferred. Since the start of his breakout 2017 campaign, Ray has thrown nearly four hundred innings of 3.47 ERA ball with 12.0 K/9 and 4.5 BB/9 along with 1.3 dingers per nine. Though the best run of results came at the front end of that time period, by most measures Ray has been much the same pitcher throughout. There were some health hiccups last year, but he has stayed on the mound this season. All things considered, Ray is quite an appealing target for the right contender.

The situation is made all the more interesting by the D-Backs’ own circumstances. Both Hazen and CEO Derrick Hall have made clear the organization isn’t looking for anything close to a full rebuild. That’s not to say that they wouldn’t be interested in highly talented but far-off prospects, but the Arizona org is not going to punt on the present entirely. That stance promises to impact the sort of deal structures that are pursued. The Snakes acquired talented players at or near the majors — Luke Weaver, Carson Kelly, and Andy Young — in last winter’s Paul Goldschmidt deal, which could provide something of a model for a Ray swap.

Mychal Givens Drawing Trade Interest

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The Orioles made their first of what will likely be several trades over the weekend when they dealt Andrew Cashner to the Red Sox, and Roch Kubatko of MASNsports.com reports that closer Mychal Givens is drawing interest and is “definitely” available — a departure from recent seasons under previous front office management. The Phillies and Nationals, in particular, have interest in Givens, per the report. Obviously, a deal with the Nats would be difficult to hammer out when the two clubs continue to be embroiled in the ongoing dispute over MASN television rights fees.

Givens’ 2019 numbers are pedestrian at first glance. The right-hander’s 4.50 ERA is wholly unremarkable, and even last season’s 3.99 mark hardly generates excitement. Front offices aren’t going to put much stock in earned run average when evaluating a pitcher, however, particularly amid 2019’s home run deluge. Givens entered the season having averaged well less than a homer per nine innings pitched in his career, but he’s served up eight long balls in 36 innings in 2019. That’s led to a spike in his ERA, but it’s of some note that nine of the 18 earned runs he’s given up this year were surrendered in a combined two outings (a four-run meltdown in June and a five-run outing in May — both fueled by homers).

Looking beyond his ho-hum ERA, Givens offers a fair bit of intrigue. First and foremost, this year’s 12.8 K/9 and 34.5 percent overall strikeout rate are easily career-best marks. He’s also sporting a career-high 15.3 percent swinging-strike rate and 32 percent opponents’ chase rate on out-of-zone pitches. Givens’ 95.1 mph average fastball is right in line with his career rate, and the spin rate on that heater checks into the 77th percentile among MLB hurlers.

A rudimentary look at Givens’ splits reveals what many would expect to be the case: his home park hasn’t done him any favors. Six of the eight long ball surrendered by Givens have come at Camden Yards. On the road, opponents have managed an awful .185/.286/.315 output against him.

Digging a bit deeper, opposing hitters have posted a .350 weighted on-base average (wOBA) against Givens, but that’s almost entirely a function of the aforementioned home run issues. He’s yielded just a .217 batting average and a .304 on-base percentage thus far on the season. Based on the quality of contact he’s allowed, Statcast projects an expected wOBA of just .297 — significantly lower than the league average of .324 (excluding pitchers).

With any trade candidate, the player’s contract plays a sizable role in driving trade interest. In the case of Givens, the Orioles are in an advantageous position. He’s earning a minimal $2.15MM in 2019 and is controlled via arbitration through the 2021 season. With only about $890K of this season’s salary yet to be paid out, Givens is affordable for any contender and can also be viewed as a relatively long-term option, both of which should fuel interest between now and July 31. He may not be as appealing a trade chip as teammate Trey Mancini, but Givens is the highest-valued asset the Orioles seem decidedly likely to move.

Phillies Place Tommy Hunter On IL, Recall Edubray Ramos

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The Phillies announced today that right-handed reliever Tommy Hunter has been placed on the 10-day injured list with a right forearm strain. Fellow right-hander Edubray Ramos has been recalled from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to take Hunter’s 25-man roster spot.

Forearm strains are always ominous for pitchers, but it seems especially alarming in Hunter’s case. The 33-year-old had only been activated from the IL two weeks ago after sitting out the first three months of the season with the same injury. While there’s no timetable yet for Hunter’s return, if his recovery for the new injury takes anywhere near as long as the road back from his first malady, it could put his season in jeopardy. Hunter told the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Matt Breen (via Twitter) that while he’s optimistic about his ability to return this season, he believes his new injury is similar to the one which shut him down at the season’s outset. Hunter has thrown just 5.1 innings this season, the second of a two-year, 18MM deal that hasn’t worked out well for the team to this point.

Ramos, 26, is up for for his fourth separate stint with the club in 2019. A solid contributor from 2016-2018, his numbers have taken a downturn this year. After striking out 26.5% of hitters over his first three MLB seasons, Ramos has seen that rate plummet to 15.8% this year. An IL stint for shoulder stiffness could help explain his struggles, as Ramos’ average fastball is over two miles per hour slower than it was in 2018, per Brooks Baseball. His velocity didn’t bounce back immediately after he returned from the injury, though, and his results in Lehigh Valley this year have only marginally surpassed the mediocre production he’s managed in the majors.

Phillies Sign Logan Morrison

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The Phillies have signed free-agent first baseman Logan Morrison to a minor league contract, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports. Morrison became available when he opted out of a minors pact with the Yankees on July 2.

The 32-year-old Morrison is only two seasons removed from serving as one of the majors’ finest offensive producers. He slashed .246/.353/.516 (130 wRC+) with 38 home runs in 601 plate appearances with the Rays that year to earn a $6.5MM guarantee with the Twins entering 2018. Morrison wasn’t nearly as good last year, though, owing in part to a labrum tear that ended his season in August. He then went without a contract until signing a minors pact with the Yankees toward the end of April.

Morrison never reached the majors with the Yankees, instead hitting an excellent .289/.341/.658 (143 wRC+) with 15 HRs in 164 PA with their Triple-A affiliate. With Rhys Hoskins holding down first in Philadelphia, it’ll also be difficult for Morrison to find much playing time with his new team.

Phillies Designate Rob Brantly For Assignment

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The Phillies have designated catcher Rob Brantly for assignment among a series of roster moves, the team reports.

Brantly’s contract was selected yesterday by Philly, presumably to hold down the weekend fort with catcher J.T. Realmuto away on paternity leave. In 182 plate appearances for AAA-Lehigh Valley in ’19, the former Tiger and Marlin farmhand has turned in one of his best seasons yet. The lefty’s walked more than he’s struck out so far in the International League, posting a stellar .306/.401/.452 line for the club.

He’ll likely go unclaimed on waivers, but the offensive gestation period for a catcher can be lengthy, and it’s possible Brantly has now positioned himself as a legitimate MLB backup option. In 429 career plate appearances with the White Sox and Marlins, Brantly’s paired a .229/.294/.332 (72 wRC+) slash with unseemly defensive metrics behind the plate.

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