Phillies 2026 News and Discussion

[zambonir]

199 pitches for Phillies yesterday!

[zambonir]

Lazar does indeed get tapped for bullpen game but in place of Backhus. Guess they might still send down Banks for Keller? Or maybe they want to burn Trivino tonight before DFAing him.

[andyb]

I think today was 15 days for Lazar and maybe Banks is a little better suited to go 2 than Bacchus if needed. Neither has really been effective.

Keller had one bad outing and I think one good one in his rehab. They might think he needs a 3rd outing or they could just be holding him a day so they can use somebody for a stretch if they need it. Of course one could easily say why not just stick with Rangel for the week. They might be a little too cute with mediocre bullpen pitchers for their own good.

[zambonir]

The Inquirer story says Keller is supposed to be activated today, just hasn't happened yet. Backhus (which is pronounced the way you spelled it, I was noticing that last night - I always figured it was Back-Hus or Back-House) was just bad since he came back off IL.

Agreed on Rangel. I assume it has something to do with the All-Star break and keeping him on a regular starter routine. One assume he is still back before the trade deadline.

[andyb]

Change of plans I guess. Both Keller and Rangel are back. Johnson optioned again and Trivino to the IL (which lets us bring back Rangel quickly). He could be starting tonight I guess. So all we had to do was overuse Trivino to the point where we could fix our mistake and just get Rangel back. The injury of a right thoracic muscle spasm seems a little shady to me but other organizations have done worse.

[zambonir]

Oh that's weird. I thought Rangel had already made a start for LHV. So basically he just got stuck making less money and hanging out in AAA for five days.

[andyb]

No outings for Rangel in the minors so he is on 5-day rest. No idea when he arrived in Cincinnati but he is now listed as the starter.

I know the players' CBA proposal has optioned players getting major league pay and service time for a period each time they are optioned but no luck for Rangel this time.

[Matt_Winkelman]

That was around the break, I believe if you return to the majors in under a certain amount of time the entire period is treated as MLB time for service time and pay, the option also doesn't count against limits

[zambonir]

I wonder if they shut down a planned LHV start for him after that blowout in Kansas City.

[EDmuch]

Burns is a tough opponent tonite.

[dcsman]

Just saw on Reddit but can’t confirm that Mattingly says he wants the manager job permanently.

[HopeSpringsEternal]

It was a statement in today’s pregame interview with Buster Olney. Mattingly said he committed to two years when he signed with the Phillies, and that he would like to see that through by continuing to manage next year.

I didn’t get the impression that the 2-year commitment was anything but a mental commitment on Mattingly’s part, although it may have been something he verbalized to DD when he agreed to become the bench coach

[zambonir]

Well, he had a two-year deal to be the bench coach, maybe. It's kind of a weird situation. The best thing really would be for him to stay (obviously he's done a good job, just as obviously we keep seeing that it isn't necessarily the manager) and, then for the team to get new managerial blood around the same time they get other new blood. The idea that Dombrowski not only still wants to hire Cora but presumably join him on the same contractual timeline and run things for another three years isn't terribly exciting. But it seems like that's the plan.

As with Topper, Mattingly can nail down the job if he wins a playoff round or two. If they go out early again the city will be more down on the players than him, but it gives DD the excuse.

(Plus Cora is expected to manage the Mets if he doesn't come here.)

I believe Kevin Long is signed for another two seasons after this one.

[HopeSpringsEternal]

Well, he had a two-year deal to be the bench coach, maybe

I wasn’t sure about this; I just assumed he signed a 1-year contract to be bench coach

[zambonir]

No idea, but Thomson and DD were both signed through the end of next season so it may be makes sense Mattingly would have been too? Wouldn't have really made sense to bring in a bench coach for just one year but most of the coaches probably are year-to-year. Except Long who I believe is also the highest-paid hitting coach in MLB.

In any case he's not under contract to be the manager beyond this year, and once again the Phillies would have to get a waiver to bypass diversity hire protocol if they keep him. And if he didn't become manager, he probably wouldn't go back to being bench coach.

[Jazzhead]

The last couple of weeks have certainly solidified where we need to expend our limited resources at the trade deadline.

Hill and Rincones appear to be a more than adequate solution in right field. And Nola has bounced back with two starts good enough to trust him as the fourth starter.

But the Phils lost both of those starts because the bullpen imploded. We need a solution for the sixth and seventh innings or this season is kaput. Heck, even Taijuan Walker, who we're paying anyway, would likely be better than Mayza, Lazar and Banks at this point.

[zambonir]

That's a little hard on Mayza. He just had the worst game of his Philllies career, and also didn't even start the season on the team, let alone first on the lefty depth chart. But the Phillies also aren't built to need excellent pitching in the 6th or 7th inning. That's where Nola's struggles hurt even when he has a better outing. And asking all these fungible guys to hold down the 5th starter spot gives you both a bad 5th starter and a worse bullpen. Still don't really understand why they didn't just stick with Rangel.

Hill's been great but Rincones Jr. is likely not enough, it would be a lot to think that what he's doing for two weeks in July will count for two weeks in October and he's still a negative player overall (by a lot) for now. The pitching is a weakness that is hitting us in the face presently, but the absence of one more potent bat, RH or not, has been a weakness for three straight post-seasons, and even with Marsh's breakout will likely still be one (especially given Turner's struggles).

[Jazzhead]

You make some good points, zambonir. I shouldn't be so hard on Mayza for one bad outing; Luzardo suffered from inconsistency but the other day delivered a gem. I'd love to see us get another RH bat and a reliable 5th starter, but if there are only enough bullets to do one key deal, I think it needs to be a 7th inning guy.

As you say, Nola won't really be back until he can consistently go 6 innings. It is always better to have the 6th inning handled by the starter. And have we gotten ANY wins from the 5th starters' games in the last 2 months?

One outsie-the-box option might be to trade for a fourth starter type and move Nola to the bullpen. Or bring up Gage to see what he could do in a relief role.

[EDmuch]

To me the trade to be made is with Boston for Chapman and Whitlock to bolster bullpen.

[julio]

but Rincones Jr. is likely not enough, it would be a lot to think that what he's doing for two weeks in July will count for two weeks in October and he's still a negative player overall (by a lot) for now.

You may be right about this, z... but... you may equally be wrong.

If what he's done in the past couple of weeks is reflective of adjustment to the majors, that might suggest that keeping him in the platoon role would be quite adequate. Yes, his overall numbers are still bad... but that's inevitable, given his early performance. Whether the improvement is real, or a mirage, is something that we cannot honestly evaluate at this point; it's too soon to know.

So, do we throw in the experiment, send him back to AAA, and... do what, instead?

As an aside, I'm gratified that the earlier "he's not good enough; find somebody else" about Justin Crawford have pretty much died down. This is a similar situation; bad start, followed by improvement. Overall, he's a 0.0 WAR player at this point (B-R); but the last month? Rather better than that.

Rookies. If you want to bring rookies into the major-league lineup, you're going to have this kind of thing. If you aren't willing to put up with these growing pains, then you better get used to huge payrolls filled with declining older players, who never quite measure up to the expectations you had when they were signed to long-term, expensive contracts.