Phillies rumors state that the team is willing to sell, just not quite yet.
Philadelphia Phillies rumors reveal that some observers see the Philadelphia Phillies signing Carlos Santana as an “aggressive” indicator. Many fans, however, still see the team as a cold cheesesteak sitting in a concession pile in Ashburn Alley. And that cheesesteak will cost you ten dollars when you reach the cashier.
Yes, the Santana trade was arguably a deal (it wasn’t), and the team hired a guy to manage the team who once posed in a tight, skimpy bathing suit, but even with Rhys Hoskins and Santana in the middle of their lineup, the Phillies are likely still a last-place team.
This is because the team seems to be looking forward to the free agent class of 2018-19. Bryce Harper, Manny Machado, Charlie Blackmon, Drew Pomeranz, and Andrew Miller could all still be available then. The Phillies just don’t want to admit they prefer next year’s potential market as such. They will soon move down to Clearwater for spring training with declarations they expect to compete this year.
A problem with this thinking is A) they won’t compete with their current starting pitchers, and B) some of the free agents for next year will sign new contracts before the end of 2018. As recently as mid-November, Clayton Kershaw and Elvis Andrus were listed, respectively, as the third and seventh best ’18-19 free agents in an ESPN blog. They are now signed through 2021 in Kershaw’s case and 2023 in Andrus’. Oh, and Bryce Harper might be looking for half a billion dollars by July 1.
In other words, the Phillies need a nudge toward signing second, third, fourth, and fifth starters who are actual major leaguers, or at worst, the fourth and fifth guys.
The best case scenario for the young starters the Phillies now have is two pitchers (besides Aaron Nola) stepping up to become useful major league pitchers – maybe they will be Jerad Eickhoff and Thomas Eshelman.
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Eshelman’s leap from decent to really great minor league numbers between his age 22 year in 2016 and age 23 at the Double and Triple-A levels is actually encouraging, but at best the Phillies have home-grown pitchers who could be the second through fourth starters on really good teams by the end of this season.
If they sign no starter from elsewhere, it is more likely that they will have only a true number two (Nola) and a number four or five with seven other guys stumbling around in the other three slots.
Let’s forget a real number one starter for the moment. Couldn’t the Phillies take baby steps and sign a guy who could be a bargain and, if healthy, would definitely fill in the middle of the rotation? A perfect example is Chris Tillman.
Tillman had the worst year of his career in 2017, a victim of a shoulder inflammation that lingered from 2016 into last year. Before that, however, he had a career WHIP of 1.292 over eight A.L. seasons and four seasons with better figures than that. He will be only 30 next Apr. 15 and is surely hoping that both his career ERA and WHIP are now artificially inflated by an outlier year. The Phillies could hope along with him for a fair amount less than the $10 million he made in ’17.
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These Phillies rumors are contingent on Tillman passing a physical, but unless the Phillies sign someone to fill in their starting rotation, they will be selling “not yet” again. Attendance will surely drop in that case and likely would have dropped on average last year if not for Hoskins punching it up with 18 homers in his first 34 games.