Philadelphia Phillies: Only keeping four 2018 starters?

Relief Pitchers

Let’s keep this simple: Keep Seranthony Dominguez, Edubray Ramos, Victor Arano and Pat Neshek if possible and Neshek doesn’t somehow become an obviously old man over the off-season. (He is 38 but does have a contract.) These are your WHIP leaders, and a relief pitcher’s foundation statistic must be his WHIP.

All four are running between 0.946 and 1.183, but could be traded for the right player or players. The rest of the Phillies relievers should be traded if possible, in some cases even for a bag of balls. It is a little tempting to keep Hector Neris if possible, and he too is arbitration eligible, but who’s to say his splitter won’t disappear in the middle of next summer as it did this season.

Catchers

Veteran Wilson Ramos must be kept. A new contract must be created since his expires at the end of the season. Acquired just hours before the trade deadline, Ramos has hit .353 for the Phillies since arriving, and he is the best defensive catcher on the team right now. By next spring he may even be running a little better.

Both Jorge Alfaro and Andrew Knapp should be considered trade bait. Keep one. While Alfaro has a rocket arm, he hasn’t obviously progressed that much this year defensively although he seems to work well with Nola. He’s a better hitter than Knapp, and has a higher ceiling offensively as well.

Infielders

An informal count on one’s fingers says the Phillies have three first basemen, three second basemen, three shortstops, and five third basemen, with some overlapping that will be indicated in parentheses below after both infielders and outfielders are assigned to their proper 1968 positions. Yes, that won’t exactly reflect modern baseball, but readers won’t put up with three listings for Scott Kingery, for example, nor should they. After all, he puts his glove down largely the same way to field a ground ball at second, shortstop and third, and the guy’s hitting .226. How much analysis does he get?