Phillies: Those illusory last four seats on the bench

The Philadelphia Phillies have tough roster decisions in the near future.

In all the excitement of MLB’s Opening Weekend, a matter largely ignored is that Squad Cutdown Day is now less than two weeks away. At the end of the first full week in August, teams will have to jettison two players. And SCD will then be followed by SCD 2.0 in the third full week of next month, eliminating two more occupied lockers. This applies to all teams, including the Philadelphia Phillies, who surprised some observers with their final roster decisions late July 23.

The real Phillies roster, then, will be established in the near neighborhood of Aug. 21. Their fans can only hope there are only four players who have had to move into the Not MiLB Camp or quarantine by that point.

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So, as the season moved through the first weekend of competition, how many of their fans could have named the surprise players with Phillies roster spots for The Season of Cardboard Cutouts?

The least likely players who made the team out of summer camp are Deolis Guerra, Trevor Kelley, Reggie McClain, Ramon Rosso, Phil Gosselin, and Kyle Garlick – four pitchers (one without any MLB experience) and two position-player reserves (an infielder and an outfielder).

Kelley and McClain each have part of a year’s experience with Boston and Seattle, respectively. Guerra has experience in four years among three teams, and Rosso came into this season ready to make his big-league debut.

Gosselin is an experienced and seasoned utility player who might have seemed likely to make the team in any other year, but this year the Phillies invited about 400 experienced MLB players to camp, hands full of them on minor league contracts and as non-roster invitees, so no one knew who might be a front runner. Garlick is a young power-hitter who effectively replaced Nick Williams on the Opening Day roster.

Assuming no injuries or infections in the first two weeks of play, these six players are probably the best candidates to depart by Aug. 21.

Philadelphia Phillies: the rubber game

Kyle Garlick wasn’t in the starting lineup on July 26, but another guy who could end up on the chopping block in the next three weeks, Neil Walker, was. (Why should Gosselin start two days in a run just because he was 3-for-3 with a walk the day before?) Yes, Walker could disappear quickly – except for the fact that Girardi announced he had definitely made the team a few days before the very last slots on the team were filled.

Then, Sunday afternoon under beautiful skies, the Phillies went out and made an excellent argument that 30 players aren’t enough – or that for their organization, 30 pitchers may not be.

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But they got second looks at two of their marginal players, McClain and Gosselin. And another player, Cole Irvin, definitely added himself to the mix for a potential ticket to Allentown, where the other Phillies just playing catch this summer are working out. Garlick never got off the bench in the 11-6 loss.

Gosselin replaced Walker in the fourth inning against a left-hander, and stayed in the game, reaching base in two of his four trips to the plate. McClain faced six batters this time around. Unfortunately, while it appears the young right-hander may have better control than he did in Seattle, one of the batters he faced homered.

Irvin just looked the way he did last year in the 16 appearances he made for the Phillies – too hittable at the MLB level. His one advantage when his manager begins to mull over who stays and who goes is that he is left-handed.

However, roster changes for the Phillies and all other teams are winging swiftly toward them, and fewer players certainly don’t look like an advantage for a team that has started 1-2 against the weakest team in their division.

In any event, for 120 MLB players now dressing in big-league locker rooms, the first month of the 2020 season may still become an illusory season in an empty stadium.