Phillies: Those illusory last four seats on the bench

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.