PHILS PHACTS:
Interesting Group of Invitees – The
Phillies signed five players to Minor League contracts on Monday, and one of
them could pitch in the late innings next season. Right-handers Ernesto Frieri, Gregory Infante
and Greg Burke; catcher J.P. Arencibia;
and infielder Angelys Nina will be non-roster invitees to Spring Training.
Frieri has closing experience, so he seems like a candidate to pitch in the
eighth or ninth inning following the Phils trading Ken Giles to the Astros on
Saturday. Of course, Frieri, 30, must first earn a spot on the 25-man roster.
He went 1-0 with a 4.63 ERA in 22 appearances last season with the Rays. Frieri
has a 3.55 ERA in 298 appearances in his career, which includes 73 saves. The
Phillies signed right-hander David Hernandez to a
one-year, $3.9 million contract last week. Hernandez has some experience as a
closer and might be considered the front-runner to close in 2016. Burke, 33, is
from Marlton, N.J. He spent last season in the Blue Jays' system, posting a
2.63 ERA in 48 appearances with Double-A New Hampshire and Triple-A Buffalo. He
has a 4.77 ERA in 80 career appearances in the big leagues, last pitching for
the Mets in 2013. Infante, 28, had a 3.18 ERA in 51 appearances last season
with Buffalo and New Hampshire. He made five appearances at the big league
level with the White Sox in 2010. Arencibia, 29, hit .227 with 17 doubles, 22
home runs and 65 RBIs last season with Triple-A Durham, which is part of the
Rays' farm system. He posted a .921 OPS in 24 games with Tampa Bay. Nina, 27,
hit .300 with 21 doubles, five triples, four home runs and 18 stolen bases in
114 games during 2015 with Triple-A Albuquerque, which is part of the Rockies'
system. He played second base, shortstop, third base and left field.
Pitching Was The Motivator – Phillies
general manager Matt Klentak never said he wanted to trade Ken Giles, but he always
said he needed to be opportunistic. Klentak sensed a chance to improve the Phillies last week, when
the team finalized the trade
that sent Giles and Minor League infielder Jonathan Arauz to the
Astros for pitchers Vincent Velasquez,
Mark Appel, Brett Oberholtzer, Thomas Eshelman and Harold Arauz. It was
Klentak's third trade of the offseason, with each one geared toward boosting
the team's starting pitching. "This was an opportunity we couldn't pass
up," Klentak said Monday in a conference call with reporters. "We
feel like we've made our club better, both in the short and long term. We hate
to lose a player like Ken Giles. I've said all along that we're trying to add
good players, but in this case, it's an opportunity for us to add five
starting-pitching candidates to our system. And it improves the state of our
organization moving forward. That's a very exciting thing for us." In the
end, it simply made sense for the rebuilding Phils to trade Giles' 65 innings a
season for the opportunity to develop two or three pitchers who could pitch
180-200 innings a season. "I don't think finding an elite closer is easy
by any stretch," Klentak said. "I don't minimize that at all. We will
do everything we can to make sure we are locking down the end of a game as well
as we can. But the difficulty of putting together a rotation and gathering
enough inventory to get through the season and multiple seasons that we can
control for a long time -- that is really hard to do and that is a huge factor
in this trade. You are able to turn one reliever -- albeit a really, really
good one -- into five starting-pitching candidates." The Phillies
certainly created some competition for the 2016 starting rotation. They
previously acquired veterans Jeremy Hellickson and
Charlie Morton in a
couple of trades for mid-level prospects. Those two will be in the rotation
come Opening Day. Aaron Nola,
Jerad Eickhoff and
Velasquez might be the favorites to earn the other three rotation jobs, with
Oberholtzer, Adam Morgan,
David Buchanan, Alec Asher and Severino Gonzalez in
the mix. Top prospects
Appel, Jake Thompson and Zach Elfin figure to top a talented and promising
Triple-A rotation. "For us, it's all about balance," Klentak said.
"I think no team ever gets through a season with five starting pitchers.
That's just not realistic. So we knew we wanted to add to the inventory, both
for the short term and the long term. And I think the balance component comes
into play, because we've got two veterans in Hellickson and Morton, we've got
some kids in Eickhoff and Velasquez and Nola that have gotten a taste of the
big leagues, but haven't pitched a full season. We've got a stabilizer in
Oberholtzer. And we've got several others, both on the 40-man and off, that are
going to be competing either for jobs early on the season or later in the
season as their development continues. "Organizationally, that's been a
goal of ours. It will remain a goal of ours, to always have starting-pitching
depth." Klentak praised Oberholtzer, who has a 3.94 ERA in 45 appearances
(42 starts) in his big league career. It is worth noting that Oberholtzer is
out of options, which puts him in a strong position to make the pitching staff.
Klentak and Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow had been discussing a Giles
trade for the past three or four weeks, and those talks intensified last week
at the Winter Meetings in Nashville, Tenn. They agreed to a 4-for-1 trade on
Wednesday, but it became a 5-for-2 on Saturday (with Appel and Harold Arauz
added to the Phillies' package with outfielder Derek Fisher subtracted) because
sources said the Phils had concerns about a physical of one of the players
involved. Of course, the question now is, "Who will close in 2016?" Internal
candidates include the recently signed David Hernandez and
Ernesto Frieri. But Klentak also hinted the club could sign a free agent in the
near future. "We don't have to decide that in December," Klentak said
about the 2016 closer. "We'll see. Every closer at some point was a
first-time closer. Someone will be pitching the ninth for us. I'm going to be
honest, since the news of the Giles trade broke, we've had a number of players
and agents that have reached out to us to express interest in the
opportunity."
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies finally put an end to the season finishing in last place in the NL
East with a record of 63-99. Given the departures, aging stars, injuries, and
bipolar performances, this has ended up being one of the worst seasons in
franchise history! However, at least Ryan Madson got another ring this year.
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