The Phillies outrighted 7 players off of the 40 man roster today. Five of them are completely unsurprising, as Chase d’Arnaud, Jordan Danks, Adam Loewen, Erik Kratz, and Ken Roberts all go to AAA and then free agency after the world series. None of them had any future in Philadelphia so nothing lost here. The other two players are both right handed pitchers in Justin De Fratus and Jonathan Pettibone.
Pettibone is rehabbing from shoulder surgery. If the Phillies don’t bring him back as a free agent, it would likely imply quite a few things about the nature of his rehab. I suspect that Pettibone does come back and continues his rehab with the Phillies. By doing this the Phillies did clear a roster spot for the offseason where there is no 60 day DL.
The case of De Fratus has been well chronicled this year. Ryne Sandberg used him a lot and his stuff really suffered towards the end of the year and he never really pitched in leverage situations all year. This does obscure the fact that he saw his big drop in stuff in 2014 as he learned to pitch in a lower velocity band as his stuff from 2013 never really returned. He was quite good with his diminished stuff in 2014, but that didn’t carry over this season (even before Sandberg overused him). He is now 28 years old and arb eligible with no minor league options. That puts him firmly behind players like Colton Murray and Hector Neris in playing time for the future, as well as all of the minor league arms the Phillies had. De Fratus is now a free agent and will look to latch on with another team on a minor league deal.
Was there a reason for the timing, or was it just a matter of getting it over with? Is it just a coincidence that they are at 40 now? They have 4 FAs + Cliff Lee that should come off the roster at some point, or did this need to be done before that happens?
Will be a real kick in the butt if JDF ends up with the Mets or Nats and comes back to haunt the Fightins.
Hopefully he heads west, closer to home.
I assume next to go, will be, after their 60-day DL stint is completed, are Chad Billingleys and Cliff Lee, then I assume Aaron Harang and Jerome Williams will get their notices soon thereafter.
Nice article Matt about why the Phillies let the seven players go off the 40 man roster. It is bad luck for Pettibone and better talent coming up to replace DeFratus.
I’m surprised Tommy Joseph wasn’t included. If his foot speed limits him to catcher and first base, and his concussions keep him from being a catcher, and his bat won’t play at first base, why does he have a 40-man spot?
Because of the thing with feathers that perches in the soul….