The Major League Baseball offseason has been insanely slow. The Phillies entered the offseason with one big goal and then some modest ones. They needed to bring back Aaron Nola or replace him. They opted to strike early and bring back Nola. They targeted Yoshinobu Yamamoto as a rare young pitcher who could be part of the younger side of their core, but despite hanging in there with money, Philadelphia is not located in Los Angeles. The Phillies otherwise needed to churn the back of their roster, find some pitching depth, maybe a 7th/8th inning type RHP to add to their mix, and maybe find an outfield bat to given some depth if Johan Rojas faltered.
It is now February 13, and up until just over a week ago the Phillies had made two moves to help towards any of the areas of need above. They had traded for Michael Mercado to give them another talented AAA relief arm with a full compliment of options, and they had signed Kolby Allard to go to AAA on a major league deal as their #6 starting pitcher.
During that time the rest of the league mostly didn’t do anything either. Even now 4 of the top free agents are unsigned. Three of them are hampered by Qualifying Offers, and all 4 are held hostage by a league where maybe half the teams are actively looking to improve their roster. Adding to the slowness is a reduced minor league roster that has locked up the AAA roster market and made teams hesitant to sign depth that displaces what they have (the Phillies are currently 175 domestic minor league players, which is right at the offseason limit so each addition has required a release). This has led to an overall reduction in roster moves by all teams, and more importantly for a team looking to churn its roster, a strong reduction in other teams churning their roster.
As much as fans want the Phillies to make big moves, they have some amount of budget restrictions, but they have very real roster restrictions, trade asset shortages, and draft and signing penalties they could occur. As detailed at the start of the offseason, going over the 3rd tax threshold or signing a Qualifying Offer free agent has roster building implications for the Phillies. They also have a limited amount of trade capital and their roster is fairly full. They may yet still have a moderately large move in them, but outside of chasing a young impact player like Yamamoto, there isn’t anything on the market that should really move them to spending all of their resources and mortgaging some future. The path to roster churn was always going to waiver claims, minor league signings, and minor trades. Minor league signings were going to be difficult for the Phillies because of their depth and lack of opportunities. The major league deal for Kolby Allard was paying a premium so that a player would accept a lesser situation.
The other two types of moves are driven by teams having to make tough choices about their rosters. The problem with a slow offseason is that tough roster choices are driven by additions forcing them, and if no one is adding things then they aren’t making tough choices. As more players are designated for assignment, more teams begin to fill their rosters with waiver claims and small trades for those players. Those teams then have to make their own tough choices and players start to trickle down the waiver wire as each team then moves on from them or tries to sneak them through waivers. That means that it also takes some time for players to make it down the waiver order.
The Phillies made their roster waiver claim of the post tender deadline offseason (they claimed Josh Fleming and did not tender him a contract back in November) on February 5th, claiming Diego Castillo from the Red Sox. They made a minor trade of cash Michael Rucker the next day. They have then claimed two more pitchers (Max Castillo and Kaleb Ort) and designated that first claim, Castillo. They also slipped Andrew Bellatti and Simon Muzziotti through waivers during this time. They have a major league deal for Spencer Turnbull that has been reported, but is not official. Not that any of them are major moves, but that is 5 additions and only one loss in 8 days of February.
None of this is sexy depth, even if you think they might be able to harness something from Turnbull. They have also added some minor league deals into the mix, bringing back 2010 draft pick David Buchanan after his 7 years in Japan and Korea. They added some other minor league deals earlier in the offseason for some interesting arms. It is options (literally in the case of most of the players they have made moves for) and it is innings, which they just needed.
Tomorrow marks the first day that teams can use the 60 day IL, so some roster space will open up for some teams and some more signings may occur. The Phillies 40 man roster and 26 man roster both have spots that can still be improved, and it is very likely the Phillies just keep churning all the way up to opening day. Depth is a thing that everyone wants and yet most will turn up their noses when they see it, but it is a thing teams need. The major free agents have gotten much of the press, but the small churn is just as important.