Yesterday the Phillies signed Jerome Williams, which was a great signing, but still made us all very sad. Williams just underlines how thin starting pitching is across baseball as a whole, and just how important it is to develop starting pitching depth as an organization. In a healthy organization this spot is filled internally by a league minimum salaried 22 year old, but that is not where the Phillies are right now. Right now the Phillies need innings from their starting rotation, and on the open market those innings aren’t cheap. But that era is starting to end, the Phillies have pitching depth on the way, the problem is that Spring Training is just too early for them. That means the Phillies have to fill the gap in the mean time until that depth is there.
When we think about the Phillies starting pitching depth going forward we can think of it in three categories. In the first you have guys you expect to count on in the rotation going forward. They may not be front of the rotation arms, but you expect them to be part of the future going forward. Then you have your rotation filler, the Phillies had a surprise in this category last year when David Buchanan stepped into the rotation from AAA. The problem with these pitchers is that you are waiting for them to turn back into pumpkins. Some will continue to build and improve, others just don’t have the stuff to compete in the majors. Lastly you have your fliers, players that you cannot reasonably expect anything from, but could be impactful if things work out. The biggest reason pitchers are fliers is injuries, it is just hard to count on players coming back healthy and with their stuff intact.
