Buddy Kennedy, Kody Clemens, Rafael Marchan, Kolby Allard, Tyler Gilbert, Cal Stevenson, Freddy Tarnok, Jose Ruiz, Rodolfo Castro, Tyler Phillips, Yunior Marte
What those 11 players have in common is that they have no more remaining minor league options and no firm grip on a roster spot. The Phillies currently have 43 players occupying 40 man roster spots with 3 pending free agents, a probable non-tender for Luis Ortiz (who will miss all of 2025 due to injury) and Austin Hays, and a bunch of spots locked in. I find it helpful to breakdown the spots as locks and depth with the locks not necessarily being the actual person at each position always, but someone whose spot would be replaced by an external player. So here are the remaining players not already listed.
| Starting Hitters | Hitting Depth | Starters | Relievers | Pitching Depth |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bryce Harper | Weston Wilson | Cristopher Sanchez | Jose Alvarado | Jose Cuas |
| Alec Bohm | Garrett Stubbs | Ranger Suarez* | Matt Strahm | Max Lazar |
| J.T. Realmuto | Edmundo Sosa* | Aaron Nola | Tanner Banks | Michael Mercado |
| Brandon Marsh | Zack Wheeler | Orion Kerkering | Seth Johnson | |
| Johan Rojas | Taijuan Walker | |||
| Kyle Schwarber | Kyle Tyler | |||
| Nick Castellanos | ||||
| Bryson Stott | ||||
| Trea Turner |
Beyond the fact that they really will need replacements for Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez, the lack of depth is startling. You can start plugging in some of the out of options players, but you run into redundancies quick, for example Rafael Marchan is just a Stubbs alternative, keeping Allard or Phillips as depth is really just the Walker spot, etc. On the hitting side you really are only looking at one player who can actually good to AAA as depth, and that is Weston Wilson, who, in small sample sizes, has hit .288/.375/.490 in the majors as a part time player.
The first place to look to solve this problem is internal depth, but as previously written about the Phillies hitting depth is bleak and if we use upcoming 40 man protection as a gauge for readiness, almost non-existent. Having Johan Rojas start in AAA would help, and they should be able to get David Dahl and Aramis Garcia level veterans, but they are going to need more, especially if they want to rest their players more. This isn’t to say they need to make a large investment, but through waiver claims and minor moves the Phillies should target newer versions of Kody Clemens, Cal Stevenson, Buddy Kennedy, and Rodolfo Castro.
The pitching side is where we get much more into conversations of triage. The Phillies will need starting pitching depth. They have 4 locked in starting pitchers and a 5th (Andrew Painter) who they imagine contributing by the summer. Taijuan Walker will get a shot at the job and it is possible they try to get a new version of Spencer Turnbull or Kolby Allard to compete. On the potential Rule 5 protection list are Jean Cabrera, Moises Chace, Mick Abel, Eiberson Castellano, and Christian McGowan. All of them are starting pitchers. There are some relievers kicking around, but none of them profile as immediate protections or immediate impact.
That leaves those 5 above plus Seth Johnson and Michael Mercado who all primarily pitched as starters while there is a giant hole at right handed reliever. This should force some hard conversations about the value and impact of certain players going forward. In my opinion that means that the time of Michael Mercado starting should be over. It was a worthwhile experiment, but he lacked impact in the role. It should make them look at Seth Johnson, maybe not immediately, but during the season for what his role should be. The younger guys may get more leash, but assuming Andrew Painter comes back healthy, the Phillies are going to have 4 starting pitchers locked in for a bit, even if they let Ranger Suarez walk.
All of this is less important than finding a bit more impact and diversity, but the Phillies sit on an edge where familiar depth guys have aged through their option years and the Phillies have failed to backfill. Figuring out who the new faces are should be an offseason priority.
Interesting points all around. The work they need to do for refreshing veteran minor-league depth is almost as important as the reconfiguring needed for the 25-man roster.
I really hope they commit to giving Wilson 200+ at-bats next year. I don’t think you’ll find better bench/semi-platoon value for the price.
It’s an obvious observation, but while the bullpen and certain $20M hitters were the biggest problem versus the Mets, that series loss was also the final data point in how the Phillies never really recovered from the huge Whit Merrifield mistake. You can make a case that all that churn from guys who are now out of options — Kennedy, Stevenson, Dahl, Clemens, etc. — as a direct result of trying to find the right “patch” to fix what they didn’t get from Merrifield. And then the cherry on top was the Austin Hays acquisition. …. For better or worse (and this may be bad news for both Rojas and Marsh) I don’t think they’re going to enter 2025 with ANY uncertainty in LF and CF. It will be an interesting offseason.