Strained forearm sends Vince Velasquez to the Injured List

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Velasquez suddenly has a strained forearm

The Philadelphia Phillies have been able to build a lead in the National League East Division over the first six weeks of the 2019 MLB season despite suffering numerous important losses due to injuries. Now the club will have to work through one more, and for the first time the starting pitching rotation is involved.

Right-hander Vince Velasquez was placed on the Injured List today with what has been described as a “right forearm strain” by Corey Seidman at NBC Sports Philadelphia.

Velasquez is in his fourth season with the Phillies since coming from the Houston Astros as the lead piece in a big seven-player deal back on December 12, 2015. The 26-year-old (he turns 27 next month) has gone 20-27 with a 4.57 ERA and 1.368 WHIP over 77 appearances, 75 of those starts, since joining the Phillies.

This season, Velasquez was 1-2 with a 3.86 ERA and 1.352 WHIP. He had struck out 32 while walking 15 opposing batters across 32.1 innings over which he had surrendered 26 hits. Velasquez made six starts after coming out of the bullpen in his initial 2019 appearance.

A forearm strain could be anything from mild and minor to a major injury that would cost more than a year. Tampa Bay Rays sensational rookie pitcher Tyler Glasnow just learned that his own forearm strain was minor, but Glasnow will still be missing the next four-to-six weeks.

Per Seidman, the Phillies have brought back lefty reliever Austin Davis from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to bolster the bullpen for now. Davis had been pitching well with the IronPigs, producing a 1.12 ERA while allowing just 10 hits with 19 strikeouts over 16 innings across 11 appearances.

With the Phillies, Davis made one appearance this season back on April 23 in Colorado. He walked three and allowed three hits over two innings that afternoon at Coors Field but managed to keep the Rockies off the scoreboard during a 4-1 loss.

The 26-year-old Davis made his big-league debut a year ago with the Phillies. Over 32 games and 34.2 innings he allowed 35 hits with a 38/12 K:BB.

NBC Sports Philadelphia’s insider Jim Salisbury has reported that prospect Cole Irvin will be promoted to make his big-league debut on Sunday in what would normally have been the next start for Velasquez. However, Tom Housenick of The Morning Call has speculated that Irvin could make his debut on Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park. If that should happen, then Aaron Nola likely gets the Sunday nod.

Phillies add Jean Segura and Scott Kingery to growing Injured List

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Shortstop Jean Segura joined the Phillies growing Injury List

A gut-wrenching walkoff defeat on the scoreboard at the hands of the host Colorado Rockies was not the only loss suffered by the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night.

The club also lost three players to the Injured List: shortstop Jean Segura, his backup in red-hot utility player Scott Kingery, and reliever Victor Arano.

Segura actually strained his left hamstring during Tuesday’s game against the New York Mets. His stint on the IL was made retroactive to Wednesday, and so he will be eligible to come off next weekend.

Kingery injured his right hamstring while running to first on a ground out in the fourth inning during Friday night’s defeat. He was starting for the third straight game at short in place of Segura.

Arano was called up from Triple-A just over a week ago. Per Matt Gelb, the right-hander was warming up to enter Friday night’s game in the 12th inning when he began to have trouble in his right pitching elbow.

Matt Gelb

✔@MattGelb

Phil Gosselin will be the Phillies’ shortstop for the next week. He’s the only shortstop on the roster. Segura didn’t suffer a setback, but with Kingery down, they decided to be ultra cautious.

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Gelb further reported that manager Gabe Kapler has stated that, in the event of an emergency involving Gosselin, any from among Cesar Hernandez, Roman Quinn or Maikel Franco could play shortstop.

This will have to be the arrangement for at least the final two games of this current series against the Colorado Rockies, next week’s big early-season three-game match-up with the division rival New York Mets at Citi Field, and for the first couple games of next weekend’s four-game set with the Miami Marlins at Citizens Bank Park.

Phil Gosselin is in his seventh big-league season, but his first with the Phillies organization. He is local product, born and raised in Bryn Mawr. He attended Malvern Prep High School before moving on to play college ball at the University of Virginia.

First round of a dozen spring cuts leaves Phillies with 49 players in big-league camp

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Enyel De Los Santos was among first dozen Phillies reassignments

The Philadelphia Phillies dropped an 8-2 decision on Monday to the visiting Tampa Bay Rays at Spectrum Field in Clearwater, Florida. With that game in the books the club has now officially passed the halfway point of its Grapefruit League schedule.

The Phillies record under the Florida sun sits at 9-7 following the defeat. They now have 14 games remaining on their schedule prior to heading back north for the March 28 regular season opener against the division-rival Atlanta Braves.

Following their game on Saturday, March 9, a first round of seven players were reassigned. After today’s game another round of five reassignments was announced. These dozen roster moves are part of the effort to cut down to the 25 players who will be in the home clubhouse at Citizens Bank Park on Opening Day.

Both 22-year-old pitcher Adonis Medina, who is the Phillies #2 prospect now per MLB Pipeline, and 21-year-old shortstop Arquimedes Gamboa, considered their#13 prospect, were optioned to Double-A Reading on Saturday.

Today the Phillies optioned pitchers Enyel De Los Santos, Austin Davis and Edgar Garcia to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. De Los Santos is the team’s #6 prospect and made his Major League Baseball debut last season, appearing in seven games and making two starts on the mound. Davis saw action in 32 games with the Phillies last season as a situational left-hander.

Reassigned to the minor league camp over the two days were pitchers Cole Irvin, JoJo Romero and Tyler Gilbert, catcher Deivy Grullon, first baseman Austin Listi, infielder Malquin Canelo and outfielder Mickey Moniak. Romero is the Phillies #7 prospect, Moniak #9 and Irvin #16 per MLB Pipeline.

Matt Klentak might be wise to look into lefty reliever Francisco Liriano

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Francisco Liriano could help the Phillies as a lefty reliever

There is a great deal of warranted interest and excitement every year around the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline in Major League Baseball.

Teams can deal away players up until 4:00PM EDT on that date without first subjecting them to the waiver wire.

Once that deadline passes it doesn’t mean that trades cannot be made. After that point players can still be dealt. However, they must first pass through waivers.

Non-contending teams frequently will put a player they are interested in dealing on waivers during the month of August. Each of the other 29 clubs in MLB have an opportunity to make a claim in reverse order of the current standings.

If no one claims the player, he enters into a status of having “cleared waivers” and he can then be traded. If the player is claimed, the team who waived him can let him go to the claiming team, can pull him back, or can work out a trade with the claiming team.

It happens every year that some players are dealt in this manner. Phillies fans may remember that a couple of the 2008 World Series heroes, Chase Utley in 2015 and Carlos Ruiz in 2016, were each dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers during the month of August.

Phillies already made one August move
this year, adding Bour’s veteran lefty bat.

Phillies general manager Matt Klentak has already moved once this month to help strengthen his club. The Phillies GM obtained Justin Bour on August 10 from the Miami Marlins in exchange for prospect pitcher McKenzie Mills.

Steve Adams of MLB Trade Rumors has reported that veteran left-handed pitcher Francisco Liriano of the Detroit Tigers as cleared waivers. 

Adams describes the value that Liriano could bring to a team such as the Phillies:There is another player out there who has apparently cleared waivers who could also help the Phillies, and who might come at a similarly reasonable cost.

“…he’s held left-handed pitching to a terrible .141/.247/.239 slash through 81 plate appearances. With $984K still owed to him through the end of the year, he’d be a reasonably affordable lefty specialist for a contending team’s bullpen.”

Liriano is a 34-year-old now in his 13th big league season. He was originally signed as a teenager by the Minnesota Twins, and broke in with the Twins in the 2005 season.

In his first full season with Minnesota in 2006, Liriano went 12-3 with a 144/23 K:BB ratio over 121 innings in 28 games, 16 of those as a starter. He made the American League all-star team and finished third in the AL Rookie of the Year voting.

He would go on to have big years with the Twins in 2010 when he finished 11th in the AL Cy Young Award voting, and then in 2013 when he finished 9th in the NL Cy Young voting as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

At the July 31, 2017 non-waiver deadline, Liriano was dealt from the Toronto Blue Jays to the Houston Astros. A member of the Jays rotation, Liriano became a lefty specialist with the Astros, making 20 appearances out of the bullpen for manager A.J. Hinch and helping the team nail down the AL West Division crown.

During the postseason he tossed 2.1 innings over five total appearances across the ALDS, ALCS, and the World Series, helping Houston win its first ever championship. He allowed one run, a homer to Rafael Devers of the Boston Red Sox in Game Three of that American League Division Series at Fenway Park.

Liriano signed with the Tigers as a free agent just prior to spring training opening back at the end of February. Pitching mostly as a member of the Detroit starting rotation he has compiled a 3-8 record, allowing just 89 hits across 97.1 innings. He flirted with no-hitters twice this season.

Phillies bullpen bolstered by rookie Austin Davis

Davis proving a reliable bullpen option (Photo: Zimbio)

The Philadelphia Phillies bullpen was much maligned during the first few months of the 2018 MLB season, and for good reason.

Through June, closer Hector Neris had blown three Save opportunities. He also had fashioned a horrendous 6.90 ERA and had allowed three earned runs or more on four separate occasions.

Veteran left-hander Adam Morgan had a bloated 5.24 ERA and had blown five Save chances. Luis Garcia had a 4.74 ERA before going on the disabled list in mid-June.

The two free agents signed by the club in the off-season in order to improve the pen were not contributing. Tommy Hunter had a 5.04 ERA through June and had blown his lone Save opportunity. Pat Neshek spent the first three months on the DL and wouldn’t make his first appearance until July 1.

The poor performances and injuries led the Phillies brain trust to take a look into the minor league system for some help. There they found a 25-year-old southpaw on the AAA Lehigh Valley IronPigs pitching staff who was having some success.

Born and raised in Scottsdale, Arizona, Austin Davis had been the Phillies selection in the 12th round of the 2014 MLB Draft out of California State University in Bakersfield, California.

At the time of his selection, “The Baseball Draft Report” commented that Davis was “looking like scout pick for sure, as ’14 numbers (only season of D1 experience) weren’t pretty; really impressive stuff: 88-92 FB, 94-95 peak, 78-82 SL with upside, good 78-82 CU, low- to mid-70s CB; pro body (6-5, 240 pounds)…”

Once signed, Davis quickly began demonstrating that “really impressive stuff” during a minor league career that saw him rise incrementally through the system with sustained success. Over parts of five seasons, the lefty would surrender 228 hits over 265.1 innings across 135 games with a 270/92 K:BB ratio.

His 3.1 BB/9 and 9.2 K/9 marks along with a 1.206 WHIP were nothing special. But Davis had a knack for avoiding serious trouble, which is an extremely valuable quality to a baseball manager.

This past December, “Baseball Ross” provided the following commentary on Davis while taking a look at Phillies prospects who had been passed over by other clubs in the Rule 5 Draft:

“A big 6’4 power lefty out of the pen.  Watched him pitch in the low to mid 90’s at Clearwater last year where he went 2-0 striking out better than a batter an inning.  At Reading he gave up only one earned run to left-handed hitters to pitch to a 0.61 ERA against them.  The 24-year-old would make a great LOOGY out of a major league pen…”

Promoted from AA Reading to AAA Lehigh Valley early this spring, Davis was enjoying a stellar season out of the IronPigs bullpen. He had a 2.43 ERA while yielding just 19 hits over 29.2 innings with an outstanding 38/8 K:BB over 22 games.

Davis has now been with the Phillies for a full month. Seven of his 11 outings have been scoreless, and he has a 17/5 K:BB while allowing 12 hits over 13 innings.

Bullpen becoming a strength for the Phillies

Seranthony Dominguez (R) has strengthened the 'pen

The Philadelphia Phillies dropped a 3-0 heartbreaker on Wednesday night at Citi Field. The host New York Mets won it on a two-out, pinch-hit, three-run home run from Brandon Nimmo off Phillies reliever Mark Leiter Jr to gain a split of the four-game series between the division rivals.

For some Phillies fans, this might seem like just another in a string of games blown by the bullpen. The relief corps has been much maligned this season. Some of the individual pitchers have certainly deserved the criticism at times.

What those same fans may not have noticed is that the Phillies bullpen has been extremely effective since the calendar turned to July. 

Frankly, games like last night’s are going to happen to almost every team over the course of a long 162-game season. However, a look at the statistics shows that the Phillies bullpen may be turning into a strength.

Here are the numbers put up by the various Phillies relief pitchers, beginning with games of July 1:

As you can tell from Leiter’s figures, this was the bullpen performance up until the time he stepped on to the mound last night. Prior to that appearance, Phillies relief pitchers had a cumulative 1.06 ERA during the month of July.

In fact, it looked as if Leiter was going to continue that excellence when the inning began. He retired the first two Mets batters to start the frame.

After a two-out double by Amed Rosario, the Phillies right-hander got to 3-2 on Jose Reyes. But the veteran Mets hitter layed off a low-and-away changeup, drawing a free pass to set-up Nimmo’s walkoff heroics.

Yes, if you want to get technical, as well as to generalize, “the bullpen blew it” last night. But the Phillies relief pitchers have actually been helping this team as the dog days of summer have begun.

Even though the offense has managed just four or fewer runs in eight of the 10 games this month, the club has gone 7-3. That improved work from the bullpen has been an important factor.