Jeanmar Gomez may be the most reliable reliever in the Phillies bullpen right now (Frank Klose/Philliedelphia)
Every week we take your questions and put them into our mailbag. You can send them to me on Twitter at @FrankKlose973 and I will discuss them on The Sports Bash with Mike Gill on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.
Do you see the front office trying to improve the bullpen?
~Austin
The Phillies front office tried to bring some veteran arms into camp this Spring in the form of Andrew Bailey, Edward Mujica, and Ernesto Frieri. Of those three, none of them came into camp and took a job, though one may argue Mujica pitched well enough to get some consideration. The problem the Phillies have right now is that they are trying to hold on to as many players as possible and the 40-man roster only holds so many players.
That is why Hector Neris edged the three aforementioned players. Unfortunately, the Phillies optioned Luis Garcia a little too soon, in my opinion. I did not think that Neris pitched well enough to land a spot on the 25-man roster. Garcia was hit a little bit early, but I saw some good movement and velocity on his pitches in camp. I think the first move will be to option Neris, who can be optioned, and bring Garcia back to the big club. The unfortunate thing is that the Phillies may have wasted an option on Garcia.
If Bailey has a good April, he may join the Phillies by his May 1 opt out date.
There are some free agent relievers out there cut by teams as Spring Training concluded, but no one available right now would be ready to step in and help the Phillies.
Why was Jeremy Hellickson removed from the game after just 79 pitches and no earned runs?
~Mike
Jeremy Hellickson did the Phillies very well in his first start with the club. Hellickson went six innings, allowing just one unearned run on a Ryan Howard error, and striking out six. The move to remove Hellickson was likely due to a few factors.
First, it is early in the season and Hellickson may not have been too stretched out. In fact, the most that Hellickson threw in any Spring Training outing was 42 pitches on March 25. Even in Hellickson's longest outing, five innings on March 20, he only needed 37 pitches to get through 15 outs against the Astros lineup, allowing no hits. Granted, pitchers often throw some more in the bullpen after short starts in the Spring, but Phillies manager Pete Mackanin may have been looking to build his pitch count.
Second, the bullpen has not pitched in game action in a couple days and there would be a day off on Tuesday. Part of the thought process may have been to make sure that the relievers get work today so they are not extra stale come Wednesday. Of course, the bullpen after Jeanmar Gomez did not pitch particularly well.
Finally, Hellickson was due to hit. Manny Burriss entered the game as a pinch hitter as the Phillies looked to add to their one-run lead. That did not work out, but the Phillies were really looking to add to offense beyond a Freddy Galvis two-run home run.
Granted, this does not mean I necessarily agree with the decision; I would have pitched Hellickson another inning, minimum. Then they could use Gomez, their most reliable reliever to pitch the eighth before turning the game over to Dalier Hinojosa, who apparently is their closer, or at least was going to be Monday evening.
Why did the Phillies trade "100 Miles" Giles?
~Pam
Since the bullpen allowed five runs, it is easy to look back and wonder how the team would have fared had Ken Giles remained in the Phillies bullpen in 2016. But remember: this game was lost in the eighth inning; whoever pitched the ninth inning did not end up mattering in this situation. That is precisely why the Phillies took advantage of an overvalued closer marketplace and cashed in their asset.
The Phillies sent Giles and shortstop Jonathan Arauz to the Houston Astros and got five – yes, five – pitchers back in return. The Phillies probably saw closer Craig Kimbrel go to the Boston Red Sox for four prospects and figured the time was opportune to land a large haul for a closer. Giles was appealing to a team like the Astros because they are on the lower-end of payrolls in baseball and they had spare talent to trade to fix the bullpen that arguably knocked them out of the playoffs last year.
The Phillies are not going to the playoffs in 2016 and probably not 2017. The move allowed them to load up on young pitchers to build the next core. And, when the team is ready to compete, the Phillies have the luxury of spending just money on a closer if they need one. Until the team is ready to compete, there will be games like today's. But that is okay because the Phillies are much richer in their minor league system.
The Chicago Cubs built their impressive roster by cashing out every available asset. The Phillies had to turn in Giles for prospects if they were going to rebuild their roster. Not every prospect works out into a Major League player, but the more a team acquires, the more likely it is that they will have players who work out.
