By Tim Kelly, Sports Talk Philly editor 
On paper, the Philadelphia Phillies have seven or eight starters in big league camp that are capable of pitching at the major league level. And there's a good chance at some point in 2017, they'll need all of those options.
Jeremy Hellickson and Clay Buchholz will open the season with the team, but they are among the team's many trade candidates this summer. After elbow problems limited him to just 111 innings in 2016, Aaron Nola will likely be on an innings limit in 2017. And Vince Velasquez, who the organization is cautiously optimistic can develop into their No. 1 starter, told Jim Salisbury of Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia that he expects the team to monitor his innings in 2017 as well:
The leash will be longer this season, but Velasquez said he expects his workload to continue to be monitored.
The Phillies had to be especially careful with Velasquez in 2016, both due to his rather lengthy injury history and the fact that a stint in the Houston Astros bullpen limited him to just 88.2 innings in 2015. Velasquez was shut down in the first week of September and probably would have been shut down earlier if he hadn't had a stint on the disabled list with a biceps strain in June.
Velasquez threw 131 innings at the major league level in 2016 and 136 total if you count a rehab appearance that he made with Double-A Reading in late June. So assuming he's healthy, the Phillies will likely allow Velasquez to pitch closer to 150 or 160 innings in 2017. If he's able to go deeper into games than he was in 2016, that may mean that he reaches that threshold in early September and is again shut down late in the season. If he has any injuries and/or struggles to pitch past the sixth inning again, then perhaps the Phillies won't need to shut him down again.
The Phillies are likely to always take as cautious of an approach possible with Velasquez because of his long injury history. They are especially likely to be cautious with the 24-year-old in 2017, a year where they aren't expected to contend. In the window of 2018-2020, Velasquez will play a key role in determining whether the Phillies are able to return to contention, but only if he's healthy and able to pitch.
Due to the plan to be cautious with his innings, it's a good bet that Velasquez will be slotted No. 4 in the team's rotation to open the season, one spot ahead of the aforementioned Nola, who probably won't pitch as many innings as Velasquez in 2017.
