Late Nov Update: Coaches, Roster

LATE-NIGHT UPDATE: A summary of the roster moves has been added to a post from late Sept: Off-Season Roster Projections.


The winter meetings have occurred and now that we've got through Thanksgiving and a baseball deadline, time for a Phillies update. Hope you had fun this past week! In this issue: most of coaching staff is set. First,  I discuss the final pre-Rule-5 40-man roster.

Here are the moves: Appel, Tirado & others cleared waivers; the DL'd players come back (as discussed in my early Nov update); the free agents are taken off (obviously); and they made at least one acquisition from the Giants, So, the 40-man is finalized with a full house. The Phillies cannot make a Rule 5 selection and must waiver-wire more players in order to sign some Free Agents. However, as I probably said before, trading guys (Franco, Joseph, Cozens, Quinn, Altherr, Galvis, Hernandez & other prospects in our system) will be how we'll fill our needs: bullpen, catching situation (Rupp), two bench players, and two No. 2 starters.

And here is the coaching staff:

• Mgr: Gabe Kepler
• Bench: NONE (pursuing Yankees bench coach)
• Pitching: Rick Kranitz (most likely)
• Bullpen: NONE
• 1B/ Running: NONE (reunion with Lopes rumored)
• 3B: Dusty Walthan
• Hitting: John Mallee
• Assistant Hitting: Pedro Guerrero

Other notes:

• Catching coach & fielding instructors not yet announced but usually we see some doubling of coaches.
• Only Herrera and Hamels' $9MM are guaranteed for next year, five are arb-eligible and 19 making the ML minimum (less than or ~$585k) = $26.12MM + arb, which will be ~$12MM = $38MM
• Add in the coaches (10% or about another $12MM) and you get $50MM so far.
• Low priority but long term extensions for P Garcia, P Nola, Hernandez, Altherr, and possibly 1-2 more hitters would be nice.

Now that the winter meetings are over, we'll see some movement in the coming weeks. Hope you had a good Thanksgiving. Go Phillies as always and now, I add the 10-1 Eagles and 11-8 Sixers. The young Flyers are looking like they're flying blind, sadly.

Goodbye Roy Halladay

We all know that the man was brilliant on the mound for most of his career. He was always 1st or 2nd to arrive at the ballpark. He ran at CBP when the Winter Classic was being set up. Perfect game. Playoff no-hitter. Dominant from '01-'11 with a Cy Young award in each league, a 2.98 ERA and 175 wins. He was a philanthropist and put his heart into it. Perfect season as head coach of his kid's baseball team. The list goes on and on. Thank you for the memories, Roy! Rest in peace.

Harry Leroy Halladay III - 1977-2017

Early Nov Offseason Update: Keepler, Roster

The Phillies spent a month and two rounds of interviews, hiring former Dodgers' Director of Player Development Gabe Kepler as manager of the next great Phillies era. He's a Chip Kelly type - sports science - but remember that Chip took a team that went 8-8 & 4-12 in back-to-back seasons into two-consecutive 10-6 seasons. It was his moves as "GM" that ruined it for him in Philly. Kepler is not my first choice, even for an outsider - decent player, not much success as a manager in A and no recent dugout experience. But when a team spends a month deciding, that tells you something. I think he won't hamper our players' development but is Kepler going to be able to win postseason series? I don't know. I'll give him 3 yrs. One thing is for sure, this is Klentak's decision and any blame will rest on his shoulders: his manager, his free agents.

Who will his coaches be? We've seen some unconventional names out there - Raul Ibanez (2009-2011) for instance. I think that Walthan will be on the staff and perhaps all current Phillies coaches except McClure for at least the 2018 season. There are two or three openings and possibly more - we saw the Phillies didn't have to double up when they had two hitting coaches and split Mick Billmeyer's duties a few years back. I think he'll bring in 3-4 to mingle with Walthan, Samuel, Morandini and I think Kranitz will become pitching coach.

Roster

Needs: Phillies will not spend yet but a big splash is possible - McPhail had said ownership wants us to explore every possibility, even a big signing or trade. However, we need two starting pitchers, a veteran for the 'pen (middle-late relief) and bench spots - particularly outfield depth. A trade or two of two or three of our infielders (Joseph, Franco, Galvis, Hernandez) or even some of our prospects (Quinn, Cozens) is the best way to go.

Current 40-Man: We have about a week to the pre-Rule-5-draft deadline and we're at ~41 after clearing out the 60-Day DL and free agents. We need to drop about 5 if we want to protect. I doubt we'll be able to do that. The only way we'll clear spots is if we can trade and the GM meetings could result in that but I wouldn't bet on anything major there, just early rapport amongst GMs and Free Agent players' agents.