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.