Phillies 28-man roster: Kyle Garlick, Enyel De Los Santos optioned to Lehigh Valley
To trim their roster from 30 to 28 ahead of Thursday’s deadline, the Phillies optioned outfielder Kyle Garlick and right-handed reliever Enyel De Los Santos to their satellite site at Lehigh Valley.
MLB rosters will stay at 28 the rest of the regular season and postseason. Initially, rosters were set to be cut to 26 two weeks from now but MLB has revised that rule amid so many game postponements already related to COVID-19.
The Phillies now have 13 position players and 15 pitchers, a.k.a a four-man bench and 10-man bullpen. Garlick was the likeliest bench candidate to go given that he has options remaining. The Phillies didn’t need to remove Garlick, or De Los Santos for that matter, from their 40-man roster to remove them from the active roster.
Garlick’s ability to hit lefties for power was why the Phillies carried him on their opening day roster. He went 0 for 2 in the Phillies’ first six games, both at-bats coming in the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader started by Yankees lefty J.A. Happ.
De Los Santos had not pitched yet this season. He pitched 30 innings for the Phillies across 2018 and 2019 with a 5.70 ERA and 1.50 WHIP. Still, there was a belief he could help in this bullpen which lacks right-handed threats beyond closer Hector Neris and right-handed velocity overall.
It appeared that Austin Davis, a fringe reliever, might be the bullpen casualty after he allowed four runs to the Yankees while recording one out, but the Phillies opted to keep the extra lefty over the extra righty.
This is their bullpen, which has a 9.18 ERA and .338 opponents’ batting average this season with no magic potions in sight:
Hector Neris
Tommy Hunter
Adam Morgan (LHP))
Jose Alvarez (LHP)
Deolis Guerra
Trevor Kelley
Nick Pivetta
Ramon Rosso
Cole Irvin (LHP)
Austin Davis (LHP)
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