Regarding the fate of the extra Phillies’ starters during and after spring training, general manager Matt Klentak will assign them to the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs or the Double-A Reading Fightin Phils, but the competition won’t end there.

Backup plan:

While the Philadelphia Phillies rotation opens 2018, the moundsmen getting more seasoning with the Allentown affiliate will be working on their shortcomings to earn another shot at the top level. Easier said than done!

IN OTHER WORDS: “There are only two ways to establish competitive advantage: do things better than others or do them differently.” – Karl Albrecht

As a baseball pops the catcher’s mitt in mid-February, the pitching market may not be complete after camp opens. And Klentak could have an opportunity for a bargain, but his strategy for the five-man staff doesn’t include such luck.

No, the GM is counting on a stronger offense and bullpen to compensate for a weak rotation. In other words, the red pinstripes can be competitive with Aaron Nola, two six-frame arms and two five-inning hurlers. Jerad Eickhoff and Vince Velasquez, at least, have decent MLB experience.

The red and white have two Zach Eflins: a healthy one with excellent stats and an injured one with three consecutive debacles leading to a disabled-list stint. And until Thomas Eshelman impresses management by early June, Ben Lively, Nick Pivetta and Jake Thompson will vie for the five slot on the Phils’ starting staff.

Eshelman will be in Lehigh Valley’s rotation, and two of the other spots will go to Lively, Pivetta or Thompson. Also, Mark Leiter and Jose Taveras will work every fifth day. And unless Leiter is the long man, Drew Anderson and Enyel De Los Santos will return to Reading through May’s end.

This week on the Internet, Phillies fans were considering the organizational moundsmen for the four openings after Nola. One posted Eickhoff, Lively and Thompson are the best of the bunch, but Lively and Thompson are fifth starters and will not improve.

Chiming in, another remarked Velasquez, Pivetta, Eflin, and Leiter had been bad in 2017. And he decided his statement was not wrong, not an opinion, and not open to debate. Well, if you look at Eflin’s totals and remember his last three games, you might have forgotten his relatively quick trip thereafter to the DL.