Baseball’s Winter Meetings are over. The Phillies showed up with the worst record in baseball, one trade chip, and the number one pick in the Rule 5 Draft. They made the most of their meager pre-meeting assets.

The Phillies turned their one commodity, Ken Giles, a closer whom other teams viewed as “elite” into a probable starting pitcher in RHP Vincent Velasquez, a pitcher with 42 major league starts over the last 3 seasons in LHP Brett Oberholtzer, 2013 first overall pick RHP Mark Appel, Thomas Eshelman who only made 4 professional appearances in August – 2 in Rookie Ball (GCL) and 2 in full season A, and low A wild card in Harold Arauz. The Phillies also included 17-year old infielder Jonathan Arauz (no relation) in the deal.

The Phillies added the best overall hitter available to their 25-man roster with their first round Rule 5 selection of Tyler Goeddel. They picked up a loogy-type pitcher one round later in Daniel Stumpf although righties only hit .245 off him last season.

The Phillies also signed FA RHP David Hernandez, a reliever with some closing experience. Over the weekend they traded Clearwater right hander David Whitehead to Pittsburgh for RHP Charlie Morton.

In addition to the loss of Giles and Arauz, the Phillies lost RHP Manaure Martinez during the AAA phase of the Rule 5 Draft. Martinez had been in the organization 5 years and had only advanced as far as Lakewood last season.

The Phillies top 20 prospects as determined by MLB include only 6 players who were with the organization on this date last year. Of course, by the end of the month the Phillies had added Eflin, Windle, and LIvely. Still, that’s a lot of new faces. Should make for a fun Reader Top 30 in the coming weeks. I anticipate starting after the holidays. Of the 9 newest acquisitions, 8 are pitchers. Does anybody wonder if in Mark Appel we may have acquired the Astro’s Jesse Biddle?

Off Season Transactions

The following is an update of the Phillies’ offseason roster status, which currently stands at 40 players –

Free Agents (5)

Cliff Lee, Aaron Harang, Jerome Wiliams, Chad Billingsley, and Jeff Francoeur

Guaranteed Contracts (8) – contract information from COTS

Matt Harrison ($13M for 2016 and 2017, $13.5M club option or $2M buyout for 2018) David Hernandez ($3.9M for 2016) Charlie Morton ($8M for 2016, $9.5M mutual option. $1M buyout forfeited if he declines option. Additional $0.5M in performance bonuses.) Carlos Ruiz ($8.5M for 2016, $4.5M club option or $0.5M buyout for 2017) Andres Blanco reached arbitration agreement for 2016 at $1.45M Ryan Howard ($25M for 2016, $23M club option or $10M buyout for 2017) Peter Bourjos reached arbitration agreement for 2016 at $2M Miguel Gonzalez ($4.66M for 2016, and a vesting option for 2017). Not on 40-man, outrighted to LHV back on 4/1/2015.

Arbitration Eligible Players (3) – salary projections from Tim Dierkes of MLBTR

Jeanmar Gomez ($1.5M) Jeremy Hellickson ($6.6M) a Boras Corporation client Freddy Galvis (1.9M)

Remaining roster players (30)

Fall Ball – cumulative stats for Arizona Fall League, Australian League, and the winter leagues in the Dominican, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Venezuela, as well as Nicauragua, and the WBSC.

No change in the VWL by Miguel Gonzalez. He stands at a 4.13 ERA in 7 starts – 12 BB, 19 K in 32.2 IP.

Rhys Hoskins continues to improve and has increased his production (.309/.377/.545, 5 HR, 27 RBI ) and Cord Sandberg has rebounded (.268/.355/.378) in Australia.

The AFL has completed its season. Drew Stankiewicz (.483/.531/.621) responded well after his call up following J.P. Crawford’s thumb injury. Tom Windle (1.74 in 10 appearances) pitched well. Yacksel Rios (2-2, 5.14) got lit up in his final start and saw his ERA jump by about 3.00, however he pitched well in his other starts.

Maikel Franco has stalled after his quick start in the DWL .230/.333/.361, but has 9 BB and only 6 K in 61 AB. Roman Quinn hasn’t played since 11/28 when he was hitting .212 and had struck out 27 times in 99 AB. Angelys Nina continues to be steady at .269/.317/.333 in 156 AB. Joely Rodriguez has a 3.00 ERA in 10 appearance/4 starts and 21 K in 21 IP and has reverted to a relief role. Ranfi Casimiro has posted a 1.96 ERA in 5 starts. Relievers Ulises Joaquin (3.55 ERA, 10 K in 12.2 IP), Nefi Ogando (3.12 in 10 appearances), and Jimmy Cordero (2.16 ERA in 9 appearances, 9 K in 8.1 IP) are throwing well. Although Cordero hasn’t pitched since 11/22.

Victor Arano is killing it in Mexico with a 4-0 record and 0.75 ERA in 23 appearances, 19 K in 24 IP. Odubel Herrera has hit the ground running hitting .450 in 5 games in Venezuela.

Dylan Cozens continues to post good numbers in Puerto Rico .346/.370/.558 with 3 HR in 15 games. He has 10 K and 2 BB in 52 AB. Jesmuel Valentin continues to put up a respectable .260/.306/.317 in 123 AB. Hoby Milner has posted an ERA of 2.00 in 13 appearances (9.0 IP). Reinier Roibal has a 1.73 ERA in 6 starts – 26 IP, 22 K, 8 BB. Daniel Stumpf has a 1.00 ERA in 13 appearances, 18 IP, 10 K, 5 BB.

There is winter baseball in Nicauragua. Austin Davis, Harold Guerrero, Jairo Munoz, and Will Morris are all on the same team. Davis has a 1.12 ERA, 46 K in 40.1 IP. The quartet has started 25 of the team’s 27 games. The rest of their stats are here.

The US entry in the WBSC (World Baseball Softball Confederation) Premier 12 took silver in Japan when they lost to South Korea in the final game. The manager of the GCL Phillies, Roly de Armas, was one of the coaches. Cody Forsythe, Joey Denato, and Kyle Martin were on the USA team. So were FA pitcher Anthony Vasquez and FA 2B Tyler Pastornicky. Their combined stats are here. They do NOT include the final game which the USA lost 8-0. Joey DeNato entered in the ninth with 2 out and the bases loaded. He threw 5 pitches and recorded a swinging strike out to end the threat. Kyle Martin entered as a PH in the ninth and struck out looking. (Pastornicky started at third and went 0-4 with 2 K. Vasquez pitched 1.2 innings and faced 8 batters recording a hit, walk, HBP and K. He entered with 2 out in the fourth and stranded a runner, pitched a clean fifth, and left with one out and the bases loaded in the sixth after striking out the first batter then going single-HBP-BB.)