How the Feliz signing affects the 40 man

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The Phillies signed Pedro Feliz to a 2 year deal yesterday. As many know, Feliz is a terrible hitter, struggling to post an OB% above .300 and making outs like it’s his job (918 over the last 2 seasons), but he’s also an incredibly good defensive 3B…..one of the very best in baseball. Before the contract was agreed, the Phillies 40 man roster was maxed at 40. When Feliz is added, one guy will have to be removed. There are a few obvious candidates, TJ Bohn and John Ennis leading the list, but this could also signal a Wes Helms trade. Helms had a nightmare of a season last year, both with the bat and the glove, but he’s still signed relatively cheap and only for one year, so you might be able to find a taker. Don’t expect much of a prospect in return, but an interesting hitter would be nice. What this does do is pretty much set the position player side of the 25 man roster, sans a major injury. Non-roster invitees like Golson, Brennan King, Brandon Watson, and Pete LaForest are all likely ticketed for triple A Allentown. The interesting battles will be on the pitching side. With one rotation spot and two or three bullpen spots likely on the line, depending on the health of Adam Eaton and Tom Gordon.

In other news, I’ve added a video of Carlos Carrasco on his profile page, and I also did a page writeup for Julian Sampson as well, complete with a scouting report and his draft video. To date, I’ve completed profile pages for Carrasco, Sampson, Cardenas, Brown, Carpenter, Drabek, and Outman. More to come in the next few days/weeks.

EDIT: > Feliz was a Type B free agent. San Francisco gets a compensation round pick for him, but we don’t lose a pick.

14 thoughts on “How the Feliz signing affects the 40 man”

  1. I wouldn’t say that Feliz is a terrible offensive player, I’d say that he is a limited, but sometimes dangerous, hitter. He also seems to be greatly affected by park context (just dreadful in cavernous stadiums like Petco)- being in the “Bank” should help his numbers to a certain extent. His fielding is, of course, very good. On the whole, it’s a nice upgrade and gives the team some flexibility with Dobbs. Trust me, if Dobbs hits and fields like crazy and Feliz stinks, Dobbs will play. Charlie won’t tolerate unproductive players.

    Do the Phils lose draft picks by virtue of this signing? Does anyone know?

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  3. Gillick does not strike me as ready to take whatever he can get for Helms just to settle the 40-man situation. So he will likely let Bohn or Ennis go and then look for the best deal for Helms between now and the end of March–hopefully an injury or poor performance by a 3B or 1B on another team will raise Helms’ value.

    Of all the names I have seen linked to Helms in a trade, Shouse from Milwaukee seems the best to me. He can pitch in the 7th inning, set up, maybe even close on days when Lidge and Gordon have both been used several times. He strikes some guys out. And his consistency over the years seems better than average for a RP at first glance.

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  4. I think this is a terrific signing. They added a good glove at third which is key and they added another 20+ home run guy who could easily hit 25 – 30 in this park after playing in SF. 40% of his outs are fly balls and some of them will carry out in Philly. The Phils will now have 6 guys who will hit over 20 homers in their lineup plus Victorino and Ruiz/Coste in double figures also. They also added a lefty bat to their bench in Dobbs which they really needed. My opinion is that Helms will be dealt within a day or two because Feliz’s signing has been in the works for awhile and there’s no job left for Helms in Philly. I expect they’ll try to get a relief pitcher from the Marlins. Take a look at that infield defense now and add in Taguchi as a defensive replacement late in games and you realize that Howard at first will be the only liability on a strong defensive team. Our starting pitching may struggle for a few days each turn but this team will score lots of runs and not give runs away. That spells wins!

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  5. I’ve always liked Shouse, but I’d be surprised if you can get more than a bag full of baseballs for Wes Helms right now. That being said, it wouldn’t surprise me if he went back to the Marlins. Perhaps they still remember the guy who was one of the best hitters in the NL in the second half of 2006. I don’t know if that guy still exists, but maybe the Marlins think they can tease new life out of that old dog.

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  6. I wouldn’t say that Feliz is a terrible offensive player

    Well that’s the difference between me and you 😉

    His OB% is absolutely terrible. Getting on base is the primary function of a hitter, and should be weighted much more heavily when looking at a player’s offensive worth. The home runs are nice, but a .290 OB% for a player getting 500+ AB’s is unacceptable. If Feliz were not a 4 win player defensively, this would be a negative value signing. He’s a negative value player with the bat, but his glove makes up for it.

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  7. I think you misspeak when you say “Getting on base is the primary function of a hitter.” Generating runs is the primary function of a hitter and getting on base is one of the primary factors in doing so.

    That being said, we are certainly on the same page in that I agree that Feliz is a below average offensive player. but I have read elsewhere, on a statistical website the name of which I don’t recall, that made a strong case that – in terms of generating runs – SLG% actually should be given more weight than OBP%. This makes sense intuitively since one can understand how extra-base hits more proactively generate runs than simply getting on first base.

    Though Feliz has a terrible OBP, his ISO power is actually above average. Overall he’s not a good hitter, or even average, but terms like “terrible hitter” should be reserved for the Abe Nunez / Eric Bruntlett’s of the world who have no redeeming quality at the plate and truly don’t generate runs.

    A decent signing to the extent that it’s better than what we have and is short enough and inexpensive enough such that we won’t end up banging our heads against the wall.

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  12. I like the Feliz signing…..it should mean more run production out of the 3B spot which ultimately should result in more wins for the Phightins. Helms wont bring much in return, hopefully they get something for him.

    One darkhorse candidate for a roster spot might be Wade Miller. Im pretty sure he will be in camp with the Phillies and hopefully can regain the form he had with the Astros a few years back when he won 16 games and had almost 200 strikeouts. His velocity is not what it once was, so it will be interesting to see how he competes against major league hitters. Hopefully, he has regained that arm strength……

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  13. Dave b, have you heard anything to that end about Miller? I think he’d be a nice low risk, potentially decent reward type of guy to bring into camp, but this is the first I’ve heard of him.

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  14. Yes, interesting. I realize that OBP is extremely important and understand Feliz’s limitations. I looked at his win share totals in the Hardball Times. He was at 13 this year – Garrett Atkins had 20 (3 win shares equal one win – so Atkins projected to add a little more than 2 wins as compared with Feliz). My view is that 3b was a total disaster without Feliz. With him, the situation is somewhat better. What I really like about this is that you can have Dobbs start against some righties and can still put in Feliz as a defensive replacement late in the game because he is so capable afield. Now, as bad of a hitter as one might think Feliz is, that scenario is, from a hitting perspective, a lot more attractive than having completely nothing from a player like Abraham Nunez.

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