One of the first big moves of the offseason is the reshuffling of the 40 man roster. The Phillies have already made their first round of cuts but they still have some work remaining to get down to enough to protect newly Rule V eligible players as well as sign free agents. We are going to kick off this series by looking at the players already on the 40 man roster who may be on the bubble. I have deemed players with established major league roles as safe and won’t discuss them here (this includes De Fratus, Diekman, Pettibone, Asche, Galvis, and Hernandez), I am including players who either are on the fringes or are pure minor leaguers. I am going to give my opinion on what the Phillies should and give my guess at what they will do.
When it comes to players already on the 40-man roster, removing them subjects them to the waiver process. This gives each team the option of claiming them, if claimed a player most only then be placed on his team’s 40 man roster. If you are looking to keep some of these players in the org the big thing to look at is number of options years left. A player with multiple options and some talent is likely to get claimed purely for a look, other, more fungible players can be snuck through waivers a bit easier. (*All ages are for Opening Day 2014) Continue reading 40 Man Roster Decisions – Part 1 – On the Roster
