Phillies activate Jerad Eickhoff from disabled list, expand roster to 33
By John Town
The Phillies major-league roster grew to 33 Monday as the team activated Jerad Eickhoff from the disabled list. He has not pitched at all this season.
The Phillies are going all-out with roster expansion this September with the hope of reaching the playoffs for the first time in seven years. They added another player to the team Monday by activating Jerad Eickhoff from the 60-day disabled list. In order to open a space on the 40-man roster, the team designated Ben Lively for assignment.
The first round of roster expansion came Saturday when the team added six players to the roster, calling up Dylan Cozens, Yacksel Rios, and Aaron Altherr. They also activated Pedro Florimon, Edubray Ramos, and Austin Davis from the disabled list. Sunday, Justin Bour returned from his oblique injury after spending the minimum required time on the disabled list.
There are seven more players sitting on the 40-man roster who can still be called up and/or activated from the disabled list: pitchers Drew Anderson, Enyel De Los Santos, Aaron Loup, and Ranger Suarez, catcher Andrew Knapp, and infielders J.P. Crawford and Mitch Walding. These players, except for Loup, will be in Triple-A Lehigh Valley for their playoffs. Once that is over, expect most, if not all of these players, to also be with the team.
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Eickhoff has been dealing with injuries since spring training. He was originally ruled out for six to eight weeks due to a lat strain, the same injury that kept Pat Neshek out for the first three months of the year. While rehabbing in May, Eickhoff began feeling tingling in his fingers while he pitched, which is what kept him out of the end of the 2017 season. The same thing happened again in July during a live batting practice.
Eickhoff is expected to work out of the bullpen but could make a few spot starts this month. The rotation is certainly not the consistent unit it once was, so there definitely could be a spot in there for him.
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The Phillies will hope they are getting the Eickhoff of 2016 when he had a 3.65 ERA, 3.98 strikeout-to-walk ratio, and 1.16 WHIP in 33 starts. He was hampered by injuries last year with his ERA rising to 4.71 and his walk rate jumping to 9.2%.