Phillies scout veteran starters Anibal Sanchez, Julio Teheran

Eight days ago, MLB Network’s Jon Morosi first linked the Phillies to having interest in Sanchez. “Think about the importance of relationships,” Morosi said. “Sanchez made his debut and threw a no-hitter for the then-Florida Marlins back in 2006 when Joe Girardi — the current Phillies manager — was managing the Marlins. Sanchez won the ERA title some number of years later in Detroit, when Dave Dombrowski — now the Phillies president of baseball operations — had the same title with the Tigers back in 2013.”

Both Sanchez and Teheran have plenty of experience pitching within the National League East. Of Sanchez’s 350 career appearances, 199 were on the mound as a member of either the Florida and Miami Marlins (2006-12), Atlanta Braves (2018), and Nationals (2019-20). For Teheran, 229 of his 239 career outings were in a Braves uniform.

Phillies manager Joe Girardi comments on the back-end of the starting rotation.

If the season were to start today, Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, and Zach Eflin would be locks for the first three spots in the rotation. After that, there are question marks regarding Vince Velasquez and Spencer Howard.

“I like our rotation, I like how Wheeler and Eflin set up. I thought Velasquez made some strides last year. At the end of the year, he was throwing the ball pretty well. He was in and out of our rotation,” Girardi said Tuesday on MLB Network. “Spencer Howard, when he went to the first spring training, he was strong and he threw the ball extremely well. When he went to our second spring training, he was down 10 pounds and never put it back on.”

“He had a harder time working out. We expect bigger and better things from him, and I like our rotation.”

If the Phillies were to add another veteran starter, such as Sanchez or Teheran, it would allow Velasquez to move back to the bullpen — giving them another reliever option to potentially turn to and avoid a repeat of the near all-time worst 2020 bullpen.