Dave Dombrowski already making excuses that will send Phillies fans over the edge

Some decisions will have to be made before the Philadelphia Phillies take the field on Friday evening at Citizens Bank Park. After acquiring closer Jhoan Duran and outfielder Harrison Bader ahead of the trade deadline, two current Phillies players will have to be moved off the active roster to make room.

Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski spoke to the media after the 6 p.m. ET deadline passed on Thursday. He provided some insight into what the team is thinking about the plans for the outfield situation.

There are plenty of moving parts here that the front office and coaching staff will have to sort out. On the surface, based on Dombrowski's comments, it doesn't look like Phillies fans will see the satisfying roster moves for which they've been waiting anxiously.

Dave Dombrowski makes mind-boggling excuse for keeping Max Kepler

Let's start with disappointing left fielder Max Kepler. Many of us thought the free agent signing would be the sacrificial lamb after the trade deadline, but it seems he's sticking around. At least for now, according to Phillies Nation's Ty Daubert.

"[Kepler's] playing left field for us at this time," Dombrowski said, per Daubert. "He's actually been swinging the bat a little bit better, particularly versus right-handed pitching. But he's part of our roster at this time."

Swinging the bat a little better? The left-handed-hitting Kepler owns a .203/.297/.357 slash line with 11 home runs and 33 RBIs in 94 games this season. He hit .196 in July. Even against right-handed pitching, Kepler hit just .216 with a .621 OPS and 62 wRC+ in July. That hardly seems like things are getting better.

So, now that the Phillies have Bader on board, the they have a dependable player who is an above-average defender and is a consistent right-handed bat versus both left-handers and right-handers, with a similar OPS against each (.774 vs. LHP, .779 vs. RHP).

However, Dombrowski wouldn't commit to making Bader an everyday player, per The Philadelphia Inquirer's Lochlahn March. He'll "play a lot" in both center and left, though, whatever that means.

Justin Crawford is ready ... but Phillies aren't calling him up

Finally, the last piece of this confusing puzzle, the Phillies' No. 3 prospect Justin Crawford. Still just 21, Crawford keeps hitting in Triple-A, posting a .325/.411/.426 slash line through 83 games. He's still putting the ball on the ground over 60 percent of the time, but he's making good decisions at the plate. He's not striking out a lot (18 percent) and walking a good amount (12.5 percent). His speed has allowed him to steal 33 bags for the IronPigs.

He's still not getting the call, however, according to MLB.com's Todd Zolecki.

“We think he’s ready to play at the big league level,” Dombrowski said of Crawford, per Zolecki. “We could bring him up. If we do bring him up, he needs to play a lot. I'm not sure that we're in a position to do that at this point today, but he's not somebody that we would hesitate to bring up if we decided that was the right thing to do. He, like [Andrew] Painter, like a lot of those youngsters, they can use more development time. It will never hurt them.”

Let's recap. The Phillies are, as of this time, letting Kepler hang around instead of cutting bait and letting Bader just play. That means that there's a high chance it will be Johan Rojas or Weston Wilson who will get optioned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

That also means that they'd rather let Kepler continue to wallow in self-pity and underperform instead of seeing what they have in fellow left-handed bat Crawford.

Maybe this won't be how things shake out on Friday when they finalize their roster moves. But at first blush, these decisions aren't going to sit well with many Phillies fans.

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