Phillies' trade deadline failure comes to roost with Wild Card Series roster vs. Braves

The day of reckoning has come, and with it, the Philadelphia Phillies' official postseason roster for the Wild Card Round.

There aren't too many surprises to be found here; the biggest one, that being Jesús Luzardo's return to start in Game 1, was announced previously. Maybe some will gripe about there being three catchers on the roster — none of whom have been particularly good at the plate this year — but in a series that will only go a maximum of three games, it makes sense to weigh the depth chart heavily toward the position player side of things.

The real thing that sticks out here is the continuity of the roster from Opening Day. Of the 26 men the Phillies will have available in the first round of the playoffs, only one (outfielder Derek Hill) was acquired during the middle of the season.

Phillies' stagnant playoff roster is an indictment of Dave Dombrowski's front office

In one sense, it's a testament to the core of this team that the Phillies made the playoffs yet again despite receiving very little in the way of midseason reinforcements. However, it's also a condemnation of the front office, which has routinely failed to supplement its superstars with championship-caliber role players.

That comes back to the failures around the trade deadline, when Philly sought more marginal upgrades rather than going big. None of the three most important players acquired at that time (Luis Arraez, Caleb Kilian, and Brooks Raley) are on the Wild Card roster. At least Arraez and Kilian have the excuse of injury; Raley was so bad after coming over from the Mets that he won't even be a part of one of the league's least-effective bullpens.

Even Hill wasn't a deadline pick-up, as the Phillies acquired the 2014 first-round pick — a selection made by the Tigers while Dave Dombrowski was still running the show in Detroit — back in early June, following the season-ending injury to Adolis Garcia.

Speaking of, both of Dombrowski's two big free-agent signings from last offseason (Garcia and Brad Keller) also aren't on the playoff roster, both due to injury. Of course, it's unfair to ask him or any front office executive to predict poor health, but he had ample time to react to their absences and failed to do so.

As a result, the Phillies are rolling into Atlanta with a squad we should all be intimately familiar with. That isn't inherently a bad thing, but it's also not the most comforting news when considering that the Braves won the season series 9-4.

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