Which Phillies players may no longer be in the ballclub's plans for 2024?

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For the Philadelphia Phillies, they may have had a somewhat successful season so far in 2023, with the team holding a winning record while currently holding down an important Wild Card playoff spot in the process. However, not everything has gone as smoothly for some of the players on the squad, with some encountering some struggles at certain points of the season, whereas for others, they just haven’t been effective at all. In such cases, their chances in returning to the ballclub after the end of this season could be in jeopardy.

Here, we take a look at five Phillies players in which if their struggles persist for the rest of the season, they may actually be playing their way out of the team’s 2024 plans.

Gregory Soto

For Gregory Soto, he was acquired from the Detroit Tigers in the trade that also brought Kody Clemens to the Phillies, in exchange for Nick Maton, Matt Vierling, and Donny Sands. The two-time All-Star and former Tigers closer was suppose to help augment the Phillies dominant bullpen, forming a strong fearsome core along with Craig Kimbrel, José Alvarado, and Seranthony Domínguez.

However, Soto has been quite a bit disappointing to say the least in a Phillies’ uniform so far in 2023, as he has posted a 3-4 record with a 4.25 ERA, 1.21 WHIP, giving up 20 earned runs, 17 walks and 41 strikeouts in 42.1 innings pitched. Certainly much more was expected from him after what the Phillies gave up in order to obtain his services. If he doesn’t start showing his effectiveness more down the stretch, he could definitely be deemed expendable at the end of the season.

Yunior Marté

In the case for Yunior Marté, he was yet another hard-flaming reliever that they acquired this past offseason, this time from the San Francisco Giants in exchange for Erik Miller. Despite his power arm, and unlike Soto who probably had a spot on the roster sewn up going into the season, Marté was expected to fight for a spot on the major league roster prior to Opening Day. In the end, he did make the team coming out of Spring Training; however, his 2023 season has been full of ups and downs along the way.

He has displayed quite the inconsistency in his pitching effectiveness, as in some games he would seem unbeatable, while in others, he appeared to be serving up batting practice. As a result, he has had a couple of stints in the minors along the way, but has stayed with the big league team ever since the end of May. In total, Marté has compiled a 1-1 record with a 5.01 ERA, 1.55 WHIP, along with two saves, 14 walks and 29 strikeouts in 32.1 innings of work.

No one would argue that he definitely has the stuff and potential to do well, he just hasn’t been able to put it all together to provide a string of consistency over his appearances to give the utmost confidence to the team whenever he plays. In doing so, the likeliness of him remaining on the Phillies’ major league roster beyond this season has become slimmer, especially if the Phillies plan to make some upgrades during the upcoming offseason.

Dylan Covey

If one recalled, Dylan Covey was actually obtained in an in-season waiver claim from the Los Angeles Dodgers back in May this year as at the time, the Phillies were in need of pitching depth. The former first round pick of the Milwaukee Brewers back in the 2010 MLB Draft unfortunately hasn’t really taken off with his professional baseball career during the past decade, as he hopes to just have the chance to prove himself.

However, for much of the 2023 season, whether the Phillies just couldn’t find the right situations to bring him into a game or that they just don’t have that much confidence in his ability, Covey has been used very sparingly throughout the year. The most appearances he has made for the ballclub this season in one month was five, and in total, he has appeared in only 15 games all year (and one was with the Dodgers prior to the waiver claim). Overall for 2023, he is 1-3 with a 4.85 ERA, 1.50 WHIP, with 18 strikeouts in 26 innings of work.

With such infrequent usage of Covey, especially even during the times when the Phillies were plagued with injuries to their bullpen with both Alvarado and Domínguez on the IL, clearly demonstrated that he is certainly not valued highly by the ballclub, and could be expendable once the Phillies find a suitable replacement, whether later this year or by year’s end. But with the recent DFA of Andrew Vasquez, perhaps he has one more extra life left to show what he can provide the team in the stretch run.

Jake Cave

During the 2022-23 offseason, the Phillies claimed outfielder Jake Cave off waivers from the Baltimore Orioles and placed him on their 40-man roster at the time. He had a promising start to his career with the Minnesota Twins as in his rookie season, as he hit a respectable .265 with 13 home runs and 45 RBI in 91 games. Since then, he hasn’t been able to reproduce those numbers in any of the subsequent years, but the Phillies were willing to take the chance, given some of the potential he possessed.

Cave definitely got his chance when he made the Phillies’ 2023 Opening Day roster, but he struggled a bit offensively for the month of April, as in 20 games, he batted .222 with a .619 OPS, with three runs scored, one home run, 9 RBI and three stolen bases. In order to make room for Bryce Harper who was being reinstated from the IL, Cave was sent back down to the minors to their Triple-A affiliate Lehigh Valley IronPigs. He actually performed quite well during his time there, until he was recently called back up to the big leagues in late July, with Harper moving to first base and Kyle Schwarber moving to the DH slot, opening up the left field position once again.

However, in 10 games, Cave has gone 5-for-26 with just two runs scored and two RBI while striking out nine times. At the same time, fellow rookie teammate Johan Rojas had done quite well in his brief stint in the majors so far, hitting .290 with a close to .700 OPS, eight RBI and four stolen bases in just 38 at-bats. Looking down the road, the emergence of Rojas may give him the upper hand in landing a permanent outfield spot with the Phillies, to go along with Brandon Marsh and Nick Castellanos, so Cave may once again be the odd man out by the year’s end.

Edmundo Sosa

Last year at the trade deadline, the Phillies acquired infielder Edmundo Sosa from the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for reliever JoJo Romero. Sosa was considered one of the top defensive infielders in the game as his 13 DRS in the previous two seasons was tied for fifth among all shortstops during that same period of time. In addition, he could play multiple positions, including shortstop, second base and third base, so he also provided the ballclub with the plug-and-play versatility in their lineup everyday. Surprisingly, Sosa also provided some surprising offensive output, by hitting .315 with a .937 OPS with seven doubles, one triple, two home runs, 13 RBI and two stolen bases in just 54 at-bats down the stretch.

In doing so, the Phillies signed him to another one-year contract for 2023, hoping once again he could be the utility player they could use optimally in their lineup whenever needed. However, for the 2023 season, Sosa has struggled both offensively and defensively for much of the year. From an offensive standpoint, he has only hit .246 with a .690 OPS, with only 24 runs scored, seven home runs, 21 RBI, five walks and 51 strikeouts in 75 games played. Defensively, he is having one of his worst performances statistically in his career, having committed eight errors along with a -2 DRS.

With the recent move of Harper to first base, along with Alec Bohm getting a firm hold of third base due to his effectiveness, along with the struggles of Sosa, it appears as though there will be less of a need for Sosa down the stretch and probably going into next year as a result.

Overall, all of these players will need to step up their game to show their worth to the Phillies if they hope to be a part of their winning core and culture for this year and beyond.

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