Phillies Miss Out on Another Starting Pitching Depth Piece

Walker Buehler seemed like a decent fit for the Phillies if he was willing to return on a minor-league deal and the 31-year-old right-hander agreed to a minor-league deal Monday, just with a different team. He's headed to the Padres, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The Padres have been active over the last week, adding Nick Castellanos, German Marquez, Griffin Canning and now Buehler. It's an interesting choice for Buehler because the Padres have as many as five arms — Randy Vasquez, Canning, Marquez, Buehler and JP Sears — battling for two rotation spots. It's not the worst fit but not the best either.

The Phillies would have also been an imperfect landing spot because they can't offer a full season's worth of starts. The most they could guarantee is that a starting pitcher would be seventh on their depth chart when healthy, maybe sixth if he outperforms Taijuan Walker.

Cristopher Sanchez, Jesus Luzardo, Aaron Nola, Walker and top prospect Andrew Painter comprise the Phils' projected Opening Day starting staff with Zack Wheeler expected to return at some point in the first two months from September thoracic outlet syndrome surgery.

Waiting out the market

While it may seem the Phillies have lost out on various opportunities as pitchers like Jose Quintana, Aaron Civale, Jose Urquidy, Marquez and Buehler have signed, it's worth remembering that they could still pick someone up at the end of spring training. Plenty of teams will face roster crunches and new starting pitching options will likely become available. One might even be Buehler, given the crowded nature of the back end of San Diego's rotation.

Buehler is not the same pitcher he was from 2018-21 with the Dodgers when he went 39-13 with a 2.75 ERA and 0.98 WHIP in 94 starts, but he can still provide innings at the back of a rotation. He had a 4.93 ERA overall last season in 126 innings and even that was a bit lucky when looking at his peripherals. He struck out just 6.6 batters per nine innings and walked 4.4, both well below average rates, and his fastball was crushed.

Small sample success

Buehler did pitch well three times down the stretch for the Phillies, though. He signed with them in August two days after the Red Sox released him, and upon his mid-September recall allowed one run over five innings, then followed with scoreless outings of 3⅔ and five innings.

It was enough for him to make the Phillies' playoff roster for the NLDS, which they lost in four games to the Dodgers. Buehler did not appear in the series and was more of a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency piece if a game went deep into extra innings.

Who's left?

The remainder of what is left on the free-agent market is right-handers Lucas Giolito, Zack Littell, Frankie Montas, Max Scherzer, Anthony DeSclafani and Tony Gonsolin, and lefties Tyler Anderson, Patrick Corbin, Nestor Cortes and Wade Miley. Only a couple of them — DeSclafani, maybe Miley — might be willing to take a minor-league deal.

Again, though, the Phillies could be just as well off waiting out spring training and bringing in a veteran starter who doesn't make another club's Opening Day roster or finds himself low on the totem pole.