Three veteran players that many presumed would be Phillies this season ( Logan Forsythe, Josh Harrison & Francisco Liriano ) were all recently released albeit reportedly at their own request.
Matt Gelb of the Athletic wrote about Liriano’s situation a few days ago. The Phillies asked the reliever to sign an “Advance Consent Form” as a condition of being placed on the active roster. As explained by the MLB Trade Rumors site the form provisions the following :
“Advance Consent Form - allows a club to terminate a contract within a maximum allowance of days and not be obligated for the full season of pay but rather just the amount of time spent on the roster. In a normal 162 game season that would be 45 days ... it’s 16 days this year as the the prorated number for the shortened 60 day season. It’s only applicable to players with five or more years of major league service (the form cannot be extended to those with less service time per the CBA). It’s usually used for players who do not figure to be everyday players, teams use the clause in order to give themselves as much flexibility as possible.”
So ... each of the three mentioned players had signed minor league deals with a higher agreed upon pay if they made the major league roster. I believe that each had agreed to around $1.5 million as their big league pay which would have been reduced to $555,000 in the shortened season ... with a signed “advanced consent form” that would have been reduced to between $9,260 ( one game ) and $148,150 ( 16 games ) if the Phillies terminated their agreement within the 16 days ... in other words the full contract would not be guaranteed. After the 16 days had passed the balance of the deal would be guaranteed.
With this year’s rosters starting at 30 players but reducing to 28 after 14 days and then to 26 after another 14 days the final four spots are obviously short term.
The three veteran players the Phillies just released must feel that they have better opportunities to obtain full reimbursement elsewhere or that their chances of making the core 26 man roster with another club is better ... or it just ticked them off they were asked to sign the reportedly infrequently used form ... who knows ...
In any regard by releasing the three players they are now ineligible to be added back to the Phillies roster per the 113 page 2020 MLB operating guidelines. It would appear to open a roster spot for UTL player Phil Gosselin who on merit of play probably deserved it anyways ... also perhaps Ronald Torreyes now may get a spot. It also opens up 60 man player pool spots for some of the minor leaguers to be added to the Allentown practice group. That group is likely to be announced today.
The opening day 30 man roster has to be submitted to the MLB office by noon tomorrow ... may not be reported till a bit thereafter but decisions have to be made by that deadline.
Just thought you all might want to know a bit about the roster choices and how business decisions play into it ...
Happy Day, Happy Baseball ⚾️
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