5 Phillies who don’t deserve to be on the 40-man roster

5) Why Yunior Marte doesn’t deserve to be on the Phillies 40-man roster

The Phillies actually traded for Yunior Marte, sending Erik Miller to the San Francisco Giants for this right-handed reliever. As a 27-year-old rookie last year, the Giants used Marte often. He appeared in 48 innings during his 39 games pitched. After many years of grinding it out in the minors, he finally got his chance.

As expected, Marte struggled. He was 1-1 with a 5.44 ERA. More optimistic Phillies fans might want to blame Giants skipper Gabe Kapler for misusing him although there’s no evidence of this.

Marte does have the coveted minor league options left. And because the Phillies traded for him, we should suspect he sticks around.

Philadelphia was aggressive this offseason in taking pitchers away from the Giants. Vasquez and Marte weren’t the end of it. Luis Ortiz was yet another claimed off waivers. He’s not necessarily more deserving of a roster spot than Marte. However, a 1.04 ERA in his miniscule sample size of 8.2 innings for the Giants in 2022 is enough to wonder if maybe there’s something going on.

The Phillies have improved their bullpen this offseason with some major league additions. Players deeper on the depth chart, like Marte, will need to stay on their toes. One bad outing in Clearwater could be all it takes for management to realize they never deserved the 40-man roster spot in the first place.