The Phillies were one of several teams to scout veteran starting pitchers Anibal Sanchez and Julio Teheran during a workout in the Miami area on Tuesday, according to sources.
This comes a day after president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski talked about the possibility of adding more pitching before spring training begins in a month.
"I think, ideally, we'd like to add some depth somewhere," Dombrowski said. "Sometimes, they're non-roster invitees who can come in and pitch. But I think where we are, we have some young arms who we really like. I'm not sure how close they are to contributing right now. Maybe they could grow over the last year and step up. From an ideal perspective, it's something we're at least looking to see if we could find."
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The Phillies have been connected to Sanchez in some reports. Dombrowski traded for the right-hander (and subsequently signed him as a free agent) when he led Detroit's baseball operations in 2012.
Sanchez will pitch at 37 next season. He is a finesse pitcher who can eat some innings at the back end of the rotation and likely would not command big dollars at this stage of his career. He did not pitch well (6.62 ERA in 11 starts) for Washington last season but did pitch to a 3.39 ERA while making 55 starts the previous two seasons for Atlanta and Washington.
Teheran, who will turn 30 this month, was a fixture in Atlanta's rotation from 2013 to 2019, twice making the All-Star team in that span. He signed a $10 million deal with the Los Angeles Angels before the 2020 season and pitched poorly with an ERA of 10.05 in 31⅓ innings.
Adding a low-priced starter not only would give the Phillies some much-needed depth, it could also impact their bullpen as it would create the option of using Vince Velasquez in relief, as we discussed on Tuesday's Phillies Talk podcast.
MLB
At the moment, the Phillies' rotation projects to be Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, Zach Eflin, Spencer Howard and Velasquez, all right-handers. The Phils will likely look at Ranger Suarez, a lefty, as a potential starter in spring training. He could also pitch out of the bullpen. If the Phils wanted to bring in a lefty from outside the organization, free agents like J.A. Happ, James Paxton, Brett Anderson, Gio Gonzalez and Cole Hamels are still out there. From the right side, Mike Fiers, Rick Porcello, Trevor Cahill and other potential back-enders are still out there. Prices on some of these guys are still high, but they could shrink as spring training gets closer. Prices do matter because the Phillies are still attempting to re-sign J.T. Realmuto and Didi Gregorius.
Archie Bradley will likely be the Phils' biggest bullpen signing, but they are still probing the free-agent market for more help. Some names still on the market that might interest the Phils include Jake McGee, Joakim Soria, Steve Cishek, Cam Bedrosian, Darren O'Day, Tony Watson, Anthony Bass, Shane Greene and Justin Wilson.
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