On Episode 892 of Hittin' Season, host John Stolnis of The Good Phight and BillyPenn.com assesses another Zack Wheeler second place finish in the NL Cy Young Award voting. What's this guy gotta do to win one of those things? Also, Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer joins the show to talk about Juan Soto meetings and the latest on what the Phillies might do in free agency and the trade market, John runs down some big roster decisions made this week, and which free agents would cost the Phils draft picks by refusing the qualifying offer?

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Show notes:

ZACK WHEELER CY YOUNG VOTING

• Wheeler loses to Chris Sale 198-130
• Sale got 26 of the 30 first place votes, Wheeler only got 4, but had 25 runner up votes
• It’s Wheeler’s second runner-up finish… also in 2021, when he lost to Corbin Burnes despite pitching 46.1 more innings than him
• This time he only pitched 23.1 more innings than Sale, but that’s still about 4 starts’ worth if you average 6 innings a start.
• This vote should have been MUCH closer.
• Is Wheeler going to go down as this generation’s Chase Utley, only for pitchers? He’s obviously one of the very best over this seven-year trend, but he’s never won any hardware, other than a Gold Glove, and he won’t have the counting stats some pitchers in the past had, same as Utley
• Christopher Sanchez finished 10th in the voting, earning 2 5th place votes
• Aaron Nola received one 5th place vote
• Sanchez should have been higher, probably above

SCOTT LAUBER PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER

• Everyone wants to know… what are you hearing about any meeting the Phillies are planning with Juan Soto?
• What odds would you give the Phillies being the one ending up with him?
• Do you get the sense they will make him a competitive offer? And if so, how high do you think they’d be willing to go? Or how high can they go?
• There’s been a ton of rumors about Alec Bohm out there… how available is he?
• What other members of the roster are most available?
• Do you think Dombrowski is going to make a big splash this winter?

ROSTER MOVES

• Phillies added three pitchers to the 40-man roster in order to avoid them being exposed to the Rule 5 draft.
• Mick Abel (23)
• Gotta hand it to the Phillies Player Development twitter account for trying to put a positive spin on Abel’s last three years
• He’s thrown 100+ innings with 115+ strikeouts every season the last three years
• He’s been durable, just not terribly good
• He was just awful last season, 6.46 ERA in 24 starts (108.2 IP), 5.47 FIP, 22.7% K-rate, 15.1% BB-rate, .275 AVG allowed, 1.81 WHIP
• Moises Chace (21)
• Acquired in the Gregory Soto trade that looks like it’s going to be a steal for Dombrowski and the Phillies
• Right now, Chase is a better prospect that Abel
• Baltimore was using him in a more limited role, as a piggy-back starter only going four innings at a time, but the Phillies decided to make him a more traditional starter
• He struck out 43% of batters in six starts for the Phils
• Jean Cabrera (23)
• Made 19 starts (106.2 IP) for Jersey Shore and Reading, 3.80 ERA with a 110/33 K/BB ratio
• In 6 games and 29.2 IP for Reading: 4.85 ERA, 19/8 K/BB ratio
• The Phillies did NOT protect
• Griff McGarry, who was flat out awful last year and showed no signs of improvement in the Arizona Fall League
• Eiberson Caetellano, named the org’s minor league pitcher of the year last year… it’s doubtful someone will draft him and put him the starting rotation all season long
• Phillies now have 39 players on the 40 man roster

MLB QUALIFYING OFFER DECISIONS

• Only one player accepted the qualifying offer: Reds right-hander Nick Martinez, so he signs a one-year, $21.05 million deal)
• 11 other players declined… meaning if the Phillies were to sign any of these players, they would give up some draft pick compensation
• Juan Soto
• Willy Adames
• Pete Alonso
• Alex Bregman
• Corbin Burnes
• Max Fried
• Teoscar Hernandez
• Anthony Santander
• Sean Manaea
• Nick Pivetta
• Luis Severino
• Christian Walker
• Free agents who do NOT have a QO attached to them
• Paul Goldschmidt
• Walker Buehler
• Shane Bieber
• Jurickson Profar
• Ha-Seong Kim
• Tyler O’Neill
• Gleyber Torres
• Blake Snell
• Justin Turner
• Justin Verlander
• Max Scherzer
• Carlos Estevez
• Jeff Hoffman
• Tanner Scott