Philadelphia Phillies manager Pete Mackanin seemingly has 80% of his starting rotation set for the 2016 season. Jeremy Hellickson, Charlie Morton, Aaron Nola and Jerad Eickoff figure to have their spots secured, but the No. 5 starter has yet to be determined.
However, rumors suggest the recently acquired youngster Vincent Velasquez has the edge over Brett Oberholtzer, Adam Morgan, David Buchanan, Alec Asher and Severino Gonzalez.
"He is the favorite for the fifth spot," writes Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. "The Phils considered Velasquez the key piece in the Ken Giles trade with the Astros. Velasquez is talented and has potential, and if he pitches well in Spring Training, it is hard to imagine him not making the Opening Day roster."
Velasquez came over in the trade back in December, which was a good haul for the Phillies. The right-hander has made only seven starts above Double-A, but those came at the MLB level last season. He went 1-1 with a 4.03 ERA, 1.29 ERA and 38 strikeouts in 38 innings with the Astros in addition to 12 relief appearances.
The 23-year-old is no longer considered a prospect since he exceeded his rookie limits during the 2015 season. He has never thrown more than 124-2/3 innings in a season, so Philadelphia might still have to treat him like a prospect to avoid overusing him and pushing him beyond his limits.
If that's the case, the Phillies can go in two different directions with this situation: they can start Velasquez off in the minors and have him pitch shorter outings to get in a rhythm before bringing him up to the MLB (which might actually be the best option in terms of getting the most out of him), or they can give him the No. 5 spot in the rotation and shut him down once he hits a certain amount of innings.
Regardless of the decision, the right-hander is certainly being considered as a top option to make the team on Opening Day.
"We're going to look at all of these possibilities and think outside the box," Mackanin said, via Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "Velasquez was really a top-notch-looking prospect. I've never seen him pitch, but everybody I talked to at the winter meetings in other organizations said, 'Boy, you've got a good one there. This guy is the real deal.'"
