Phillies Make Multiple Roster Moves Ahead of Series with Cardinals

The Phillies made a flurry of roster moves ahead of their series in St. Louis against the Cardinals.

The biggest one is selecting the contract of Odubel Herrera.  He is in the Phillies lineup batting seventh and playing center field.

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Sure to be a controversial move, the Phillies are bringing up Herrera after he served an 85-game domestic violence suspension in 2019, steaming from an incident at an Atlantic City casino.

"We just thought it was time," Phillies manager Joe Girardi told reports today.

Phillies center fielders have been abysmal this season, the trio of Adam Haseley, Roman Quinn and Mickey Moniak are hitting a combined .101.

The 29-year old Herrera had his best season in 2016, making the National League All Star team, hitting 15 home runs with 25 stolen bases, and a .781 OPS. However his play declaimed during the 2018-19 seasons, hitting .249 with 23 home runs and seven stolen bases.

This spring, Herrera hit .231 with four home runs in 52 at-bats, but was not a part of the Opening Day roster.

Per John Clark of NBC Sports Philadelphia, the only team that has had a lower batting average from their center fielders thru first 21 games is 2001 Cubs.

The team also added Matt Moore, who will likely pitch on Wednesday and Jose Alvarado and sent Spencer Howard and Moniak to the alternate site.

Getting Alvarado back should be a big boost to a struggling bullpen and Girardi did mention that they will attempt to build up Howard at the alternate site, with the possibility he could start games later in the season.