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Williams among 11 Phils protected from Rule 5
- Updated: November 19, 2016
PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies needed to protect as many prospects as possible from the Rule 5 Draft on Dec. 8, and on Friday afternoon, they announced they added 11 of them to the 40-man roster.
The group includes right-handers Drew Anderson, Mark Appel, Ben Lively, Ricardo Pinto, Nick Pivetta and Alberto Tirado; left-hander Elniery Garcia; catcher Andrew Knapp; infielder Jesmuel Valentin; and outfielders Dylan Cozens and Nick Williams. Nine of those players rank among the organization’s top 30 prospects, according to MLB Pipeline.com: Williams (No. 3), Cozens (No. 6), Appel (No. 10), Knapp (No. 11), Pinto (No. 15), Pivetta (No. 17), Garcia (No. 19), Lively (No. 23) and Tirado (No. 28).
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“I think with adding this many young players, and with the average age of the roster being as young as it is [25 years old], I think there’s a reasonable expectation that many of these young players are going to spend time in the big leagues this year,” Phillies general manager Matt Klentak said in a conference call with reporters. “It might be on Opening Day. It might be in the first week of May. It could be midseason, it could be a September callup. Players are going to be on the roster at various points of the year and we’re going to need to call them.”
The Phillies have reached capacity on their 40-man roster. That is because they designated …
