Under The Knife 9/10/25
Make Quad A Happen?
One of the great things about my job is that I have a lot of people I can call when I have questions. It’s been years building, but there’s seldom something that I don’t know who to call. I was recently thinking about Jac Caglianone, who torched Triple-A in two trips, but struggled with the Royals. I know, the bigs are different and “third deck syndrome” has a name because it’s real. The guys stuck in-between are often pejoratively called “Quad-A” guys and years back, would have had good minor league careers and the love of a small town. Tommy Barrett, Carlos Bernier, the immortal Indy Indian Razor Shines. They get a bobblehead now, but outside of Mike Hessman, we barely have that type these days.
Anyway, I was thinking about Caglianone and whether there were players that really were stuck as “Quad A” guys, or even whether we could see that an early struggle might be a bad sign, given the early issues for Caglianone and Jackson Holliday. That led me to wondering whether graduating players to the major leagues was a skill. We’ve seen the Cardinals struggle with a handful of them in similar fashion to Caglianone, so I also wondered if some teams were better at it than others. So I emailed Clay Davenport, who knows more about league translation than anyone.
Not only did Davenport answer my question, he published it. You can click that link to read and the answer is fascinating. Not only did Davenport answer the questions, he knocked it out of the park and gave us a whole new set of questions, like how and why those teams are better or worse at graduating players. There’s advantage to be found in the weeds, friends, so thanks to Clay for digging.
One last note before we get to it - apparently, the Dodgers’ emergency catcher is Alex Call. Two different readers told me it was discussed on the broadcast. I can’t find any record of him ever catching at any level, but that’s why it’s called “emergency.” This topic really intrigues me and I’m hoping I can dig in more in the future.
Now, on to the injuries:
TREA TURNER, SS PHI (strained hamstring)
The Phillies got some good news out of the MRI tube, with Trea Turner suffering only a Grade I hamstring strain. That’s the lowest possible and better than what he dealt with last year, giving the Phils some confidence that he can come back well. He’s still going on the DL and he may well not come back at the minimum, depending a lot on his response and healing, as well as the team’s context.
It’s that last season strain that is both positive and negative. This isn’t a recurrence per se - last year was the other hamstring - but it does show a tendency. Turner is age-32 and still very fast, but is he as mobile, flexible, and durable? Probably not, which leads me to some comps. Troy Tulowitzki was never as fast, but he was also out of baseball at age-32. Michael Young? Also never nearly as fast and had a slower decline phase, but the big defensive drop-off at age-34 is notable. If there’s a comp that Turner would want, it’s Jimmy Rollins, who stayed productive and fast through age-36, and stayed at SS the whole time.
Edmundo Sosa is the replacement for now and will have to hold things down, though he’s clearly not the same player. Anyone can get hot for 10 days, but the Phillies are just hoping for average production and solid defense from him. There’s not a lot of mix and match potential, but Phillies sources told me there’s “zero bleeping chance” that Aidan Miller would come up at this stage. Donovan Walton is the depth, but is exactly the kind of player that gets called “Quad-A”, and that’s when he’s playing well.
There’s more Phillies injuries, you know, plus a rough catcher injury, a big question for Boston, and a lot (LOT) of Quick Cuts. Subscribe and you’ll see.