Phillies view the bye as an advantage; Johan Rojas won’t be on NLDS roster

Following Monday’s off day, the Phillies have officially begun their preparations for the postseason.

The team held its first workout Tuesday, placing an emphasis on defensive fundamentals. Pitchers went through fielding practice and hitters did batting practice on the field. In years past, there have been discussions across baseball on whether a bye could throw a team off its rhythm, but the Phillies are viewing the days off before the division series as a benefit.

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“A guy like [Trea] Turner, gives a little extra time to get them ready, and you can set your rotation up as you want, where you maybe wouldn’t have been able to do that” without the bye, said president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. “So I think there’s advantages. And I think our guys, they played a lot of games. … So I don’t think it hurts. So we’ll look to use it to our advantage.”

The members of the “stay-ready camp” were at Citizens Bank Park on Tuesday to participate in the team workouts. The list included catcher Caleb Ricketts; pitchers Seth Johnson, Alan Rangel, and Nolan Hoffman; infielders Donovan Walton and Rafael Lantigua; and outfielder Johan Rojas.

However, Rojas is still feeling soreness in his quadriceps and will not be an option for the National League Division Series roster as a pinch-runner or defender off the bench. Dombrowski said Rojas could be under consideration for future rounds if the Phillies advance to the NLCS. He declined to answer whether the Phillies are leaning more toward carrying 12 pitchers or 13 for their NLDS roster.

Neither Justin Crawford, who suffered a concussion earlier this month, nor Andrew Painter is in the stay-ready camp. The Phillies shut Painter down for the year following his final start with triple-A Lehigh Valley on Sept. 17. He finished with a 5.26 ERA and 1.49 WHIP over 118 innings between low-A Clearwater and triple A in his first season back after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Although Painter did not make it to the majors on the “July-ish” timetable — “We’re going to save a lot of his innings until we get to July-ish for the big league level,” Dombrowski said in December — he is still viewing Painter’s season as successful.

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“I think Andrew had a solid year when he went out there every five days, basically all year long,” Dombrowski said. “He pitched over 100 innings. Felt good at the end of the year. The stuff was still good. His command wasn’t quite as good. So we thought it was a very solid season for him. And he’ll be in a position where, we think, he’ll come to camp next year and be in a position where he can compete for a spot. So that’s a really encouraging type of scenario for him. He’s healthy, too.”

Matt Strahm’s contract for 2026 is officially guaranteed after he passed a physical on Monday. The left-hander had a $7.5 million club option for next season that would be vested if he reached 60 innings in 2025. Strahm threw 62⅓ innings, pitching to a 2.74 ERA to go with 70 strikeouts.

After the acquisition of Jhoan Duran at the trade deadline to become the Phillies’ new closer, Strahm has become one of the main setup arms, often tabbed for the eighth inning.

Zack Wheeler will be at Citizens Bank Park this week to be checked out by Phillies trainers and see his teammates after he underwent surgery on Sept. 23. Wheeler underwent a thoracic outlet decompression procedure to treat venous thoracic outlet syndrome in St. Louis.

The general timetable for recovery from the procedure is six to eight months.

“Everything went well,” Dombrowski said. “Everything went very efficiently. … Surgery went great. Doctor was very happy with it. He’ll go back, I think, in another month to get rechecked. But so far, so good.”