The Phillies roster is set ahead of their matchup with the Braves in the NLDS

Unlike the Braves, the Phillies already had to make a lot of decisions regarding who was worthy of the playoff roster given that they had to play in the wild card round last weekend. There is some merit to the idea that roster composition for a three game series could, in theory, be different from the roster decisions for a five game series.

Phillies manager Rob Thomson did provide a little bit of insight into some of the decisions that could be relevant for the NLDS roster including which starters were on the roster just to plan for a potential three-game series against the Cardinals. They activated some guys of the IL for the wild card series including Edmundo Sosa as a backup infielder and Brad Hand to bolster the bullpen for the wild card round. Again, nothing earth-shattering was expected from the Phillies roster announcement today.

The Phillies will have just four left-handed pitchers for the NLDS against the Braves with one of them being Game One starter Ranger Suarez. Unlike the Braves, the Phillies went with 13 arms altogether and it will be interesting to see the decision to carry the extra pitcher ends up mattering during the series. The biggest thing to note with the Phillies is that David Robertson, a key cog in Philadelphia’s bullpen this year, did not make the Phillies’ NLDS roster.

Stay tuned, folks. We are mere hours away from Braves playoff baseball.