Why is Kyle Kendrick STILL on your TV?

Like many of you, I find myself frequently muttering the question "Why is Kyle Kendrick still on this Phillies team?" While the most likely explanation is that he has pictures of Charlie Manuel in a compromising position, probably from a party at Pat Burrell's house in which "The Machine" made an appearance, there may be other reasons...

• Regarding Vance Worley, he may be a better option right now, but conventional baseball wisdom says that it's better to keep a starter of his caliber in the minors for the time being. It's far more valuable for him to be pitching regular innings in Lehigh Valley than seeing sporadic work with the big club. His value to the Phillies is as a starter when needed... be it at some point this season or next. The story is the same with other long man options out of the bullpen (Andrew Carpenter, Eddie Bonie, etc).

• Kendrick's contract this year is worth $2.45M. It's chump change compared to most of the team, but guys making that kind of money are given every opportunity to lose their job.If they send him to the minors, they must still pay him according to the terms of his contract.

• Sending a contracted player down to the minors isn't really that simple either. I'm not even sure I completely understand it, but I'll give it a shot... Kendrick has what I believe qualifies as almost 4 years of major league service time. I believe that means that he can be sent down, but must consent to being sent to the minors. If he declines, he must be kept with the big team or released outright. A player can be sent down once in his career without being subject to player approval, but I believe the Phillies have already used that option with Kendrick. If you want to try to make sense of it yourself, take a look here and here.

• If they were to cut ties with him altogether, they're still on the hook for his salary. I doubt that any other team would be willing to take on his salary by claiming him off waivers (if required, again I still don't fully understand the "options" process). Trading him isn't viable for pretty much the same reason. No one wants to take on $2.45M for a middle reliever.

• I roll my eyes at him as much as you do, but his 38 wins over the past 4+ years is actually pretty decent. It's almost certainly what has kept him employed this long. Geeks like us laugh at his 1.46 K/BB ratio, or his 1.42 WHIP, but those wins mean a whole lot more to management than anything else. He gets the opportunity BECAUSE he has so many wins.

• The Phillies don't throw away money. It took a collapse of epic proportions for them to cut ties with the likes of Adam Eaton and Geoff Jenkins. And they've held on to Danys Baez far longer than he's deserved. The Phillies simply refuse to pay someone to sit at home. 

Why did the Phillies avoid arbitration by signing him to a $2.45M contract for this year is a whole other question...