After trading Joaquin Benoit to the Pirates just as the trade deadline passed, the Phillies were left with a void in their bullpen compounded by the fact that Pat Neshek was traded to the Rockies and Jake Thompson was moved to the rotation. Whatever arms are left are sorely taxed. To help ease their workload, Drew Anderson was promoted to the majors straight from the Double-A rotation.
Anderson is on the 40-man roster, so moving him up to the majors was a fairly simple matter. The team needed an extra arm to help ease the workload of the team’s remaining reliever, and they don’t have to worry about adding an extra player to the roster.