When the Phillies traded Gregory Soto, the return of Moises Chace was kind of seen as more than enough. Getting Seth Johnson was a solid pickup as he was still a prospect, but nothing too exciting. He’d give the Phillies some rotation depth and that’s something they actually needed.
He started pitching well enough in the Phillies organization that the team even gave him a spot start to see what they had in him. Choosing to start him against the Marlins seemed like a solid idea as they thought of their major league lineup as more of a theory than anything.