The Philadelphia Phillies have really overhauled their roster in the last several days, and one of the more under the radar moves was the team designating infielder Mike Fontenot for assignment.

Fontenot was signed by the team as a minor league free agent earlier this season and worked his way up to the major leagues, where he excelled early on. Fontenot hit .414 and reached base in exactly half of his first 34 plate appearances, and he was even hitting .300 as late as July 21. Fontenot is still at .289/.343/.340 so it’s not as if the team DFA’d because he is struggling so much (although his .214/.290/.250 mark in July was below his standards).

But there’s really no need for him in the team’s plans for the future, and the team called up Kevin Frandsen from Triple-A who really has the same skill set and defensive abilities as Fontenot. Michael Martinez was a Rule 5 draft pick last season, and he didn’t play very well in 2011, but he does offer the team a speedy pinch-runner off the bench and a player that can play second base, shortstop, third base, and center field.

Plus the Phillies are all but eliminated from the playoffs, so I doubt they will be entering Game 7 of the World Series and wondering why they don’t have Fontenot to bat off the bench in the eighth inning with the score tied. Fontenot may end up going to the minor leagues anyway, but we may have seen the last of him in Philly.