The Rockies have signed first baseman Josh Phelps, righthander Chris Gissell, and outfielders Alex Escobar and Bronson Sardinha to minor league contracts according to Jack Etkin of Inside the Rockies. Etkin says all four players will be a given a chance to make the roster of the Rockies' Triple-A affiliate in Colorado Springs.
Phelps, 31, hasn't played in the big leagues since 2008, though he's a .297/.364/.495 career hitter off lefties, so he might work his way onto Colorado's bench with a big spring. Escobar, also 31, last appeared in the Majors way back in 2006, and he didn't play in affiliated ball at all last season.
The 26-year-old Sardinha is a former first round pick (2001), though he didn't play in 2009 after being released by the Tigers in April. Gissell, 32, spend the last two seasons playing for Oakland's Triple-A affiliate, posting a 3.44 ERA in 89 innings. He played for the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League once upon a time.
Josh Phelps is realistically the only one who might have an impact, and Gissell possibly if the relief corps completely fall apart like last year. If two of the corner infielders get hurt, then he would almost definitely make it; regardless of whether it’s Helton or Stewart that god forbid get hurt, EY2’s coming up first, then Phelps would be next if he’s playing better than Holcomb in the Springs.
Alex Escobar is still around? Damn.
Like the Phelps signing. Good chance Helton and/or Giambi miss some time this year just because of their age so Phelps is a good guy to have around.
Is Sardinha’s middle name really Kiheimahanaomauiakeo? How do you pronounce that?
I’m gonna go with Key-hey-ma-hana-o-maoi-ah-k-o. …. Lol. What an awesome middle name though.
Looked it up, it’s “KEE-hey-ma-ha-na-mau-ee-AH-kayo.”
Jesus.
I was surprisingly close! Haha. What a name.
Alex Escobar is definitely a case study in unrealized potential. It never seemed to be that he wasn’t good, it was just that he kept getting injured. I’m glad he is trying to make the AAA roster. What else is he going to do?
The Baseball Cube estimates he has made more than $2M in salary, which is certainly more than most of us made in the last 10 years. He can afford to try to make the AAA team, with the hope of drawing from a fraction of the $400K+ minimum salary he would make by being called up. I hope he beats the odds and makes it. He hit .356 for the Nats in 2006 before getting hurt yet again.
Escobar had a monster postseason with Navegantes del Magallanes in the Venezuelan Winter League. He started playing after Richard Hidalgo went down with an injury and surprised everyone with decent defense and excellent power.
He still has something left in the tank, hopefully he stays healthy and realizes his potential.
WORLD SERIES CHAMPS 2010!!!…