The Phillies have agreed to a minors deal with utilityman Pedro Florimon, according to Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer (via Twitter). Florimon may well have the “inside track on a bench job,” Gelb adds.
Philadelphia evidently liked what it saw from Florimon, who’ll turn 31 in December. He only took 49 plate appearances at the MLB level, but recorded 16 hits — as well as 16 strikeouts. In 353 trips to the plate at Triple-A, Florimon slashed a palatable .265/.347/.410.
There’s a broader history to consider here, of course. Florimon has seen some action in each of the past seven major-league campaigns, posting a cumulative .209/.269/.308 batting line in 791 plate appearances. That said, he’s valued mostly for his glove. Long considered a quality defender at short, Florimon has also shown more recently that he can be a plus fielder in the outfield.
Welp we do need a Triple A shortstop
I liked watching Florimon play this past season. Slightly surprised he couldn’t find a big league deal (I’m saying like $750,000) anywhere after posting a ..348/.388/.478 while seeing innings in six positions (albeit over a small sample size).
Especially considering Andrew Romine is about to receive a raise on his $1,300,000 2017 salary from Seattle.
He might just be comfortable knowing that he has a good shot to win a job in Philly. His track record suggests that last year’s numbers were an aberration, big time.
Nobody is giving big league deals right now to utility players. Teams will need to add players to protect for Rule 5 and they’ll make trades where they may add players. If he wanted a big league deal he’d have to wait until January when the teams that had room would call. He probably didn’t want to wait until then for something that might not happen. I’d guess that he signed this early because the Phillies set his salary if he’s on the big league club at more than $750k.
Gives them a little more breathing room in event of a trade off of hernandez/galvis.
Right. I’m thinking more so Hernandez than Galvis the latter of whom I feel would be more adept at moving around the diamond and a super-util and def-sub type
Galvis was on a consecutive games streak last year. Mackanin was told to play Crawford at shortstop and told Galvis he could play another position. After one game in CF, Galvis said he didn’t feel comfortable at other positions and didn’t mind sitting when he wasn’t the shortstop. He could change his tune later but he sees himself as a starting shortstop. He’s projected to get $7.4 million in arbitration and that’s usually a starter’s salary.
Galvis played the better part of his first three seasons at positions other than short stop. I love Galvis – still a role for him on the Phillies – but he won’t start 100+ games at short in 2018
That was before he was a starter and a Gold Glove finalist. He’s hoping to have a good year in 2018 and make some big free agents bucks. That’ll only happen if he’s a full time shortstop. If he’s not he’s going to be unhappy because it’ll cost him quite a bit of money. He’s known as a team leader and you really don’t want to turn a team leader into a malcontent.
There aren’t too many teams in MLB who are going out of their way to commit to players who produce an OPS south of .700 on a routine basis. Short stop or not, Freddy only plays 162 games on a rebuilding team or a low-payroll organization. I love Freddy and I want him to stick around – but not as a 162-game short stop. JP will get plenty of reps next season
The White Sox, Cardinals, Rays,Tigers, Padres, Braves, and Royals all had regular shortstops with OPS south of .700. Galvis had a .691 OPS and several SS were over .700, but only a little above him. Galvis was tied for 17th in fWAR among shortstops, so there should be a starting job for him somewhere.
Even if Galvis was at the bottom of all shortstops I’m guessing that he’d still want to play every day and that he’d still want to see if he could get a good contract in free agency. I know I would if I were him.
He’s a fun guy to root for. He probably shouldn’t be on most teams’ 25-man roster but is a great guy to have around as an injury fill-in. His glove is superb and he runs the bases very well, and is always an all-out hustler.
The Rangers needs to go ahead and let Elvis go. So there is a Triple-A shortstop. That’s about he is worth now
Elvis Andrus? Andrus is worth way more than a Triple-A SS. He just came off a year where he hit 20 homers, and stole 25 bases, along with batting 297, and a good glove. So even if they were shopping him (which I haven’t heard a single thing about Andrus), they could get back a lot more than that.