It appears that the Phillies are transitioning right-hander Jake Thompson into a relief role, writes Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. Once part of the six-player return for Cole Hamels, Thompson has only made four relief appearances in his professional career (majors and minors included). Three of those appearances came last year, however, and he’s been used largely out of the bullpen in Grapefruit League play. Thompson says that nobody has directly told him he’ll become a reliever, but believes it to be the case. “They think the slider and split can work in short periods, miss bats and get ground balls,” Thompson said of Philadelphia’s coaching staff. “They’ve built up my pitch count a little bit, so if something happens I can still do both. I’m fine with it. Anything that can get me in the big leagues and stay I’d be willing to do.”
Other news from some of baseball’s Eastern teams…
- It wasn’t long ago that Braves third baseman Rio Ruiz was struggling with a new swing and seemed destined to start the season in the minors, David O’Brien writes in a piece for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. That outlook has changed dramatically, as Ruiz’ offensive output has been a lot more impressive over the past couple weeks. The 23-year-old’s uptick in production coincides with an injury to Johan Camargo, who’s set to open the season on the disabled list. Though the organization seems to believe Camargo can return as soon as he’s eligible, manager Brian Snitker left room for interpretation on whether Ruiz can stick at the position even then. ““Rio has worked his ass off the last couple of years. He’s getting better,” said Snitker. “You never know, situations happen, door gets opened and a guy doesn’t give it back. You never know.”
- Mets manager Mickey Callaway says he doesn’t expect Adrian Gonzalez to play every day, and not even against every right-hander (h/t Anthony DiComo of MLB.com). That likely means more playing time for Wilmer Flores. “Wilmer deserves to play, and not just against lefties,” said Callaway. That’s not the only interesting comment Callaway made today, as he confirmed that Seth Lugo is being considered as a rotation candidate following an excellent Grapefruit League outing in which the right-hander struck out five while allowing no runs across four innings. The presence of Lugo in the rotation would likely make Zack Wheeler, who had another rough showing today, the odd man out. “”We have some big decisions to make,” Callaway said on the subject.
Finally the mets management realized that flores can hit
… lefties*. Fixed
He actually jumped up to 262/306/459 v RH last year, which isn’t wonderful but better than his career average. Improvement!
And?
Please trade Walker
Do you mean Wheeler?
Send Wheeler to Milwaukee for Jesus Aguilar.
Xbox trade suggestion
TRADE ALL THE W PEOPLE
Does Thompson have the stuff to close?
Has Hector Neris done something to lose the job? Has Thompson done something to leapfrog Hunter or Neshek? I’d say Thompson could be a solid long reliever or swing man
AGon has looked terrible at the plate most of the spring, and I was wondering how long the Mets would go before recognizing that Wilmer ought to get more of the playing time at 1st. AG started taking more ABs in minor league games about ten days ago. Since then, his swing has started to look better, but he’s still not driving the ball and still not getting results. Perhaps he needs more time to get his timing back, and maybe he needs there’s still some improvement yet to come. But right now, he does not look iike a major league hitter.
Or they could take a look at the 100 other 1B that are floating on waivers or FA. Napoli has shown more than A-gon recently and he’s sitting out there with no job. Vargas seems like he’ll be available come next week.