The Phillies have designated catcher Cameron Rupp for assignment, per a team announcement. The club selected right-hander Drew Hutchison’s contract in a corresponding move.
The 29-year-old Rupp has been a member of the Phillies since they chose him in the third round of the 2010 draft, and he debuted in the majors in 2013. Rupp has racked up 1,127 major league plate appearances since then, including 331 last year, when he hit .217/.299/.417 with 14 home runs. Overall, he has posted a .234/.298/.407 line.
Defensively, Rupp has earned negative pitch-framing grades from Baseball Prospectus since 2015, when he began seeing significant playing time, and was especially poor in that department last season. On the other hand, he has thrown out 31 percent of would-be base stealers for his career, beating out the league-average mark (28 percent).
Rupp’s designation makes it clear the Phillies will turn to Andrew Knapp to back up starting catcher Jorge Alfaro at the outset of the season. They could also try to find a taker for Rupp, who will make $2.05MM this season – his first of three arbitration years. Rupp has a pair of options remaining, so he could still function as minor league depth.
Hutchison, who’s best known for his Blue Jays tenure from 2012-16, joined the Phillies on a minor league deal last month. That came after he spent all of 2017 with the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate. Thanks in part to injuries to Jerad Eickhoff and Mark Leiter Jr., Hutchison may claim a spot in the Phillies’ season-opening rotation. The 27-year-old has made a strong case for one this spring, as he has allowed just six earned runs on 12 hits and eight walks, with 17 strikeouts, in 19 2/3 innings.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the Brewers hop on this one.
I agree, but I’m also a bit confused what the Crew has done this offseason. They go all in on Yelich and Cain, but fail to add a stud pitcher to lead the staff when they had every opportunity. Rupp would be a solid add, but are they willing to pay his $2 million salary? You would think, but you just don’t know.
What stud pitcher did they have every opportunity to go after? They made a run at Darvish, they didn’t like JA, and Lynn and Cobb are not studs. As for Rupp I’m not sure I see it as a fit. If they want a low average catcher with some pop to serve as their backup they may as well just stick with Bandy til Vogt gets back.
Calling Lynn and Cobb studs isn’t the right way to put it for them, but I think he just meant that they had a chance to fortify their rotation and instead spent their resources and upgrading an outfield that was already more than good enough. They have a playoff-ready offense, but even Cobb or Lynn (especially with how little he signed for) would have made a big difference in their rotation.
“They made a run at Darvish”
WTF does that mean? Darvish signed for a bargain rate of five years and $126 million.
You either signed the guy or you didn’t. You signed the guy because you paid him the most money.
There is no such thing as “making a run at….”.
Trading from their excess OF/1B for pitching seemed like a given at the time of the Yelich and Cain acquisitions. I’m sure they tried to but with such a premium placed on pitching, getting fair value back trading hitters for starting pitchers is tough to accomplish in today’s baseball world.
I 100% agree with Michael Chaney. But I think Stearns rolled the dice and crapped out. In other words he counted his chickens before they hatched. Like buying a house to flip and you can’t flip it or the market falls and you won’t get your money back. He gambled and that will haunt Milw this year.The Yelich trade was good. Then he over thought his hand. Figuring he get Cain, then trade one or 2 OF for SP. Which didn’t turn out. Maybe even had a deal in place and it fell through. No matter he spent a wad on Cain which was not worth it, using up money that they could have went for a SP. His back was against the wall. Of course it is nice to want, but there was no way he was getting Darvish on a low offer. JA was out of their price range. After the Cain signing he was pretty much stuck on either trading those OF or going with what they have. You see what they did. They are going with what they have pretty much. They will need a lot of OF to carry that pitching and I don’t see it. Even with Yelich. Remember he was flanked by Stratton and Ozuna, add Gordon into the mix also. You see where Miami ended up. Milw outfield is no where near that of what Miami’s was last year. They still ended up below 500 with all 4 of those players. That is reality not hating. My point is he won’t make that much of a difference. I believe for Stearns it was either trade for someone or get no one. Not even Lynn at 12 Million. In my opinion Cobb or Lynn would have made a BIG difference. They are no Darvish or JA but they could have held their own. Now your taxing the Offense to score, and the bull pen to hold. That won’t be easy vs teams like LAD, Wash, Chicago, St.L.. Not to mention what IF Milw has an injury to a SP then they are really really in trouble with SP. At the very least you have back up. Lackey n Colon looking for work. They probably could get either for a league min, maybe a million for a year. But wo and back up SP or any addition Milw is in trouble no matter what people want to think or fantasize about. Denial is one thing reality is another. That not hating that just fact. You can’t bank on what IF or this guy can come up, or were ok. If you do your asking for trouble in the season.
6 years – But your right. It like I want that 10,000 square foot home I offer $400,000 I guess I made a run at it. You are correct Casey
Rays could use him after Ramos leaves in 2019
I was thinking the same thing. This would make sense for the Rays, especially since there is a high likelihood of Ramos being dealt at the deadline.
I liked rupp home he can land a spot soon
Blue Jays need him as well
No we do not. Danny Jansen and Reese McGuire are ready when needed.
Why would we need another light hitting catcher with good defence. We have that in Luke Maille
Rupp is a much better hitter than Maile. He’s actually about average for a catcher with the stick.
Maile is not a light hitting catcher. He can’t hit. Period.
Maile doesn’t belong in the Major leagues.
The Jays need more than a Rupp since Russell Martin will only be catching 60% of the time. But Rupp is a much better option than Maile.
Jansen is the hier apparent and will definitely hit but he is not ready defensively. Reese Macquire is not a major league catcher at this point in his career. #Scoutseyes
Couldn’t we just keep him in AAA for depth?
He would have to pass through waivers and then accept a minor league assignment. But do would you really want your AAA catcher making over $2 million?
When you’re $80 million under budget that’s not really an issue.
I would’ve thought they’d address the catching situation at a time of their choice. Now they have to and they’ll get less than they would’ve in December.
I think he has an option left. I don’t think they have to ask him to “accept” going to AAA, but I’m not sure.
Anyway, as Coast1 says – when you have the Phillies financial resources, where the guys is playing is not the issue. They can afford to pay him.
I’m not sure I agree that they’ll get less for him then they would have in December, because I’m not sure his value in December was ll that high anyway.
You are correct. He has an option remaining, but still need. to go through waivers.
You may be right but you are usually likely to get a better turn when you trade someone at a time of your choosing rather than when you have to. Is this the best time to trade a catcher? That doesn’t matter because you don’t have a choice. Teams might wait until he’s waived.
They had the same situation with Alec Asher last year. He wasn’t that valuable but they waited until the end of spring training and then traded him for cash. Klentak doesn’t like to make trades. He’s made one since last September and that was a guy they had to deal or non-tender. In his entire tenure with the team Klentak has only once traded for a Major League player who wasn’t on an expiring contract.
No, they could easily send him down without his permission or exposing him to waivers. The issue isn’t sending him down, it’s his spot on the 40-man roster. They needed that spot for Hutchinson—exactly the same reason they DFA’d Joseph for Arrieta—and to remove a player from the 40-man roster, whether he’s in the major leagues or in the minors, he has to be exposed to waivers.
He has an option left. They just needed the 40 man spot.
Personally I’d rather have Rusney Castillo and his close to $12 million salary down there instead . All kidding aside though, $2 million is a drop in the bucket to have such good depth at such as important position.
Reds could use him for minor league depth in case of Barnhart/Meso injury. But I’m not sure he’d be worth the $2M salary
Arbitration salaries aren’t guaranteed right? As long as he doesn’t make opening day roster, Phils owe him some pro-rated portion of that and then he’s just a regular free agent with no financial commitment attached, right? (Assuming he clears waivers)
Rupp actually had options still so we could have stashed him. I think this is the same as ToJo, he’s not in the team’s plans anymore, cut him loose and wish him the best.
It’s not as if they could “stash” him. Yes, he has an option left to be sent to the minors, but that doesn’t help the Phillies. Their problem is the 40-man roster, and they needed a spot on that roster. If Rupp is in the majors or the minors, he’s on the 40-man roster. To remove him from the 40-man they have to DFA him, which exposes him to waivers. If no team claims him then they can resign him to a minor league deal and send him to the minors. But they can’t just send him down because he’s still taking up a spot on the 40-man, which they needed.
*Same with Tommy Joseph. He was on the 40-man, they needed the spot for Arrieta. Once you’re on the 40-man roster you have to be exposed to waivers before you can be removed from it.
Rupp will become an important extra to have,especially when catchers start getting hurt.I wish the Pirates could stash him but he is making too much money.My guess is that the Phils will be able to trade him.
I hope Hutchinson pitches well as he did not get much of a chance in Pittsburgh because of the depth of young starting pitchers that the Pirates have.That being said he has never taken advantage of the chances that he has had ,mostly with the Blue Jays.
Orioles should get him to add to Joseph and Sisco
I did want to make a comment about the Phils.If they are in the process of removing serviceable major league players like Rupp and Joseph from their roster,even if for no other reason that they do not have room for players who can play only one position,that gives me an indicator that their years of being in or near the cellar are pretty much over.
The Phillies now have only 14 position players on their 40-man roster. Even with a short bench that’ll leave them with only 2 minor leaguers not on the 25 man. They’ll have 11 pitchers to choose from.
i get that they need a 40 man spot…but if either alfaro/knapp get dinged up, you’d have to put someone on the 40 later as your backup catcher, as thats it on the 40..
they will need to weed out some pitching on that 40 man roster as time goes on..
Okay…who do you remove from the 40-man instead?
A pitcher. They have 26 on the 40. You don’t need that many.
Rupp is better than Miguel Montero. Here’s some help for the Nationals.
Hopefully we can trade him. I don’t like how they’re going about this with Rupp. I would have used him as the back-up for the purposes of showcasing him until an inevitable catching injury elsewhere, and flipped him then. I just hate when teams DFA major league talent that they can probably trade with patience.
I really like Knapp a lot, but in a business sense, I feel like they made the wrong move.
Oh, and in ref. To the 40-man spot, I think they could have gotten Curtis through. In a perfect world, they would have given Valentin a shot over Florimon too.