The Phillies announced Friday that they’ve designated veteran right-hander Fernando Salas for assignment and reinstated right-hander Tommy Hunter from the 60-day IL. Philadelphia also reinstated center fielder Adam Haseley from the 10-day IL and optioned him to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
Salas, 34, pitched just one inning for the Phils, recording a strikeout but also surrendering a solo home run. Salas opened the season in the Mexican League and pitched quite well, prompting the Phillies to ink him on a minor league contract earlier this month. In 6 2/3 frames with the Phils’ top affiliate, he allowed one earned run on six hits and two walks with five strikeouts.
A veteran of nine prior big league seasons, Salas has a career 3.91 ERA with 8.7 K/9, 2.7 BB/9, 1.05 HR/9 and a 37 percent ground-ball rate in 488 innings. The Phils will have a week to trade Salas, release him or pass him through outright waivers, although Salas has the service time to reject an outright assignment even if he does clear waivers.
Hunter, 33 next week, signed a two-year, $18MM contract with the Phils prior to the 2018 season. He turned in 64 innings with a 3.80 ERA, 7.2 K/9, 2.1 BB/9, 0.84 HR/9 and a 52 percent ground-ball rate in the first season of that pact. He’s yet to pitch at the MLB level in 2019 thanks to a forearm strain that has kept him on the IL all season until today’s activation.
The Phillies will have $25.25 million in dead weight reliever contracts coming off the books this off-season in Nicasio, Hunter and Neshak (including his 750k buyout). Hopefully they use some of that cash to land someone like Garret Cole to stabilize the rotation.
I don’t want to tie that much money up in Cole. They need two starters. I think it’s guaranteed that Hamels is coming back, and then I’d like to see them pursue someone like Jake Odorizzi.
Well, at least they gave the guy an extended change at the MLB level…
The guy’s giving up 9.0 HR’s per 9. He had to go.
That was quick!
Salas had good company on his Mexican League team in terms of former big-leaguers. Among others: Chris Carter, K-Rod, Bruce Maxwell, Al Albuquerque, Jordan Pacheco, Erick Aybar, and 45 year-old Ruben Rivera.