The Phillies have agreed to a minor league contract with right-hander Bud Norris, tweets Robert Murray. He’s the second well-known veteran to join the organization on such a pact today, as the club reportedly agreed to a minor league deal with Drew Storen this morning. Norris is represented by the Ballengee Group.
Norris, 34, didn’t pitch in the Majors or minors in 2019. He went to Spring Training with the Blue Jays on a minor league pact and received a $100K retention bonus, but the two sides agreed to a release when Norris felt he was ready to join the big league roster but the Blue Jays wanted him to spend more time in the minors building up arm strength. He was in talks with the Nationals not long after, but the two sides never finalized their agreement due to similar reasons; the Nats felt Norris was as much as a month away from being ready.
Ultimately, Norris didn’t sign anywhere else, so he’ll now be aiming for an MLB return after a yearlong absence from the Majors. The right-hander posted solid numbers from 2017-18 with the Angels and Cardinals, working to a combined 3.91 ERA and nearly identical 3.94 FIP with 141 strikeouts against 48 walks in 119 2/3 innings.
That’s a shame.
Cotton is king! – Luis Polonia
Philly is only 2 and 1/2 hours down the Turnpike from the Bronx but it’s many worlds away from the Yankees as Joe Girardi is finding out.
Wow, edgy comment – very dark and brooding.
They could sign Launchpad McQuack and Scrooge McDuck and still finish in 3rd place in that division.
No way. Launchpad would guarantee a division title albeit a crash landing in the playoffs
Please McQuack and McDuck are both under Yankees control for another three weeks each. Please do your homework.
He was pretty solid as recently as 2014.
That was 6 full years ago….
That’s the joke
Not sure it was
Glad to see Bud got a job somewhere. He was pretty decent with the Cards
I remember when the astros were high on Norris, I was hoping he could stay a Card, but what can you do.
keep em comin Klentak
Definitely worth a Spring Training tryout especially with the Phillies lack of starting depth.
its been quite a while since he’s been a starter.
His name is not Bud, it is Kenny!
I don’t see anyway that the Phillies finish better than .500. Middletons done a lot of yapping about wanting to win and they’ve done nearly nothing.
the finished .500 last year with an inferior team and manager. i think its safe to say theyll be better this year.
they’ve lost Dickerson, signed a declining SS and a slightly above average pitcher. This team is virtually the same. Say what you want about Gabe but the biggest problem with the team was talent, and they didn’t do nearly enough to change that. It doesn’t matter who the manager is when your 40 man roster is a joke.
Dickerson was active with the team for like 1 month.
Dickerson played 34 games for the Phillies, and was never going to keep up that home run pace. Cutch is all around better.. Didi will be better than Cesar with the bat, and better than Segura was with the glove. Wheeler can be one of the best pitchers in the game! He has the potential if he can stay healthy. Definitely an upgrade to Vince or Smyly or whomever was in the middle of the rotation last year at various points. The moves above were good. The serious worry should be the bullpen and 5th starter. Maybe Bud Norris helps with one of those. I wouldn’t sleep on a Starling Marte trade though….. it may be coming. (and we can dream of Arenado instead if things get bad quick with him and Rockies ownership).
The biggest issue with the team was health and depth. This issues have been addressed somewhat. The 2020 Phil’s will be real good if healthy. Unfortunately for them, the Braves, Nats and Mets will be good too.
Blame Middleton. They signed Harper for far too much and ignored the rotation. They will never get by the Nats or Braves. As always, the manager was the casualty. Middleton should either sell or keep his nose out of the day to day business.
im fairly convinced Klentak is a lame duck at this point. the only reason he isnt gone is Middleton gave himan extention last year.
they’ve signed multiple top FAs each of the last 3 seasons, traded for JTR, extended Nola, traded for Segura, and they turned over their entire coaching staff twice in 3 years.
They’re just run poorly, but can’t say they havent dont anything
I like olives
They will win at least 85 or 86 games, with a ceiling of up to 94 or 95 wins if everything broke right. That roster is talented, and Bryan Price is going to do wonders with that pitching staff, watch.
Girardi is the man for the job.
Best case scenario: Realmuto gets extended and becomes the best leader and mentor since Darren Daulton. Didi puts up monster numbers en route to new contract. Kingery breaks out to be the star he can be. Rhys Hoskins figures it out and hits like he did two years ago. McCutchen bounces back from injury as the lead-off man with a .380 ob% and Harper finishes top 10 in MVP voting. Segura’s bat will play well at 2B and I have faith that Kingery can hold down 3B until Alec Bohm comes up right after the All-star break and goes on a tear, lighting a fire for the Phillies post season run. Kingery plays some CF after the call up and bounces around the infield, giving guys a day off, playing matchups and keeping everyone fresh. Vinny and Pivetta finally find themselves. VV converts to Closer and leads the league in saves. Eflin and Pivetta anchor a rotation headed by Cy Young front-runner Aaron Nola. Zack Wheeler finds another gear, striking out 225 batters and finishing with am ERA right around 3.00. And Jake Arrieta, motivated by his next contract, brings his A Game, winning 17 games with a 3.50 ERA 9.50K/2.5BB.
Worst case scenario: No Realmuto extension. Last year repeats itself. everyone is injured and the Phillies are selling off the likes of Arrieta, Didi, McCutchen and Realmuto prior to the July 31st trade deadline.
“They will win at least 85 or 86 games, with a ceiling of up to 94 or 95”
I stopped reading here.
I’m recommending Thorazine.
Anyone that thinks that the Phillies are good enough to finish better than third place in the NL East needs to ask themselves this: if they lose Nola or Wheeler and (insert starting position player here) then are they still good enough to finish better than third? Because it’s very likely that those injuries happen. Maybe not to those exact players, but injuries will happen just as they did in 2019 and they proved then that they don’t have the depth on their 40 man roster to compete. The Phillies are very far from being serious contenders.
I don’t care about Joe Girardi. Managers can really only lose you games, not win them. And Gabe didn’t make any monumental mistakes, at least no more than the average manager. Talent wins. Need proof? The nationals just won the World Series in spite of their manager because talent wins.
Or looking at pics of your mama
If they stay healthy they’ll be much better. They also have another starting pitcher now. Above .500 for sure. Not on the Braves level though.
Brings back fond LJ Hoes memories.
Well last year was a miscalculation by Bud…..
Low risk, high reward. I can dig it.
Always puzzled me that he couldn’t get a major league guarantee last year. Was the guy with 10.6 K/9 over the past 2 seasons really not worth one year for $3-4 million or so? Unless it was a Keuchel situation and he held out for too long because he wanted more and never got it.
Maybe the year off will benefit him this season. The Phillies need to keep adding guys like this and see how it all shakes out in the spring. Martini, Gamboa and Nick Williams will not be on the 40-man come opening day. I think they need to give Bud–and everyone in the bullpen–more defined roles this year. I believe that Girardi will handle the pitching staff better than Gabe Kapler did.
Maybe the year off will benefit him this season. The Phillies need to keep adding guys like this and see how it all shakes out in the spring. Martini, Gamboa and Nick Williams will not be on the 40-man come opening day. I think they need to give Bud–and everyone in the bullpen–more defined roles this year. I believe that Girardi will handle the pitching staff better than Gabe Kapler did.
Looks like Bud Norris is scraping the bottom of the barrel. I just heard the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox may be stripped of the World Series.
Blame Middleton. They signed Harper for far too much and ignored the rotation. They will never get by the Nats or Braves. As always, the manager was the casualty. Middleton should either sell or keep his nose out of the day to day business.
There are times I wonder what’s in the water some of you drink,,,,,first, Storen and Norris are easy signs….they either show they can pitch and help the club, or they show they’re done..these are the kinds of moves good teams make..they have lost nothing..
Next, I don’t know how many games a manager can win, but I did see Gabe lose a few with his idiotic moves and horrible lineups..huge upgrade at manager…
Kapler destroyed that bullpen by using 6 of them every game, even when he didn’t have to. They have failed miserably to develop just one starter not named Nola.
Phils will score runs in bunches once again, but the question remains: can they hold the opposition under 8 runs three games a week?
Nola is a true #1, Wheeler is a solid 2 if he can give you 32 starts. After those two it’s a crap shoot. If either one of those two miss any starts, the Phils will struggle to get to .500 once again. It’s a tough division and even the Marlins might have better 3,4,5 starters than Philadelphia.
Not the signing we wanted, but it was the one we needed. Thanks Klentak.
youtu.be/V7Wmo60KuSE
Every season, all I see are people overreacting to these minor league signings. It’s essentially a lottery ticket! They get a tiny amount to come in and try out. If they earn a job, great. If not, they either go away or they fill out the Iron Pigs roster. It’s not some proof that a team will win or lose for the season. It’s a minor bit of noise on a slow day.