The Phillies have signed veteran outfielder Matt Joyce to a minor league contract, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski announced to reporters Wednesday (Twitter link via The Athletic’s Matt Gelb). The ACES client will compete for a job in Spring Training.
Joyce, 36, had a noticeable dip in power with the Marlins in 2020 but remained a strong on-base threat, as is typical for the 13-year big league veteran. In 148 plate appearances with the Fish, Joyce batted .252/.351/.331 with a pair of homers and four doubles. A career-worst 27.7 percent strikeout rate does create some cause for concern, but that came in a small sample and punchouts have never been too large a problem for Joyce.
Dombrowski is quite familiar with Joyce, having selected him in the 12th round of the ’05 draft, developed him with the Tigers (for whom he made his MLB debut) and traded him to the Rays (in exchange for the also-well-traveled Edwin Jackson when both were still in their mid-20s). The pair will reunite with a Phillies club that is largely set in the outfield, where Andrew McCutchen, Adam Haseley, Bryce Harper, Roman Quinn and Scott Kingery are all options. (Dombrowski said on today’s call that the club hasn’t decided whether Odubel Herrera will be invited to Spring Training.)
Joyce, however, can give the Phils the quintessential “professional” bat off the bench. He walked at a 13.5 percent clip this past season and hasn’t posted a walk rate south of 10.6 percent in any year since 2011. He’s a lifetime .253/.355/.448 hitter against righties.
Phillies are really sniping the Marlins’ AAAA talent
Joyce signed for minor league depth and Kintzler is not AAAA level talent… what’s the harm in depth?
A guy with 13 MLB seasons under his belt is AAAA talent? Where do you people come from?
GON,
Classic sh!tpost!
Starting CF
Plenty of NRI deals for pitching. I believe the 2nd one for position players. Need a Brad Miller and Marwin Gonzalez and more depth along with 1-2 more MLB pitchers
Lame. Could platoon with Harper or Harper goes to bench.
Huh?
Luc,
Please see my reply to GON above.
If you’re going to troll (again) at least have him platooning with a righty bat.
We sorely needed a left handed bat off the bench. Now go get an infielder that can hit from the left side to compliment Rhys, Bohm & Segura. Marwin Gonzalez anyone? Sleepers: Jake Lamb or Brad Miller.
Pretty good stick vs RH starting pitching. Plenty of opportunities for him.
Dave Dombrowski has already improved the Phillies from last year fortifying: SS, C, Bench Rotation and Bullpen. The Phillies barely missed the playoffs last year because of an MLB worst bullpen. Not anymore. The Phillies are now positioned to challenge for the Division Title and the Wild Card for 2021. And, Dombrowski is never done. DD will make deals and signings at any time: Now, in Spring Training and at any time during the season…
Phillies fans: hang onto your hats for a wild ride!
i think if we add another good backend RP, a cheap guy who can eat some BP innings, trade VV, and sign a more proven innings eater (I like Brett Anderson or Jake Odorizzi, though that’s saying something given i said “innings eater”) we can do it, but I think the division would be a hard goal as currently comprised. I like our WC shots though. (though the lacking expanded format nessicates us beating ATL or NYM for the 2nd spot in the division to do that. ugh why cant we have it expanded again?)
Would like to see DD pick up a young, speedy CF and another starter.
A few guys come to mind: (guys DD traded for when he was with Detroit)
Matthew Boyd (LHSP) Daniel Norris (starter/reliever) and maybe CF JaCoby Jonesz…if they could work out a deal with his old friend and successor Al Avila, then these guys could really help the Phillies.
What about an old speedy CF named Brett Gardner on a cheap deal?
Problem is now he’s just an old CF
Why more people don’t realize this (historically bad BP last yr remedied with legit signings this off-season) is beyond me. I have total faith in DD just like I do with Morey running the Sixers (notice I’m not bringing up Howie…lol). I only hope Dombrowski doesn’t gut our already thin system for marginal improvements.
I’m a big Phillies fan and agree Dombrowski has done very well! But … the Braves are going to rule this division for a long time. And the Mets have deGrom and have gotten much better. I can’t imagine they would trade for Lindor and then let him walk. The day the Wilpons sold the team was a bad day for the rest of the teams in the NL East. That said, the Phillies will compete and may make the playoffs and then who knows? Last year’s pen disaster was somewhat of a fluke. They’ll be better this year.
deGrom is only one guy though. Stroman is a question mark. Peterson could hit a sophomore slump. 5th starter is going to be a question mark. Then their bullpen was pretty bad last year. The offense is better, but the pitching could be their downfall.
The baseball off-season is not as much fun when your team seems to be done. Anyway.
Joyce has always been a pretty good player if used right.
Still hoping the Yankees add a LH bat. Brad Miller is my current choice. But Joyce may have been able to be shoehorned onto the roster.
Phils are busy today. 2 moves I like.
Kind of surprised he’s going over the tax. I think Vinny V gets traded and DD continues to tweak/upgrade the roster. I personally feel Odorizzi is a perfect fit for this team.
Joyce’s primary function would be to serve as a pinch hitter late in games. Not a bad signing
Doesn’t hit well vs RH relievers historically. But now that I said that I wonder if the same can be said for every hitter. Or most all hitters historically better against starters as opposed to reliever pitchers.
Not surprising coming from the same organization that drafted Mickey Moniak with the first pick in 2016.
What does that have to do with anything? Also wasn’t that like two regimes ago?
Drafting a better player with the first overall pick in 2016, like Dylan Carlson, means they wouldn’t be reduced to picking up washed up players from the bargain bin.
So their pinch hitter off the bench should be…… a superstar? Most bench role players are going to come from the bargain bin.
Scrap,
Unless you’re actually Dylan Carlson trolling due to boredom, this is one really strange post. Let your talent do the talking, and spare us your weird thoughts.
if I remember correctly Carlson was considered a reach at the pick he was selected at. MLB.com didnt have a draft prospect video on him (as opposed to the rest of the 1st rounders)
look at the top 14 picks of that draft- it was a terrible year to have the 1st pick.
I will and always have maintaned this, though it was a back pick regardless. Granted, the guys I wanted (Groome or Ray) also fell off so what do I know. At least Moniak has shown something in the Minors and is still young enough to grow as a player.
Dave Dombrowski is the best GM in the game. “Have Faith.” His weakness is his choice of Managers but, Joe Giaradi is as good as it gets. again, “Have Faith.”
Don’t forget that Joyce and Fuld played together on the A’s.
All of our center fielders have issues:
Haseley: evidently cannot hit well against left handed pitching, plays average defense.
(see Eric Valent)
Quinn: low OBP for a guy with world class speed, cannot stay healthy, thinks he can catch everything. (see Sil Campusano)
Kingery: golden boy of the franchise, will get every opportunity to be a utility man UNTILL he proves he can consistently hit big league pitching.
Herrera: seems to create an incredibly bone head play when you least expect it. Off the field issues which some fans will NEVER forgive.
Moniak: still young but his ceiling is much lower that on draft day,
YOU get a like for the Sil Campusano reference…….oooooof, that 1990 Phillies team was a special kind of awful. Some ’93 pieces were there, but the rotation alone deserves our morbid curiosity for a moment
Pat Combs
Terry Mullholland
Bruce Ruffin
Jose de Jesus
Ken Howell