The Phillies are in agreement with left-hander Kyle Hart on a minor league deal, reports Chris Cotillo of MassLive. The southpaw will presumably receive an invitation to major league Spring Training.
Hart, 30, will join just his second organization, as he was drafted by the Red Sox and has spent his entire career with them up until this point. Working primarily as a starter in the minors, he had a solid showing in 2019, splitting his time between Double-A and Triple-A. He made 24 starts and three relief appearances that year between those two levels, tossing 156 innings with a 3.52 ERA, 22% strikeout rate and 8.3% walk rate.
That season was strong enough that the Sox added him to their 40-man roster to protect him from being selected in the Rule 5 draft. In 2020, Hart made his major league debut but registered a 15.55 ERA in 11 innings. He was outrighted off the club’s roster in November of that year and has continued pitching in the minors, but not quite reaching that form he showed in 2019. In 2021, he had a 4.22 ERA in 106 2/3 Triple-A innings. Last year, he posted a 5.25 ERA in 82 1/3 innings between Double-A and Triple-A.
Hart reached free agency for the first time after the 2022 campaign wrapped and has used it to find a new opportunity. The Phillies will see if a change of scenery can help Hart get back on track after a few disappointing years. The club’s rotation will consist of Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, Ranger Suárez and Taijuan Walker, with the final spot open for a battle between guys like Bailey Falter, Christopher Sánchez, Andrew Painter and Mick Abel. In the bullpen, the Phils will have a few lefty options in José Alvarado, Gregory Soto, Matt Strahm and Andrew Vasquez. It’s unclear if the Phils view Hart as a starter or reliever exclusively, but he could perhaps provide some depth in either area. If he makes it onto the club’s roster at any point, he still has a couple of option seasons and less than one year of service time.
Here come the “world series, here we come” comments (I admit, I was guilty of this once, shame on me)
I was there once, also. I suppose it’s just part of getting to know baseball better.
I don’t get this one. Talk about a longshot.
A distant relative maybe?
ST innings
I have no judgments on something like this. Either DD & Co. see something and think that there is something that they can work with, or it is just throwing AAA depth at the wall and having bodies available.
A Flyer in Philly? You don’t say!
AAA depth
Dave Dombroski has been signing Red Sox like crazy!!! Hell, Noah Song was a 4th round draft choice who was committed to the Air Force and has not thrown a pitch in about 4 years….yes DD drafted him in Rule 5 in November…..
Hart is AAA depth, as in depth should not be in the AAA rotation (not bad for a 19th round draft choice from 2016, but not even good enough to be a AAA starter). Again Dombroski drafted him as the Red Sox GM in 2016 and he has been collecting his old draft choices…. God knows why, because I sure do not…
Any relation to Carter?
What a jump in ERA at the MLB level! Most guys do worse in the Majors than in the Minors obviously, but this guy took that to the extremes. I am starting to believe that good major leaguers aren’t necessarily the best players, but rather the ones who adjust to MLB the best.
That’s probably true to an extent, but this guy only has 11 MLB innings to his name. Waaay too small of a sample size to make any conclusions.
Fair enough; triple the sample size and divide his ERA by 3. That’s still awful.
Four MLB appearances. All of them horrible. He’s consistent, give him that.
Yeah. I’m not too concerned with the major league ERA; 2-3 games and that could significantly drop. I am concerned with the minor league numbers getting progressively worse every year.
Eh. I can’t imagine he makes the ML roster unless he has an absolutely amazing ST.
He goes to AAA with a chance to prove himself, or he leaves. That’s the nature of signing a minor league deal with an invite.
In 2020, the Red Sox lost on purpose. Over half of their games were started by non-Major League level starters. It was nothing more than a glorified Spring Training and a chance to give work to some scrubs to see if any of them were worthy. None were any good at all. Then in 2021, they almost went to the World Series, except for a missed strike three call, who knows?
You skipped 2022.
So did the Red Sox.
They need starters at AAA. He’ll eat innings early in until Abel and McGarry get moved up to AAA. Honestly, I think they are pretty light on starting pitching depth. If Painter starts in the minors for whatever reason and a starter gets hurt in Spring Training you’re looking at Falter and Plassmeyer as the 4th and 5th starter. I’d like to have more veteran depth in AAA just in case. Hart doesn’t really fit the mold as a veteran but at least he’s somewhat effective in AAA.
A reach, depth, lightning in a bottle? All of the above.
It will take miles and miles of Hart to get them back to the WS this season….
Perhaps we should say “tons of Hart” to get back to the WS!
Fair enough but I think you missed my “Replacements” reference….all good though…