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Phillies, Nick Vespi Agree To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | December 19, 2024 at 2:12pm CDT

The Phillies have agreed to a minor league deal with free agent left-hander Nick Vespi, reports Matt Gelb of The Athletic. The Ballengee Group client will be in big league camp as a non-roster invitee this spring.

Vespi, 29, has seen big league time with the Orioles in each of the past three seasons. He’s tallied 53 1/3 innings along the way, pitching to a solid 3.88 ERA with a slightly below-average 20.9% strikeout rate and a very strong 5.9% walk rate. Vespi embodies the “finesse lefty” archetype, sitting 89 mph on his cutter, but he’s missed bats (12.9% swinging-strike rate) and kept the ball on the ground (44.7%) at clips that are slightly better than league average.

Despite the solid work in the majors, Vespi was designated for assignment in late August and passed through waivers unclaimed. A disastrous showing in Triple-A this year surely contributed to that outcome. Vespi pitched 42 1/3 innings down in Norfolk but was rocked for a 7.23 ERA. A sky-high .424 average on balls in play played a role in inflating his earned run average, but Vespi also walked a very uncharacteristic 14.6% of his opponents and plunked three more. A whopping 16% of his opponents in Triple-A reached via base-on-balls or hit-by-pitch.

If Vespi can get back to the solid command he showed both in Triple-A and in the majors, he’ll have a good chance of pitching his way into the Phillies’ plans. He may not throw hard, but he’s been good in three Triple-A seasons prior to 2024 and has had some solid big league results in Baltimore. Vespi generally limits hard contact well — career 87.9 mph average exit velocity and 37.7% hard-hit rate — and did so quite well in Norfolk this year even while struggling with his bottom-line results (85.7 mph average exit velocity, 27.6% hard-hit rate).

He’ll need to earn the opportunity with a strong spring or impressive early work in Triple-A Lehigh Valley, but if Vespi does land on the big league roster, he can be controlled not only for the 2025 season but an additional five years beyond that point.

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Philadelphia Phillies Transactions Nick Vespi

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View Comments (10)
Post a Comment

10 Comments

  1. Never Remember

    10 months ago

    Oh thank god. DD really doing a great job. Big signing

    1
    Reply
  2. Cambo

    10 months ago

    Well, at least we know Dave is alive. If he was even around to make this signing happen.

    1
    Reply
    • CarverAndrews

      10 months ago

      I will call DD and tell him to suspend all depth moves until he pulls off, at the very least, a couple of major deals that accommodate your need to have something bigger to whine about while you sit in your junior league fantasy gm armchair.

      3
      Reply
  3. Fever Pitch Guy

    10 months ago

    I hope someday Vespi wins an ESPY.

    3
    Reply
    • Lefty_Orioles_Fan

      10 months ago

      For his hair alone …facial and on his head

      Reply
      • User 3594734386

        10 months ago

        and for his tattoos.

        Reply
  4. VonPurpleHayes

    10 months ago

    This is certainly a thing that happened.

    2
    Reply
    • Heels On The Field

      10 months ago

      Fixing the outfield is certainly something that has not happened.

      Reply
      • VonPurpleHayes

        10 months ago

        It’s very frustrating, but there’s plenty of time.

        1
        Reply
  5. Heels On The Field

    10 months ago

    Can he play LF and post an OPS+ in three digits?

    1
    Reply

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