- Phillies right-hander Sam Coonrod has been shut down for five to seven days with a shoulder strain, manager Joe Girardi announced to reporters (Twitter link via Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia). That puts his Opening Day availability in jeopardy, though that will depend on just how he fares when he’s reevaluated a few days down the line. The 29-year-old Coonrod may not be as familiar a name as some of his veteran bullpen-mates, but he’s in line to serve as an important member of the relief corps, if healthy. In 42 1/3 innings last season, the former Giants righty posted a 4.04 ERA with a strong 25.9% strikeout rate, an 8.1% walk rate and a brilliant 57.1% grounder rate. Coonrod averaged 98.8 mph on his heater, and between the velocity, strikeouts, walks and grounders, there’s potential for a breakout performance if this shoulder issue proves minor.
Phillies Rumors
Giants Acquire Luke Williams From Phillies, Place Matthew Boyd On 60-Day Injured List
The Giants have acquired utilityman Luke Williams from the Phillies in exchange for minor league third baseman Will Toffey and cash considerations. Both teams have announced the trade. To create a 40-man roster spot, the Giants placed southpaw Matthew Boyd on the 60-day injured list.
Williams was designated for assignment by Philadelphia earlier this week when the Nick Castellanos signing became official. After six seasons in the Phils’ farm system and a brief stint in the Australian Baseball League, Williams made his MLB debut in 2021, appearing in 58 games. While Williams hit only .245/.315/.316 in 108 plate appearances, he made a mark with his versatility, making multiple appearances at every position except catcher and pitcher.
Williams began his career as a third baseman, but has more recently moved all over the diamond, with the bulk of his brief big league career spent as an outfielder. Giants manager Gabe Kapler is surely familiar with Williams from Kapler’s past job as the Phillies’ skipper, and San Francisco has frequently sought out multi-positional players in recent years. Williams is also a right-handed hitter, which could give him an opportunity for playing time given how the Giants’ projected starting outfield (Mike Yastrzemski, LaMonte Wade Jr., and Joc Pederson) are all left-handed bats.
Toffey has something of a similar resume to Williams, as Toffey is also a third baseman who has started to branch out at other positions. The 2021 season saw Toffey play both corner outfield positions, first base, and second base while playing with the Mets’ Double-A affiliate and the Giants’ Triple-A affiliate. San Francisco acquired the 27-year-old Toffey from the Mets last July, with left-hander Anthony Banda going back to New York in return.
Boyd signed a one-year deal with the Giants last week, and the former Tigers lefty is set to earn $5.2MM in guaranteed money in 2022. First, however, Boyd will have to fully recover from flexor tendon surgery last September. The 60-day IL placement was expected, as Boyd wasn’t expected to be ready until early June.
Marlins Release Monte Harrison
TODAY: The Marlins have released Harrison, according to MLB.com’s Christina De Nicola (Twitter link).
MARCH 24: Harrison has cleared waivers and been sent outright to Triple-A Jacksonville, the team informed reporters (including Jordan McPherson of the Miami Herald). He’ll remain in the organization without requiring a 40-man roster spot.
MARCH 18: The Marlins announced a trio of roster moves Friday, designating outfielder Monte Harrison for assignment, claiming righty Yoan Lopez off waivers from the Phillies, and signing veteran outfielder Delino DeShields Jr. to a minor league contract.
Harrison, a second-round pick in 2014 and former top-100 prospect, was one of the key pieces sent from Milwaukee to Miami in the Christian Yelich blockbuster. The 26-year-old appeared in just 40 games with the Marlins over the course of his time in the organization, batting .175/.230/.263 in a tiny sample of 62 plate appearances. Of course, Harrison also never really forced his way onto the big league roster with standout performances in the minors, either. He logged a .715 OPS in an admittedly pitcher-friendly Double-A setting in 2018 — his first in the Marlins organization — and wasn’t able to push that OPS even as high as .800 in any of the three years he spent in the system.
Harrison did post a .242/.331/.446 batting line that checked in slightly above league-average production in Triple-A last year (108 wRC+), but he did so with a staggering 39.3% strikeout rate that surely didn’t give the team any confidence he was beginning to turn a corner. Now out of minor league options and squarely behind Avisail Garcia, Jesus Sanchez, Bryan De La Cruz and others on the outfield depth chart, Harrison finds himself jettisoned from the 40-man roster. The Marlins will have a week to trade Harrison, place him on outright waivers, or release him. The latter of those three scenarios seems highly unlikely; Harrison will either be traded/claimed by another club, or he’ll pass through outright waivers unclaimed and remain in the Marlins organization.
Taking Harrison’s spot on the 40-man roster, at least for now, is the 29-year-old Lopez — a former high-profile Diamondbacks signing out of Cuba. He’s spent parts of four seasons in the big leagues but, after a decent start with Arizona, has seen his numbers tank in recent years. Lopez throws hard (96.2 mph average fastball in his career) and has better-than-average marks in terms of walk rate (7.7%) and ground-ball rate (46.8%).
That said, Lopez’s 19.1% strikeout rate is well shy of the MLB average, particularly among relievers, and he’s been overwhelmingly homer-prone. In 101 2/3 innings at the MLB level, he has a 4.25 ERA but a sky-high 1.77 HR/9. Lopez’s four-seamer has above-average velocity but bottom-of-the-scale spin rate, which has allowed hitters to square it up with regularity. On 251 occasions, Lopez has finished a big league plate appearance by throwing a fastball, and opponents have posted a .280/.333/.511 batting line in those instances. Lopez’s career 5.3% swinging-strike rate on his four-seamer is one of the lower marks you’ll come across.
As for the veteran DeShields, he’ll replenish some of the center-field depth lost by designating Harrison for assignment but do so without requiring a 40-man roster spot. The 29-year-old is a generally known commodity know, having logged big league time in each of the past seven seasons (including three years as the primary center fielder in Texas). DeShields has never shown much in the way of power but has well above-average speed and is capable of playing all three outfield spots. He’s a lifetime .247/.326/.342 hitter in 2114 trips to the plate at the MLB level.
Odubel Herrera Unlikely To Be Ready For Opening Day
Phillies center fielder Odúbel Herrera has a mild strain in his right oblique, manager Joe Girardi told reporters (including Alex Coffey of the Philadelphia Inquirer) this afternoon. He’s not expected to be ready for Opening Day, and Girardi suggested he could be sidelined for four-to-six weeks.
The Phils declined Herrera’s $11.5MM club option at the outset of the offseason, seemingly ending his seven-year run in the organization. Philadelphia circled back after the lockout, however, re-signing him on a $1.75MM pact. He entered camp as the favorite to reprise his role as the regular center fielder, but it seems the Phillies will need to look to alternatives in the early going.
Matt Vierling looks likely to get the first crack at the job, as Todd Zolecki of MLB.com wrote yesterday the 25-year-old would be the probable primary center fielder so long as Herrera was on the shelf. Vierling had a nice 34-game run to begin his big league career late last year, but his .248/.331/.359 line in 236 plate appearances with Triple-A Lehigh Valley casts some doubt on his ability to shoulder an everyday workload. Former top ten draftees Adam Haseley and Mickey Moniak are alternatives on the 40-man roster, but Girardi said the Phils haven’t given any consideration to playing Moniak in center. Haseley can handle the position defensively, but he limped to a .224/.282/.295 performance with Lehigh Valley last season.
One option not under consideration is kicking Bryce Harper over from right field to center. The reigning NL MVP has some experience up the middle, but Girardi told reporters yesterday (via Zolecki) the organization didn’t want to jeopardize his health by handing him that kind of defensive burden. Harper will stick in right field, and Girardi said today he viewed Kyle Schwarber as his primary left fielder (via Jayson Stark of the Athletic). Fellow offseason signee Nick Castellanos will spend the bulk of his time at designated hitter, relieving Schwarber or Harper in the corner outfield as needed.
Phillies Designate Luke Williams For Assignment
The Phillies announced this afternoon they’ve designated utilityman Luke Williams for assignment. The move opens space on the 40-man roster for Nick Castellanos, whose five-year deal has been made official.
Philadelphia selected Williams in the third round of the 2015 draft. The right-handed hitter methodically climbed the minor league ladder, never posting overwhelming numbers but making plus rates of contact throughout his pro career. He opened the 2021 campaign with Triple-A Lehigh Valley and earned his first big league call in June.
Williams tallied 108 MLB plate appearances last year, hitting .245/.315/.316 with one home run and a pair of stolen bases. He made contact on 85% of his swings — around nine points above the league average — but he only managed five extra-base hits. It was a similar story in Lehigh Valley, where he hit .270/.329/.341 without a homer in 143 trips to the dish.
To his credit, Williams suited up all over the diamond for manager Joe Girardi. He started games at each of second base, third base, shortstop, left field and center field last year. Baseball America named him the #17 prospect in the Phillies system this offseason, writing that his combination of defensive aptitude and bat-to-ball skills could make him a decent option off the bench even if his lack of power probably prevents him from emerging as a regular.
The Phils will have a week to trade Williams or place him on waivers. The 25-year-old still has all three minor league option years remaining, so he’d be a flexible multi-positional depth piece for any acquiring team.
Phillies Notes: Bryant, Luxury Tax
The Phillies were often speculated as a suitor for Kris Bryant this winter, and USA Today’s Bob Nightengale reports that the team did indeed have interest in the former NL MVP. However, Bryant wanted as much long-term security as possible in the form of “at least a seven-year deal,” and he landed that desired contract with his seven-year, $182MM agreement with the Rockies. Philadelphia’s offer topped out at five years, Nightengale writes.
Given the terms, one wonders if the Phillies’ offer to Bryant was somewhat similar to the five-year, $100MM deal the club ended up giving to Nick Castellanos. Even that deal took some additional legwork, since as The Athletic’s Matt Gelb details, the front office first had to convince owner John Middleton that adding Castellanos was worth exceeding the luxury tax threshold for the first time in franchise history. Middleton has long stated that he was willing to pay the tax for a difference-making type of acquisition, and the end result is that the Phillies are now projected to sit above the $230MM threshold with an estimated $236.46MM tax number.
Phillies To Sign Kyle Schwarber
March 20: The Phillies have announced the signing, placing Kent Emanuel on the 60-day IL as a corresponding move. Emanuel went on the IL in June of last year with left elbow while with the Astros and never returned. Claimed by the Phillies in November, it seems he’s not close to being recovered, as the Phils announced that he has a left elbow impingement.
March 16, 11:06am: It’s a four-year, $79MM contract, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman.
8:54am: Schwarber and the Phillies have agreed to a four-year deal with an annual value just shy of $20MM, tweets Jayson Stark of The Athletic.
8:31am: The Phillies have reached an agreement with Schwarber, pending a physical, tweets Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia.
8:21am: The Phillies are “making progress” on a deal with free-agent slugger Kyle Schwarber, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Schwarber had recently been linked to the Blue Jays, but Shi Davidi and Hazel Mae of Sportsnet reported a few minutes ago that the team had become “pessimistic” about its chances of signing Schwarber, believing he was likely to sign elsewhere.
Schwarber, 29, has been one of the most sought-after free agents on the market in the days since MLB’s lockout was lifted — thanks in no small part to the implementation of the universal designated hitter. The longtime Cubs left fielder was non-tendered by Chicago after the 2020 season but parlayed a one-year deal with the Nationals (and a subsequent trade to the Red Sox) into a surefire multi-year deal in his second foray into free agency.
While Schwarber got out to a lukewarm start with the Nats in 2021, he erupted with one of the most prodigious hot streaks in big league history in mid-June. From June 12-29, a span of just 18 games, Schwarber launched a staggering 16 home runs through just 77 plate appearances. That astonishing run was cut short by a hamstring strain that sidelined him for more than a month, but the Red Sox had no qualms about trading for Schwarber even while he was on the injured list.
The Boston front office was surely glad it did so, as Schwarber returned with that same thunder the moment he was activated from the injured list. In 168 plate appearances with the Red Sox down the stretch, he turned in a huge .291/.435/.522 slash with seven homers and 10 doubles as the Red Sox surged to an AL East division title. Schwarber clocked three more home runs during the postseason, including a now-iconic grand slam that keyed a Game 3 ALCS romp over the Astros, but his bat fell quiet thereafter, as he finished out the series in an 0-for-15 funk while the ’Stros came back to topple the Sox.
Slow start to the year notwithstanding, Schwarber hit .266/.374/.554 with a whopping 32 home runs in just 471 plate appearances during the regular season. Add in his postseason efforts, and Schwarber carries a .260/.365/.542 with 35 home runs in 520 plate appearances since the Cubs non-tendered him.
Signing with the Phillies will reunite Schwarber with former Nationals hitting coach Kevin Long, who left the Nats’ staff at season’s end and signed on for a reunion with manager Joe Girardi, under whom he’d previously coached with the Yankees. Long’s presence certainly couldn’t have hurt the Phillies’ efforts to sign Schwarber, and it’s of some note that he’ll now continue working with the same hitting coach who helped coax that career-altering run from him during the ’21 season.
Schwarber’s role with the Phillies depends, to an extent, on the remainder of the team’s moves. While he’ll probably spend some time in left field and at designated hitter regardless, the division of his workload between those two spots hinges on whether the Phils make another clear upgrade in the outfield. At the moment, the Phillies don’t have a clear, everyday option in left field. Bryce Harper is, of course, locked into right field, but the rest of the outfield remains in a state of flux. The Phils brought Odubel Herrera back on a one-year, $1.75MM deal, and he’s joined by Adam Haseley, Mickey Moniak and Luke Williams as outfield options on the roster. Suffice it to say, at least one more newly acquired bat seems likely to join Schwarber in the Opening Day lineup by the time all is said and done.
The scope of any further additions seems likely to be driven by the luxury tax. Phillies owner John Middleton has staunchly resisted exceeding the tax line in the past two seasons, and today’s addition of Schwarber will push the Phils to roughly $216-217MM in luxury obligations, depending on the specifics (hat tip to Roster Resource’s Jason Martinez). That’ll leave the Phils with somewhere in the vicinity of $13-14MM of breathing room to add at least one more outfielder and any other supplemental pieces the front office desires. Teams generally want to leave at least a few million dollars for in-season dealings, so it could be that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is dealing with a bit less than that projected $13-14MM.
Of course, additional trades or a simple change of heart with regard to Middleton’s luxury-tax aversion could change the calculus. Dombrowski made clear early in the offseason that shortstop Didi Gregorius would have to earn a starting job after a dismal showing in 2021, and he’s been listed as a speculative candidate to be moved in a change-of-scenery swap. The Phils could also try to dump the contract of outrighted utilityman Scott Kingery on another club as well, which would free up another $4MM in luxury space.
Barring any such trades or philosophical changes in ownership thinking, Dombrowski will be working with some notable financial limitations from here on out. That might mean a shift to the trade market or pursuing some smaller-scale free agents in hopes of securing a bargain. Time will tell just how the front office will proceed, but the addition of Schwarber to a lineup that ranked 15th in the Majors in home runs and 13th in runs scored will provide a notable jolt in production.
Phillies Sign Ronald Torreyes To Minors Deal
The Phillies have signed infielder Ronald Torreyes to a minor league deal with an invite to big league camp, according to Matt Gelb of The Athletic. That makes this three years in a row that Torreyes and the Phils have signed such a deal.
Torreyes, 29, is a veteran of seven seasons, also spending time with the Dodgers, Yankees and Twins. He’s never hit a ton, but is useful off the bench as he can provide quality defense at multiple positions and puts the ball in play.
In 352 career games, Torreyes a slash line of .265/.299/.361, wRC+ of 76. His career strikeout rate of 12.6% is just barely over half the usual league average. (Average was 23.2% last year.) He only played four games for the Phils in 2020 but got into 112 games last year, hitting .242/.286/.346, for a wRC+ of 68. Defensively, he saw significant time at third base, shortstop and second base, as well as a brief appearance in center field and he even logged 2 2/3 innings of mop-up duty on the mound.
Cracking the big league roster for a third year in a row might be a challenge for Torreyes. The club projects to start the season with Jean Segura at second, Didi Gregorius at short and Alec Bohm at third. Johan Camargo was signed prior to the lockout to serve the bench/utility role, and the 40-man roster also features optionable infielders such as Luke Williams and Nick Maton.
Phillies Talked To Rays About Austin Meadows
- The Rays and Phillies have discussed an Austin Meadows trade, according to Scott Lauber of The Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). Timing may be a factor in this report, since Lauber tweeted the news just hours before the Phillies signed Nick Castellanos, and thus Meadows may no longer be on the team’s radar. Indeed, with Castellanos and Kyle Schwarber now acquired for corner outfield and DH duty, adding a player of a similar profile like Meadows wouldn’t seem all that feasible for Philadelphia, even if Meadows is a better defender (if not a standout) than either of the two free agent sluggers.
Phillies Sign Austin Wynns To Minors Deal
The Phillies have signed catcher Austin Wynns to a minor league deal, according to The Athletic’s Matt Gelb (Twitter link). Wynns will receive an invitation to Philadelphia’s big league spring camp.
Beyond J.T. Realmuto, the Phils’ catching depth chart includes Garrett Stubbs (acquired in a trade from the Astros back in November), Rafael Marchan, and now Wynns in terms of backstops with MLB experience. This trio figures to compete for the role of Realmuto’s backup, as former Phillies catcher Andrew Knapp moved on to sign a minor league deal with the Reds prior to the lockout.
Wynns has seen action in three of the last four MLB seasons, only missing out on the shortened 2020 campaign. Known for his defense and game-calling abilities, Wynns has only a .216/.255/.326 slash line over 331 plate appearances in the majors and also had pretty modest minor league production. The 31-year-old has hit .267/.338/.369 over 2044 career PA in the minors, all in the Orioles’ farm system.
The Phillies aren’t necessarily in need of a big bat as Realmuto’s understudy, and both Wynns and Stubbs offer a pretty similar defensive profile, though Stubbs has hit a bit more at the minor league level. Marchan is the in-house prospect of the group, and he has been suggested as a potential trade candidate as a player squeezed between Realmuto and another catching prospect in Logan O’Hoppe.
