Phillies claim Carrera, designate Inciarte
After one game, the Phillies roster has undergone change. They claimed outfielder Ezequiel Carrera off waivers from Cleveland and designated outfielder Ender Inciarte for assignment Tuesday.
Phillies claim Carrera, designate Inciarte
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
ATLANTA — After one game, the Phillies roster has undergone change.
They claimed outfielder Ezequiel Carrera off waivers from Cleveland and designated outfielder Ender Inciarte for assignment Tuesday. The move is a shuffle of fifth outfielders. With a hole in right field and no particularly good answer for at least a month, Carrera could stand to gain playing time.
The 25-year-old Venezuelan led the majors with 11 stolen bases this spring. He has 116 games of major-league experience, all with the Indians, and a career .653 OPS. Of those 116 games, 88 were starts.
Carrera, a lefthanded hitter, was out of options and designated for assignment March 25 by Cleveland. Earlier in the spring, Indians manager Terry Francona said, "His speed impacts the game."
He can play all three outfield positions, with the majority of his time coming in center field. Carrera was originally signed by the New York Mets from Venezuela.
Charlie Manuel started John Mayberry Jr. in right field Monday. He said he has no problem platooning Mayberry and Laynce Nix until Delmon Young's return from ankle surgery. Young was scheduled to play the outfield for three innings in an extended spring training game Tuesday.
But Young's addition to the roster is not imminent and the team is not enamored of Mayberry nor Nix. In an ideal world, one of them swings a hot bat and earns the majority of at-bats. If not, Carrera enters the equation.
Inciarte, 22, did not appear in Monday's season opener. As a Rule 5 pick, the Phillies were required to keep him on the active roster for all of 2013. It was a challenge, considering he had never played a game above single A. The Phillies could have attempted to trade for his rights with Arizona.
If a team claims Inciarte off waivers, they must follow the same Rule 5 stipulations. If he clears waivers, the Diamondbacks recover his rights. The Phillies will receive $25,000 in exchange.
Carrera will be in uniform Wednesday, the Phillies said.
EXTRA BASES. Chase Utley became the 13th second baseman in history with 200 home runs. The others: Jeff Kent, Rogers Hornsby, Craig Biggio, Ryne Sandberg, Joe Morgan, Joe Gordon, Bret Boone, Lou Whitaker, Bobby Grich, Bobby Doerr, Dan Uggla and Roberto Alomar. ... Monday's game achieved the highest opening-day rating on PHL17 in the last 17 years. It averaged an 11.5 household rating and was the No. 1 program in the Philadelphia market. ... Mike Schmidt, George Brett and comedian Joe Piscopo will throw the ceremonial first pitches prior to Friday's home opener at Citizens Bank Park vs. Kansas City.
Have a question? Send it to Matt Gelb's Mailbag.
herndon just won a chewing gum contest playing soft ball for the Willow Grove Crabs— stoky- This guy's slash line is worse than Inciarte! What, exactly, are they thinking? Just because Carrera spent time at a higher level in the minors does not mean he's the better pick. Both of them are fast. What gives with this stupid front office? Just a day ago, Inciarte was the second coming of the Secretary of Defense. Now, he's persona non grata. Typical Amoron move. Senseless.— ghost of callison
- The difference is Inciarte's line is a single-A line. Carrera's is in the majors. Inciarte really isn't ready yet. Carrera may not be much better though. I think they're trying to do two things: make things work until Delmon Young is ready and get some younger outfielders in the system since guys like Gillies don't seem like they'll ever make it to the majors.
Mayberry's not a bad bench player. I'd take him over Nix if I had a choice of which one to trade. Mayberry is generally an above average defender but he seems to have regressed in all areas of his game. He also has decent PH numbers (Nix's are horrible).
Brown looks better at the plate and he carried that to the first game. His defense looks like it took a huge step back under the bright lights though. I'm really not convinced that moving him to LF and giving Delmon Young RF is a good move. We know Brown is a guy who seems to thrive on consistency. I thought he looked better in RF in spring training. If it were me, I'd have let him continue in RF and put the platoon guys in LF then make Delmon Young win RF. "Delmon Young" and "field" are still having a hard time connecting in my brain. Either way, Brown's got to pick up his defense.— s - @s, I find it equally baffling that they would tamper with what was working for Domonic Brown throughout the spring and almsot at the 11th hour, move his position from right to left. The kid was finally getting comfortable, appeared as though he was handling his defensive responsibilities without taking those worries to the plate, and then, the Twin Pillars of Stupidity move him over to left...to accommodate Delmon Young, of all people, and not for at least another month, apparently.
Just when you think you've seen everything from Bumbles and A Moron, Jr., they top themselves yet again.— advantasux - @ghost, great post. Another amazing about-face by the resident genius, just so he could pick up more useless trash discarded by another hopeless team.
I hadn't seen you post in the last few days leading up to the season and was beginning to wonder if you had lost interest in helping spread the word about what a wonderful job this GM has done.— advantasux - @advanta, thanks brother. A Moron, Jr. never ceases to baffle the mind. He's like that fickle 12 year old girl that can't make up her mind between two guys, even though both of them are losers.
I've been around, but just when I think I've seen it all from the likes of the Amaro/Manuel tandem, Amaro pulls another move only Amaro would make and Manuel manages to mismanage once again. No, you, I and others that can see how stupid (baseball-wise) that Amaro and Manuel are will have fodder for as long as those two misfits are with the team. Hopefully, this year is their swan song. Good talking with you, my friend. - I'm worried, but not just about the Phillies. I've read most of the Phillies articles here today and have not seen warbscuit's several dozen or so informative posts. If anyone knows him, please go over to his house and see if he's OK. I fear that Howard's awful at bat in the 5th may have done him in.— dasher
- @advantasux, in order to get this fan base fired up and completely behind our fightin' Phils, I was wondering if you would consider changing your screen name to @atlantasux?
— dasher - Some of you Phillies fans make me laugh. Yeah, they got rid of a guy who never made it out of single A for a guy who has major league experience. Inciarte was going when Delmon Young comes back this month anyway. I still remember fans asking for Cole Hamels to be traded after his down year in 2009. Matt Rizzotti would be playing first base if it was up to some of you people.— ndinardi79
- Stop laughing and start getting concerned about the mismanagement of this team. I know Amaro and Manuel are easy targets when it comes to laughing, but a TRUE fan who cares about the team needs to voice their displeasure when management starts going on the cheap, even in the face of the largest fan support ever. Laugh all you want, but if you're a true Phillies' fan, you're close to tears with the way this team has been mismanaged the last 2-3 years.
- Another stupid comment. They IMPROVED with this move......Jesus. You people aren't happy unless every player is a .300 plus hitter with 30 plus homeruns. You're not going to get that . — ndinardi79
- Keep laughing all the way into fourth place this year. The only thing that keeps this team from last place is the woeful Marlin franchise, a team that is perpetually rebuilding, but STILL managed to win as many World Series as our Phillies have, only they did it in the span of 6-7 years. We've been around for over 100 years with the same amount of World Series Championships.
- If the Phillies did what the Marlins did, you would've been complaining the year after each World Series they won. That's because they had to dismantle the team each year they won, since they couldn't afford to keep the team together. That's what happens when you buy World Series. They tried again last season and it didn't work and they dismantled the team again. — ndinardi79
- I'd dump Durbin and bring in Carlos Zambrano, in an instant. Zpack is a head case (he can join DYoung), but he can also start...ya know...just in case.— drhoffman
- Gelb has the rule 5 stipulation reversed the Phillies must first offer Inciarte back to the Diamondbacks and then if they don't want to buy him back then they can waive him. If he is not claimed then he can be assigned to whatever farm team the Phillies choose to send him. Here's the rule: If the player does not remain on the Major League roster, he is offered back to the team from which he was selected for $25,000. If his original team declines, the receiving team may waive the player.— JBS67
