Phillies meet with pitchers, make roster moves
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Phillies meet with pitchers, make roster moves
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. -- What qualifies as news in Phillies land these days is nothing earth-shattering, but there is this: They met with Oscar Suarez, the agent for lefthander Dennys Reyes during the day Tuesday but did not offer the pitcher a contract.
They also, according to a baseball source, had discussions with the agent for lefthander George Sherrill. Both Reyes and Sherrill would be cheaper alternatives to filling the lefthanded void in the bullpen. The Phillies remain interested in the top-tier lefties, like Pedro Feliciano and Brian Fuentes, but they could price themselves out of the Phillies' range.
The source said the Phillies have told agents they are in no rush to sign a pitcher. The team will continue to kick the tires on all of the bullpen options.
Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said the team had more substantive conversations with free-agent pitchers Tuesday.
Reyes, who turns 34 in April, was 3-1 with a 3.55 ERA with St. Louis in 2010. He has a 2.63 ERA over the last five seasons, spent with Minnesota and St. Louis. But he has also had control issues.
Sherrill, a pitcher the Phillies have had interest in before, was awful for Los Angeles in 2010. He had a 6.69 ERA and walked 24 batters while striking out just 25 in 36 1/3 innings. But he was dominant in 2009, posting a 1.70 ERA in 69 innings.
Beyond those discussions, the Phillies did make two roster moves Tuesday: Pitchers Jesus Sanchez and Yohan Flande were released to clear space on the 40-man roster, which now stands at 38. That means the Phillies could be active in the Rule 5 draft, which is held here on Thursday.
Sanchez, a converted catcher, was the last link from the Bobby Abreu trade. Flande, who turns 25 in January, spent the past two seasons at double-A Reading. In 2010, he was 10-8 with a 4.38 ERA. He doesn't have blow-away stuff; he struck out just 84 batters in 158 1/3 innings.
Amaro said he hopes to re-sign both players to minor-league deals if they clear waivers.
Below is a video of Charlie Manuel talking about Domonic Brown earlier today...
Surprised about releasing Sanchez. Saw him start a game in Clearwater last year and his fastball was sitting at 92 on the Clearwater team gun in that gun. More impressive than Aumont. Flande's fastball at Reading was in the mid 80's on the Stadium gun last year. He was relying on off speed stuff to get outs. Never could figure out why he was on the 40 man roster in the first place other than he was a lefty starter.— Dull- I remember Sherrill. He was supposed to be murder on Howard and Utley in the NLCS...man, he got lit up— JSaq
Comment removed.- The last guy whose first name started with a "D" and for some odd reason ended with and "s" was horrible. RAJ do not make that mistake again! Do not go cheap with the bullpen!
- Are you kidding? Danys and Dennys? Dennys is a restaurant.— dasher
This is scary.— road515- I think one Danys is enough. The first one sucked.— scootch
- Can someone please tell RAJ that he does NOT have to sign every Hispanic free agent on the market every year. Please.— scootch
- This is the kind of thinking that does not win championships but does put more money in the owners' pockets. Let the belt tightening begin!!— Frank K
- I love Charlie, but I would love to read that transcript the way that the woman wrote it. Unfiltered Charlie answers are rahter amusing.— sleepydew
- Scootch, that's funny...— cdk104
- Cheap, Cheap, Cheap gotta do better than that, we need a good reliable lefthander in pen not more denny Baez or Reyes.— btsucceed
- Sherrill could be a worse signing than Baez— VicM
- i wonder if this Dennys serves up a grand slam every day too— your_mom_says_hi!
