Phillies sign Taveras to minor-league deal
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Phillies sign Taveras to minor-league deal
Matt Gelb, Inquirer Staff Writer
Not that this will fix all that ails the Phillies' offense, but the team has signed outfielder Willy Taveras to a minor-league deal Thursday. Taveras, a major-league veteran of seven seasons, will report to triple-A Lehigh Valley on Friday, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said.
Taveras, 28, will replace outfielder Dewayne Wise at triple A. Wise had an out clause in his contract for June 1 and he exercised it, making him a free agent. Wise hit .272 in 36 games with Lehigh Valley.
Taveras began the season on the Washington Nationals roster and appeared in 28 games. He hit .200 with four RBIs and seven runs scored in 35 at-bats. He's always been known for his speed and defense, but not so much for his bat.
Since hitting .320 for Colorado in 2007, Taveras is hitting .244. He did lead the majors with 68 steals in 2008.
Yay. Can't wait to see this Gnats reject. I guess he is just here to fill the Pig's roster. Of course if Raul goes down we have another guy to skip over Dom Brown.- Should fit in well with Castro, Valdez, Ruiz, Ibanez, Polanco, Contreras, Baez, Bastardo, Romero...— dasher
Comment removed.- I say bring him up and release Francisco - We don't have anything resembling a pinch runner / defensive replacement coming off our bench. He's a true threat on the basepaths, and we haven't had one coming off our bench since Michael Bourn.— twothousandeight
- Dasher, you forgot a whole bunch of guys. Or you're a racist for no apparent reason.— B in DC
- The Bench has been a disappoinment so far this year. Wouldn't surprise me if they let Dobbs go at some point. All but Dobbs and Francisco have contracts beyond this year.— borncynic
- a players numbers drop off like that it screams roids. way to go ruben...— amann08
- Comment removed.
- Time to start the fire Charlie chorus???— Chuck Earley Sr
- now the phils can release dobbs or gload. At the very least, Taveras can be thrown in as a pinch runner and steal a base or two. Nothing special about this move, but I like it.— therev
- This is a Gillick kind of move. The guy is still 28, has avg. 37 steals a season and is a career .274 hitter. He’s one of the fastest runners in the game right now. He stole 68 bases in 2008, unheard of nowadays. For some reason he's being in a 2 and 1/3 season hitting funk since hitting .298, .278 and .320 his previous three seasons. He's a great bunter and an immediate threat to steal a bag with his base stealing mentality, something this team lacks. He has lead the league in bunts and infield hits a few times. In the othe hand he has no power and strikes out more than what you'll want for a speedster. Maybe he'll make Victorino expendable in order to sign Werth, and will take care of CF until Brown is ready. It’s nothing to get overly excited, but worth a look, imo.— EL Zorro
- it's time to part company with gload and add some bench speed to the team.— pogiepop
- nice pick up...good riddance to Wise...call up Brown!!!— tralala
- This is a very good signing. Taveras still has the potential to become an outstanding major league outfielder. His defense and speed are obvious. What is not as obvious is what his former coaches were looking at when he was playing for them. Whenever the guy miscues at the plate and drizzles a slow roller toward one of the bases, he beats it out for an infield hit 1000% percent of the times. The trick to turning around this guy's career is to make him watch the movie, "Major League," a few hundred times, and convince him that he is Willie Mays Hayes. Teach this guy to leg out infield hits and forget everything else at the plate, and you'll have an outstanding major league outfielder. Great signing if the Phils realize this guy's true potential.
- Comment removed.
