Phils add three veteran arms
The Phillies may be a little slim on the corner outfield spots as spring training nears, but they should have plenty of pitching depth.
Phils add three veteran arms
Ryan Lawrence
The Phillies may be a little slim on the corner outfield spots as spring training nears, but they should have plenty of pitching depth.
The front office, which has been mostly quiet since the holidays, added to the pitching staff’s inventory in the last week by reining in three veterans.
The Phils have reached deals with right-handers Juan Cruz, Aaron Cook and Rodrigo Lopez. All three will be in camp as non-roster invitees on minor league contracts.
Cruz, 34, is 38-36 with a 4.05 ERA in 447 major league games in 12 seasons. He went 1-1 with a 2.78 ERA in 43 games with Pittsburgh last season, striking out 33 while walking 19 in 35 2/3 innings.
The 33-year-old Cook, who has spent the majority of his career with Colorado, went 4-11 with a 5.65 ERA in 19 games (all starts) with Boston in 2012. According to a foxports.com report, Cook will earn $1.625 if he’s on the Phillies major league roster.
Over the weekend, the Phils also added Lopez.
The 37-year-old Lopez went 3-1 with a 3.62 ERA in five starts for the Phillies in 2009. He made just four appearances with the Cubs last season, spending the majority of the year at Triple-A Iowa (2-5 with a 5.28 ERA in 18 games, 15 starts).
This is business as usual for the Phillies. In recent years they’ve added the likes of Dontrelle Willis, Joel Pineiro, Brian Sanches, Gary Majewski, Raul Valdes, Dave Bush, Kris Benson and Scott Elarton before spring training.
Some were released before the end of camp, some stuck around to help Triple-A Lehigh Valley and some have even managed to make the big league club at some point during the year.
Of course, some have also been Ryan Vogelsong and Jason Grilli, two former Camp Clearwater attendees who didn’t get the chance to graduate to the big league with the Phillies but went on to have a great deal of success elsewhere.
Stupid Toolbiscuit comment in 3 2 1......— DogBiscuitthedope- Phils ownership gave Rube a $170million/yr budget and he p@#ed it away, so it's hard to criticize ownership for being "cheap" --just for being incredibly stupid and continuing to retain the incompetent Clueless Rube --if you subtract just 2 of Rube's most egreious misallocation of funds -- $125mil for a non-hitting over-the-hill d.h. and $50 mill on a choking non-reliable closer -- you'd have another $175 million right there to have spent on quality... all the top teams in baseball, other than Yanks and Dodgers still have budgets far far far below the Phils --and even the Yanks are being more conservative (while the Dodgers are in the midst of their nutty spending spree which may or may not work)... problems with Rube are infinite, including the fact that after over-spending on "names" who aren't worth anythig close to what he paid (Howard, Papelbon, etc) , when he then tries to get "low risk high reward" players he has such little ability to evaluate talent that he strikes out practically 100% of the time and just gets useless trash that nobody wants (Aaron Cook, Dontrelle Willis, Pineiro, Rodrigo Lopez, etc --all laughable)— warbiscuit
- The minor league deals have no effect on the major league payroll unless one of those guys is good enough to be offered a major league contract. Also no effect on luxury tax.
In that regard, there's little harm in inviting guys to camp unless you end up with minor league roster problems as a result. And there may be some effect on related minor league budgets (one poster suggested maybe less international spending). That's really just conjecture though.
I would urge anyone who feels these minor league signings are a huge problem to go look at the signings other teams do in this area. I think you'll find a lot of the same. All teams add AAA experience as insurance before every season. You see some of these guys floating around on year-to-year minor league deals until Social Security kicks in.— s - Juan Cruz will prove to be the 7th inning right-hander. Nice job last year with the hopeless Pirates.— oakmontleo
- Maybe they can sign Kris Benson so they can bring his wife back.— alihajishank
- I also would like to knock the bottom out of Kris Benson's wife...— FetchDixon
- Nailed it. Warpuke=stupid remark right on time. Get a job-dope.— kingofpoker
- Is Ruben at Fantasy Camp scouting for more "no reward" "high risk" arms.— Dull
- Cool Senior citzens!— losteagle
- oakmont-pirates were not hopeless last year— sgamble077
- yup, you can count on the biscuit for hisdily moronic statement!— sgamble077
- RUBEN HAS PROMISED ME A JOB, 8TH INNING GUY. WHEN I AM RELEASED FROM PRISON!!— CHARLES MANSON
- get rid of Bastardo...— ricciaje
- You can never have enough pitching.....Cruz may stick, but the others are destined to be Iron Pigs— Phront_Runner
