Fifteen Phils Minor Leaguers Become Free Agents
544 minor league players became free agents today, including 15 players within the Phillies minor league ranks. Matt Eddy of Baseball America compiled lists for each team, found here. The list below was prepared by Eddy and has the player’s last level played at in parenthesis. The Phillies could have avoided free agency for any of the listed players by adding them to the 40-man roster prior to today.
RHP: Gabriel Arias (Hi A), Justin Friend (AAA), Mike MacDougal (AAA), Juan Sosa (AA)
LHP: Bobby Bramhall (AA), Tom Cochran (AAA), Mauricio Robles (AAA), Greg Smith (AAA)
C: John Suomi (AAA), Shawn Williams* (AA)
2B: Matt Tolbert (AA)
3B: Josh Fields (AAA)
SS: Miguel Abreu (AAA), Andres Blanco* (AAA)
OF: Derrick Mitchell (AAA)
The players lost mainly represent what most call “organizational depth”. There are 529 other minor league free agents that will join this pool and some are intriguing names. As Eddy points out, this class of minor league free agents includes any player drafted in 2007 that is not on a 40-man roster, a group that includes Matt LaPorta, Tim Alderson, and Kevin Ahrens. Of this group, the 6’6″ righty Alderson may be the most appealing of the group and is worth pursuing on a minor league deal.
