Phillies face arbitration decisions today
(GIDDY SMILE EMOJI)
- So the big news reported Thursday was the hiring of John Kruk to join the Phillies television broadcast team.
There are hints that Kruk will join the team in a part-time role. Of course, Matt Stairs – who he’s replacing and who’s the Phils’ new hitting coach – also had a part-time role, with he and Ben Davis typically trading the spot throughout the season. So expect much of the same next year, only with Kruk in the Stairs role.
- 8 p.m. is the deadline for teams to tender contracts to arbitration-eligible players. The Phils have four – Cody Asche, Freddy Galvis, Jeanmar Gomez and Cesar Hernandez.
Each can accept or decline, and a decline means the player and team heads to arbitration. But if the Phils don’t extend a contract offer, the player becomes a free agent. Of the four, expect Galvis and Hernandez to be offered contracts. Gomez is not such a certainty. Asche is even less of a certainty. The Phils may want to make room on the 40-man roster before the Winter Meetings (and Rule 5 Draft), so it’s possible we could see the end of the Cody Asche era tonight.
We’ll have more when it happens.
- Speaking of the Winter Meetings, they begin Sunday outside Washington D.C.
It’s the week every year when every team sends a large delegation of front office personnel to one place for a giant conference. And, since tons of front office personnel are in one place, trades and signings typically occur.
Also, tons of baseball writers are there. So there’s a lot of noise and very little news. We’ll get you the news as it comes, with reaction, whether it’s a trade or signing, or something else entirely different. Also, the Rule 5 Draft is Thursday, and we’ll be on that when it happens.
