Pedro Florimon / Photo by: Lauren McLaughlin
On Wednesday the Phillies made official a bunch of minor league signings in which players also receive invitations to spring training. The lucky lottery winners are:
- RHP Pedro Beato
- RHP Steve Geltz
- INF Pedro Florimon
- INF Heiker Meneses
- INF Will Middlebrooks
- INF Mitch Walding
- C Eric Fryer
- C Logan Moore
- C/1B/OF Matt McBride
- OF Danny Ortiz
Beato, Florimon, Walding and Moore were all with the IronPigs last year, with the former two getting some playing time in Philadelphia.
As for the rest, consider them all triple-A quality talent who are more likely to fill out the IronPigs bench than start the year with the Phillies.
We went over Middlebrooks, who no, will not be challenging Maikel Franco for the starting third base job. Meneses is an interesting utility bat who’s only 26 and was probably pushed too quickly as a teenager by Boston. He’ll fight with the, oh, 300 utility infielders already on the 40-man roster.
Fryer we touched on – veteran third catcher type who’s the first one up when a catcher goes down. McBride was a last-man-on-the-bench with Colorado and Oakland between 2012 and ’16. Again, triple-A quality who hasn’t been able to stick as a bonafide MLB bat.
Ortiz – who’s 28th birthday is tomorrow, so happy birthday Danny – had a cup of decaf with the Pirates last year, and otherwise is, you guessed it, a triple-A talent. Kind of a fourth outfielder type.
If anyone here could actually make the opening day 25-man it’s Florimon, who was hitting a sizzling .348/.388/.478 in 49 plate appearances before succumbing to a gnarly ankle injury in early September. He’ll challenge for that vaunted utility spot, and no, he’s not going to challenge Franco.
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