Categories: News

Morning news: Phillies release Cameron Rupp

Good morning! Today is the final day of spring training. Rejoice!

The news:

RUPP RELEASED: This deserves a bigger post, but for now, here’s the news of Cameron Rupp’s release.

Rupp hit .234/.298/.407 over 1,127 plate appearances in parts of five seasons with the Phillies. He, like Freddy Galvis, is symbolic of the transitional era we’ve just witnessed, one with Phillies teams that routinely lost 90 or more games.

Rupp’s performance was mediocre but acceptable for the moment. He did have some power, and in 2016 put up a pretty decent offensive season for a starting catcher. But his defense and framing wasn’t considered very good, and it became hard justifying keeping him on the roster with Andrew Knapp surfacing as an equal or better offensive option with solid defense.

PHILLIES WIN: Meanwhile the Phils beat the Tigers 6-3 on Monday. After signing his big contract, Scott Kingery homered and went 3-for-4. Vince Velasquez struck out three in four innings.

ROSTER TALK: With Kingery up, the Phillies sent Roman Quinn and Jesmuel Valentin to the minors. Also sent down: Zac Curtis and Zach Eflin.

Then we found out Tommy Hunter is hurt and has to hit the disabled list. Cool.

That means the roster is set. Here we go:

C: Jorge Alfaro, Andrew Knapp

IF: Carlos Santana, Cesar Hernandez, Maikel Franco, J.P. Crawford, Scott Kingery
OF: Rhys Hoskins, Odubel Herrera, Nick Williams, Aaron Altherr, Pedro Florimon
SP: Aaron Nola, Nick Pivetta, Vince Velasquez, Ben Lively
RP: Hector Neris, Luis Garcia, Pat Neshek, Edubray Ramos, Adam Morgan, Hoby Milner, Victor Arano, Jake Thompson, Drew Hutchison

Jake Arrieta will join the roster April 8 for his first start; one of those relievers is bound to head down to the minors.

Meanwhile, I do wish the Phils kept Roman Quinn with the big club over a veteran like Pedro Florimon. Hopefully Florimon proves me wrong, but either way, I’d imagine Quinn gets his shot sooner than later, long as he – you know – stays healthy.

TODAY’S GAME: The Phils finish off spring training by hosting the Pirates. Game time is 1 p.m.

Tim Malcolm

Tim first found the Phillies as a little infant at Veteran’s Stadium, cheering on a Juan Samuel game-winning home run in his very first game. With the pinstripes in his blood, he witnessed Terry Mulholland’s 1990 no-hitter, “Steve Carlton Night” at the Vet, game three of the 1993 World Series, countless games during the charmed 2008 championship season and various road excursions. Since November 2007 Tim’s been writing about them daily at Phillies Nation, becoming one of the world’s most popular Phillies scribes. You can catch him on Twitter and Facebook, as well. When he’s not talking about the Phils he’s relaxing with a St. Bernardus ABT 12 or one of his many favored brews.