Phillies purchase former big leaguer Brock Stassi’s minor-league contract

Brock Stassi has returned to the Phillies organization. (Cheryl Pursell)

An old friend is set to return to the Philadelphia Phillies organization.

The team purchased the contract of first baseman Brock Stassi, a member of the 2017 Phillies, on Monday, according to the president of Stassi’s former club in the Atlantic League.

“Brock has been to the game’s highest level with the Phillies and now has another chance to get back to the Major Leagues,” Long Island Ducks president and general manager Michael Pfaff said Tuesday in a statement. “We wish him all the best with the Phillies organization.”

The 31-year-old Stassi went 9-for-47 in 14 games for the Ducks before getting the chance to play for the organization that gave him his first and only opportunity in the majors to date once again. He’ll be assigned to Class AA Reading, the Ducks said.

Most remembered as the former substitute teacher with the emotional reaction to making the Phillies roster out of spring training in 2017, Stassi batted .167/.278/.295 with two home runs in 51 major-league games.

The former 33rd-round pick of the Phillies will rejoin the Reading Fightin Phils, the team he played for when he won the 2015 Eastern League MVP. Stassi hit .300/.394/.470 with 15 homers in 133 games for the Fightins that season as Reading finished with the best regular-season record in the league. He’s played in 259 games as a Fightin over three seasons.

Stassi will serve as another veteran addition to an 11-25 Reading club that has been playing better baseball recently. The team previously added former Kansas City Royal and Detroit Tiger Jorge Bonifacio on May 25, and the 28-year-old outfielder has six home runs and five doubles in 17 games. 25-year-old infielder/outfielder Grenny Cumana, a former Fightin and 2019 Eastern League All-Star, could join Reading at some point this season after re-signing with the Phillies on Sunday.

Six Ducks players have now had their contracts purchased by Major League Baseball organizations this season as Stassi returns to regular-season affiliated ball for the first time since playing in the San Francisco Giants organization in 2019.