Philadelphia Phillies youngster who didn’t get a press conference
By Rick Soisson
Reasons why one of the Philadelphia Phillies youngsters didn’t receive a press conference.
While the Philadelphia Phillies fan base has been energized by the long-term signing of Scott Kingery and the news he’ll come north with the team, not all the young Phillies having good springs ended up in a news conference. For every Scott Kingery on every MLB team, there are probably three or four guys like Jesmuel Valentin.
Four days before Opening Day, the Phillies decided they didn’t have enough room on their 25-man roster for Jesmuel Valentin, the 23-year-old son of former major leaguer Jose Valentin. Despite an excellent spring in Clearwater, the infielder was sent to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. The younger Valentin had hit .295 with a 1.006 OPS; he had three home runs and 11 RBI; he had committed only two errors in 57 total chances at several different positions.
He would seem to deserve at least a bench spot on a young team that had finished last the year before.
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Valentin has already been playing professional baseball for several years. His first was the year he turned 18. Since then he has been earning between $1100 and $2400 a month in season in the U.S. minors although he has also played Winter League ball in his native Puerto Rico.
(In contrast, Kingery just signed a long-term contract with the Phillies for a guaranteed $24 million with a number of options on the back end of the deal making it worth millions more potentially. Kingery is about two weeks older than Valentin. Both players have no experience in the majors.)
Now, it’s likely that Valentin is not exactly living on peanut butter and dinner rolls saved from the last meal at Appleby’s like some of his minor-league teammates. His father made over $36 million in his MLB career, and there’s no clear indicator he’s estranged from his son.
However, this is the second year that Valentin has been a late cut from the Phillies in spring training. In 2017, in fact, he hit .366 in 41 spring training at-bats. This year he had a couple more plate appearances. One has to think this spring he might just be mulling over the fall-off between Kingery’s current paycheck and his own.
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His surgically repaired shoulder may ache just a little worse than it did a week ago. He may also be reflecting on the fact 23-year-old accountants have rarely had shoulder surgery by their age.