Phillies: The interesting, non-roster invitee battle to come

The Philadelphia Phillies have stocked up on experienced MLB players on minor league contracts. Here are three who definitely could make the team.

As many have now noted, the Philadelphia Phillies have signed a number of veteran players this winter to minor league contracts and will have invited at least 10 to Spring Training with the major league club. Many clubs do this, but the Phillies have seemingly loaded up with players with significant amounts of MLB experience, notably Bud Norris, Josh Harrison, Drew Storen, Francisco Liriano, and Neil Walker.

Of all those newbies the Phillies will watch train in Clearwater, though, which are the players most likely to actually win jobs as camp breaks, actually see a significant amount of playing time, or even be the first player to replace a regular starter?

You must be kidding. Especially about that last question.

This isn’t Las Vegas. You want long-shot bets, get on a plane. (Yeah, I know you don’t really have to, but that doesn’t make for any kind of snappy line.)

On the other hand, why not go after that long-shot bet? The one player who stands a very good chance of being the first to replace a starter (not the catcher) in the first inning of a game – assuming the starters few now question and no injuries to them – is Neil Walker. He should make this team and could replace Rhys Hoskins fairly early if Hoskins’ slump from late last season bleeds into the spring.

This, of course, is not to say that Walker and then some other player not named Hoskins will replace “The Big Fella” in the Phillies long-term plans. Hoskins’ power potential and age dictate that Walker taking any playing time away from him would likely be a temporary matter.

According to Scott Lauber, Hoskins has been tinkering with his hands position (it may be lower) and a more “relaxed” stance since November, but he tinkered with things last season too. And as in 2018, he flamed out at the end of the campaign. He finished the year with a fairly dreadful batting average (.226) and declines in home runs and RBI year-over-year.

Add to this the fact that Walker as a replacement is not just a clearly inferior stopgap utility player without power. He has hit 23 home runs twice in his career, equaled or bettered 25 doubles in a year several times, and in 2017 and ’19 had 21 and 19 doubles, respectively, in fewer than 120 games. His career batting average is .267. He’s 6-foot-3, 210.

Moreover, Hoskins isn’t the most effective fielding first baseman in baseball although he is certainly better there than he was during “the great left-field experiment of 2018.”