Former member of the Philadelphia Phillies Reliever Trying to Return to Major League Baseball
The Philadelphia Phillies are still looking to add players to their roster in order to assemble a team that they intend to contend for and win their first World Series championship since 2008.
The only obvious areas of uncertainty with their starting rotation and lineup are in the bullpen.
They could have pursued Josh Hader, the finest reliever available, but doing so would have added to the Astros’ already excessive budget because of the terms of his deal.
It so happens that their former reliever, Ken Giles, is making a Major League comeback while they scour the free agent market for more arms.
In the seventh round of the 2011 MLB Draft, the Phillies selected him.
After a gradual ascent through their pipeline, he was never regarded as one of their best prospects and made his Major League debut in 2014.
Throughout his two years with the Phillies, the right-hander pitched admirably for them, with an ERA of 1.56 in 113 games.
They sent Giles, Jonathan Arauz, Brett Oberholtzer, Tom Eshelman, Vince Velasquez, and Mark Appel to the Astros following the 2015 season.
Despite playing in the 2017 World Series with Houston, Giles saw little action following a subpar postseason campaign. Before signing a free agent contract with the Seattle Mariners, he was subsequently traded to the Toronto Blue Jays, where he played for three seasons.
Tommy John surgery kept him out of the field for the entire 2021 season, and injuries kept him to just five appearances in 2022, the year he started playing in the lower levels.
As he makes his Major League comeback, Giles is healthy right now and will be throwing a bullpen session for teams interested in signing him, reports Jon Heyman of The New York Post.
15 non-roster players are invited by the Phillies to spring training.
The Phillies said on Thursday that 15 players who are not on the roster have been invited to spring training.
Mick Abel, Griff McGarry, Jose Ruiz, Ryan Burr, Tyler McKay, Tyler Phillips, and Nick Snyder are the seven pitchers, all of them right-handers.
Aramis Garcia, Cody Roberts, and William Simoneit are the three catchers.
Nick Podkul and Scott Kingery are two infielders.
Cal Stevenson, Matt Kroon, and Carlos De La Cruz are the three outfielders.
All of these players, who are not on the 40-man roster, are under the Phillies’ ownership. To be shielded from the upcoming Rule 5 draft, two of the Phillies’ best pitching prospects, Abel and McGarry, must be added to the 40 following the 2024 season.
2020 saw the Phillies select Abel in the first round, making him the highest-drafted high school arm (15th overall). Baseball America and MLB.com ranked him among the top 50 prospects going into the previous season. He made 23 starts, 22 at Double A and one at Triple A, and he also started for the National League in the Futures Game. In 113⅓ innings, the 22-year-old recorded a 4.13 ERA with 132 strikeouts and 65 walks.
In 2024, the Phillies will like to see Abel take more command of the field. After Andrew Painter, who underwent Tommy John surgery in July and is probably out until 2025, he is their No. 2 prospect. Abel anticipates being at Triple A for a large chunk of 2024.
Similar to Abel, McGarry began spring training as a longshot in the Phillies’ fifth starting competition, which Bailey Falter ultimately won by default following Painter’s elbow injury on March 1st. This spring, unless one of Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Taijuan Walker, Ranger Suarez, or Cristopher Sanchez gets hurt, there won’t be a fifth starter contest.
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