The Phillies have agreed to a minor league contract with free-agent righty Bryan Mitchell, reports Jayson Stark of The Athletic (via Twitter). He’ll presumably be invited to big league Spring Training.
Mitchell, 29, hasn’t appeared in the Majors since a disappointing stint with the Padres in 2018. The Friars effectively purchased Mitchell from the Yankees, agreeing to take on the remainder of Chase Headley’s four-year contract in order to land four years of control over Mitchell. The hope was that Mitchell could function as a viable fourth starter in San Diego, but he was hammered for a 5.42 ERA and an even uglier 5.89 SIERA with more walks (43) than strikeouts (38) in 73 innings of work. Headley, meanwhile, was released in mid-May after 60 plate appearances.
In 2019, Mitchell was dropped from the Padres’ 40-man roster prior to Opening Day. He didn’t fare well in Triple-A that year either, allowing more than a run per inning over 44 frames. Prior to that implosion in 2018-19, however, Mitchell had showed some promise. He carried a 3.18 ERA in just shy of 200 innings at the Triple-A level and had some decent big league outings, albeit without consistency (4.94 ERA through his first 98 1/3 MLB frames).
Mitchell latched on with the White Sox for the 2020 season but didn’t earn a promotion from their alternate site prior to being released in late August. Overall, he carries a 5.15 ERA and a nearly identical 5.20 SIERA in 171 1/3 big league innings. Mitchell doesn’t miss bats (13 percent strikeout rate) but does carry a 50 percent ground-ball rate. Philadelphia skipper Joe Girardi surely knows Mitchell well after managing him for parts of four seasons with the Yankees, which surely played a part in this match.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has spoken recently of bringing in some veteran rotation depth on non-roster deals, and Mitchell gives them one such player. It’s certainly possible that further additions along these lines will be made in the weeks to come as more experienced starters ultimately settle for lesser deals with Spring Training looming.
When they said veteran rotation depth deals this is not really what I had in mind.
Me neither, but this is a minor league deal so whatever.
knowing this team, that’s exactly whom i had in mind.
how smart of me!
Guess they can’t re-sign JTR now…..
Go get Cole Hamels & Folty for the #4 & #5 spots so Spencer Howard can start the year at AAA. Hamels would be a PR dream and they need a left handed starter. They arent bringing in a lot of cheap relievers on minor league deals like I thought they would, so they should convert VV into a reliever and see what he can do 1-2 innings every other night in middle relief. They have to sign one more established reliever however and figure out SS. Like Semien, Didi & Simmons in that order.
i wouldnt rely on Folty as a big league starter next year
Please sign folty, I would love to see him cry and pout on the mound in a Phillies uniform.
Neither Folty or Hamels (in terms of injury) are reliable MLB starters. They need a reliable innings eater.
Agreed they need someone who can be depended on to take the ball every 5th day from the back of their rotation. Quintana would have been a good fit, but guys like Orodozzi are gonna command too much money I think. Hamels will bounce back and be serviceable and Folty has some upside. If you want an innings eater go get Jordan Zimmerman. I’ll take the guy that’s beloved by our fans, and a pitcher on the right side of 30 with a chip on his shoulder- that’s familair the NL East.
fact is there are very few reliable innings eaters out there this offseason. id be in the same boat as you if such options were to be had. id like a Roark type and maybe even Jason Vargas if he’s still interested in pitching.
There’s this guy named Tanaka out there. I remain perplexed.
I like the folty idea, any team would be smart o bring him in on an invite to spring training contract
Folty at #4 and Hamels at #5 or vice versa works for me. Both are good gambles. Before he got hurt in 2019, Hamels was pretty darn good for the Cubs. Folty? Rumors persist that he’s lost his fastball. Dunno about that. However, the Braves, even with all their pitching injuries in 2020, didn’t elect to call upon Folty. Also wholeheartedly agree VV belongs in the pen. Last stop on the train for VV. If he can’t cut it as a one or two inning reliever, he’ll be collecting unemployment before June rolls around.
Joe’s quest for the 2017 Yanks roster continues
Another Preller special trading for him
That trade always stands out to me because he basically traded away nothing and yet somehow still lost the deal by taking Headley.
I do think SD’s front office eventually realized at some point that you’re better off using that money to acquire legitimate players rather than controllable young projects. There was like $13M left on that Headley contract, they could have gotten a legit FA instead of Mitchell, who turned out to be a bust, but Mitchell had all those years of control so they fell right into that trap.
I don’t understand why even waste time and effort on something like this. I know it’s a situation where you know you pay next to nothing for the guy no roster spot but if he comes in to spring training and has a nice spring you know you might earn a spot on the big league team most likely if anything he’s putting the miners and maybe a call up here in the air during the season. I think we need to concentrate on more players that we know could help this season instead of going through the garbage behind the Goodwill or salvation army. and I mean that with no offense to Mitchell
Yankees should sign Folty and stash him in the minors fix him and bring up later in the season
If only he didn’t hurt his toe that one spring. Dude was set to have a break out year. The legend of B. Mitchell
Thank goodness the Phillies are finally addressing their weak punt return numbers.