December 23: The Phillies announced that Scott has cleared waivers and been outrighted to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. A subsequent club announcement revealed that Scott rejected the assignment and elected free agency. He had the right to do so as a player that had previously been outrighted in his career.
December 16: The Phillies have designated right-hander Tayler Scott for assignment, per a team announcement. His spot on the 40-man roster will go to righty Taijuan Walker, whose four-year contract has now been formally announced by the club.
Scott, 30, was a September waiver claim out of the Padres organization who never appeared in a big league game for the Phils. He appeared in eight games with San Diego last season, pitching to a 6.75 ERA with a 13-to-6 K/BB ratio in a dozen innings of work. That marked his first MLB action since his 2019 debut, when he pitched 16 1/3 innings between the Mariners and the Orioles.
One of two South African-born players in MLB history, Scott spent the 2020-21 seasons with the Hiroshima Carp of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball. He returned to North American ball on a minor league deal with the Padres last offseason and pitched to a 3.76 ERA with a terrific 30.4% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate in 40 2/3 Triple-A frames before his call to the Majors. In all, he’s been tagged for 35 runs in 28 1/3 big league innings but carries a 4.33 ERA and 26.2% strikeout rate in 168 1/3 innings of Triple-A work.
The Phillies will have a week to trade Scott, attempt to pass him through outright waivers, or release him.
Another free pass for Scott!!! Boy, no wonder he has such a high WHIP.
With a career ERA of over 11, he should have been happy someone wanted
He improved last year relatively speaking. 2019 was unbelievable. Who could even make it up. Not only did he have such a horrible era but he managed to even hit 4 guys and threw in a couple wild pitchers in 16 1/3.
While I’d love to have been talented to be a professional, imagine being in a position like Tayler Scott. Him being the 40th person on the staff waiting and waiting, knowing you’ll be released or traded once the signing became official.
This is exactly the kind of thing that the union should be spending more time on. In fact, most of their time. The rank and file of the baseball world. I know that they have made some headway for sure, but the minor leaguers and AAAA types are still getting the shaft.
Sure, it is a competitive world…the world of sport. But we need to keep in mind that it is still a very protected business for ownership and the league, and they need these guys to make the whole thing work. I wish that the MLBPA leadership would stop worrying about the top end as much, as the stars are always going to make bank. Spread the wealth a bit and make their lives easier.
Spread the wealth to pitchers undeserving?
There’s a valid reason why the Phillies demoted him
He stinks
It is the concept, my friend, and not the specific individual…however I am sure that you grasped that already. Simply figuring out a way to make the journey to the majors much more palatable.
40 man roster = roughly the top 1200 individuals in the game. Add the minors as a feeder / internship and they are still a special group. Asking them to have no job security is one thing…asking them to make less than minimum wage and not be able to afford food and apartments while a sport with billions in income that is monopoly-protected uses them as a big part of their development process entirely another. This is not hard to understand.
Sounds like a bit of socialism to me. How about all those people starting or in college striving to get to a point where they are qualified to work professional careers? Do they get paid / protection such as you propose for the good of the system?
Well – I am not going to head deeply into politics; no reason to annoy Tim and the Gang, but the business of baseball is very much related to the regular business world and market economy. For a direct comparison, take a look at many of the major professional fields and what they spend to bring in talent. Top law firms; Wall Street; accounting firms etc. They wine and dine, and they start their top young talent (which consists of thousands of folks in each industry) off at very good salaries with tremendous benefits, even as they are just fresh out of school and are unknowns until they are trained and tested. The market for top new talent is competitive as heck..They help to handle living situations; moving packages and thus and so on – they take care of their people so that they have the best chance to get the best work out of them. Three years down the road, many of them wash out or find another field, but it is all a part of their process. Kinda’ sounds similar to baseball, huh?
The difference with baseball is that it is actually anti-competitive in many ways and therefore the owners and MLB are not incentivized as strongly to take care of those that are striving for their shot.
I would also like to introduce you to our country…and I am really not trying to be a smarta$$ about it. We live in the largest and most successful market-based, socialism-leaning democracy in the history of the world. You have never lived in a free market capitalistic world. The ever evolving challenge is to balance rights and responsibilities and accessibility and equity in a crowded world.
I bet your a ball of laughs at a party. Geesh. He sucked and wasn’t worthy of a spot on their 40 man. Now, the rest of the league can decide if the 30 year old is worthy of a roster spot on their minor league club. Sounds doubtful.
Actually rather socially flexible in that regard – very easy to dumb it down when the company merits. When ya’ coming over? ; )
Carver your analogy is more akin to a recruitment program of the top level of in a law or med school class in the year of graduation. The students aren’t getting paid at any level other than maybe a summer internship. That doesn’t happen. A good contract – sure but that is after graduation and when work is being billed by the firm or hospital. Those guys / ladies are being worked 60+ hours / week for a good salary while the firm / hospital makes money off them.
I was never one of those top of the top but I was a top 10% of my class so I was sitting next to those top 1% folks and they weren’t getting a paycheck for being in class.
There is no completely clean analogy, LTC, but I would beg to differ. University…you pay for an education to prepare for life, and sometimes a career. Baseball – the minor leagues are the lower levels of the actual working organization of a very elite group…the best of the best. In essence, they are the paid staff that have room to grow into upper management and beyond in their chosen field.
Frankly, it is very much in the enlightened self-interest of the organizations to improve the conditions of employment for them. It is hard enough to focus on your career when the basics are covered…when they are not, it can be a much tougher hurdle. And they are starting to realize this, rather belatedly and grudgingly however.
Forgive me but your first post was from the perspective of the individual – “the Union” were your words. Now your talking about the best interest of the team or shall I say, the business owners. Yeah, they should do what they think is best for their business model for sure – that is capitalism. The business owners for business purposes can do more if they think it helps their model.
That would be the difference between say the Pirates and the Mets. Their choice as to how they spend as opposed to what you originally posted with what appeared to be a slant toward doing it for the individuals trying to better themselves (I use the term investing in yourself in my profession as opposed to asking me to invest in you in advance) hoping for big payday if they are successful.
Simply looking at the various sides that are a party to the equation. And I know that this is hardly a rip-roaring topic for most, but it is very relevant to MLB operations today. Times, they are a changing…better to be ahead of the wave if possible.
Yeah if it was not for us Taylor Scott would still be at about 2 comments! Have a Merry Christmas.
And you as well…sorry to hijack the subject for an only vaguely related topical shift!
Making it more palatable for players to make it to the majors, as long as they’re worthy of a roster spot
This pitcher wasn’t
End of story
Broncos country, let’s ride!!!
Well, he can get a job as a batting practice pitcher.
Who cares?
I will never understand why the Padres traded for him. I think he was just a throw in.
We got Scott Free?
I wonder if Scott has the worst career numbers for anyone with a minimum of 28.1 Major League innings pitched.
GREAT SCOTT! What will he do now? He is leaving a team that was Taylor made for him.
Isn’t he the guy that is the cited example of why waiver pickup rules need to change? It was somebody that the Padres toyed with.
Be free scott