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Scott Kingery

Angels, Scott Kingery Avoid Arbitration

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Nov. 15: Kingery will earn $770K this season, tweets Jeff Fletcher of the Orange County Register — just $10K north of the league minimum.

Nov. 14: The Angels reached agreement with Scott Kingery on a one-year deal to avoid arbitration, reports Jon Morosi of MLB Network (X link). Salary terms have not been reported. Kingery is under arbitration control through the 2027 season.

Kingery just landed with the Halos a few weeks ago. Los Angeles acquired the infielder from the Phillies in a small trade. They added him to their 40-man roster to keep him from hitting minor league free agency. Kingery has more than three years of service time from his stint with the Phils, so he immediately became eligible for arbitration when the Angels put him on the roster. MLBTR did not project a salary for Kingery because he was not on a 40-man at the time of our arbitration projections (courtesy of Matt Swartz). It’d be a surprise if he’s in for a salary much above the league minimum.

In any case, the Arizona product has a clear path back to the majors. Kingery, who signed a $24MM extension before making his debut in 2018, has played in all of one big league game in the last three years. That came as a defensive substitute in 2022. He hasn’t reached 40 games in an MLB season since 2019. Kingery didn’t make much of an impact in Philadelphia, running a .229/.280/.387 line in more than 1100 plate appearances.

The Phillies kept him in Triple-A after outrighting him off the roster. Kingery didn’t have the ability to test minor league free agency without forfeiting the remainder of his extension, which expired last winter. He has essentially spent the last three seasons in the upper minors, turning in roughly league average results. The former second-rounder hit .268/.316/.488 with 25 homers and stolen bases apiece in a hitter-friendly setting this year.

While he came up as a second base prospect, Kingery spent most of this past season at shortstop. He can cover both middle infield spots and move around the outfield. The Angels could be without Zach Neto to begin the season after his recent shoulder procedure. The Halos just signed Kevin Newman as their expected fill-in at shortstop. Kingery can bounce around the diamond in a bench role.

Angels Select Scott Kingery, Release Kenny Rosenberg

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The Angels added recently acquired infielder Scott Kingery to their 40-man roster. The Halos released left-hander Kenny Rosenberg in a corresponding move.

Los Angeles acquired Kingery from Philadelphia over the weekend. They would not have done so if they weren’t planning to add him to the roster, as the infielder would otherwise have reached minor league free agency today. The 30-year-old former top prospect has only appeared in one big league game since 2021. He’s coming off a decent showing with Philadelphia’s top affiliate in Lehigh Valley, hitting .268/.318/.488 with 25 homers and stolen bases apiece.

Rosenberg, a 29-year-old swingman, has pitched in 17 MLB contests across the last three years. He owns a 4.66 earned run average. The Cal State Northridge product had a decent year with Triple-A Salt Lake, working to a 4.21 ERA through 115 1/3 innings in the Pacific Coast League. He punched out 21.5% of opponents against a tidy 7.8% walk percentage.

Angels Acquire Scott Kingery From Phillies

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The Angels have acquired infielder Scott Kingery from the Phillies in exchange for cash considerations, according to announcements from both clubs. Kingery wasn’t on Philadelphia’s 40-man roster and won’t need to take a spot with the Angels.

Kingery, 31 in April, was once a highly-touted prospect. The Phils had enough confidence in his future that they signed him to a long-term extension before he had even made his major league debut. In March of 2018, the Phils gave Kingery a $24MM guarantee covering the 2018-2023 seasons, with three club options as well.

Unfortunately, Kingery wasn’t able to live up to his prospect billing or that contract. He can steal a few bases and and play defense all over the diamond but he simply hasn’t hit enough to be a useful big leaguer. He currently has a batting line of just .229/.280/.387 in 1,127 plate appearances in the majors.

The Phils outrighted him off their roster in both 2021 and 2022, with no club willing to grab the remainder of the contract off waivers. He had surpassed three years of service time and had the right to elect free agency instead of accepting those outright assignments. However, since he was under the five-year service mark, walking away would have involved leaving the remainder of his contract on the table. Naturally, he reported to the minors and continued playing out the rest of his deal. The Phils turned down his ’24 club option but he stayed in the organization at that point as well.

Though the contract was a bust, Kingery just wrapped up a solid season in the minors. He took 505 plate appearances for the IronPigs and hit 25 home runs. The offensive environment in the International League was quite strong this year, so his robust line of .268/.316/.488 was only marginally above league average, translating to a wRC+ of 104.

Kingery stole 25 bases and continued bouncing around the diamond this year, playing second base, shortstop and center field. He has past experience at third base and in the outfield corners.

With those traits, he could perhaps be a useful player even with some semi-competent offense. He hasn’t been able to do that in his major league career so far but it’s a low-risk move for the Angels as Kingery isn’t even taking up a roster spot for now.

The Angels have a few question marks in their position player mix. Luis Rengifo projects as the top second base option but his 2024 was ended by wrist surgery. Even if he comes back healthy, he might need to bounce to other positions. Third baseman Anthony Rendon has been extremely injury-prone in recent years and Rengifo has often had to cover the hot corner. Mike Trout has also missed significant time in center field recently and might get moved to a corner or into the designated hitter spot with more frequency going forward.

Kingery can give them some extra minor league depth all over the diamond. He will try to earn a roster spot and the opportunity for a post-hype breakout.

Phillies Decline Option On Scott Kingery

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TODAY: Kingery is still part of the Phillies organization despite the declined option, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Scott Lauber.  Kingery is still under team control on the initial minor league contract that he signed after he was first drafted, though it remains to be seen whether or not the Phillies might release him.

NOVEMBER 3: The Phillies announced they’ve declined their option on second baseman Scott Kingery. He’ll collect a $1MM buyout in lieu of a $13MM salary.

This was the most straightforward option call for any team this fall. Kingery spent the entire 2023 season at Triple-A Lehigh Valley after being outrighted from the 40-man roster in June 2022. He has played in only 16 MLB games since the start of the ’21 season.

A former second-round draftee, Kingery developed into a highly-regarded prospect. He signed a $24MM guarantee in Spring Training of 2018, shortly before making his MLB debut. The deal didn’t work at all for Philadelphia, as Kingery hasn’t consistently hit at the highest level. He owns a .229/.280/.387 line over 325 big league contests.

The Arizona product hit .244/.325/.400 in 466 plate appearances with Lehigh Valley this past season. He stole 24 bases and hit 13 home runs while striking out at a lofty 29% clip. He’s a free agent for the first time in his career. It’s possible he finds a minor league deal elsewhere. Kingery turns 30 in April.

Phillies Interested In Right-Handed Hitting Outfielders

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With just over a week until Opening Day, the bench group in Philadelphia is beginning to come into focus. As discussed by The Athletic’s Matt Gelb, the Phillies view each of backup catcher Garrett Stubbs, and utilitymen Edmundo Sosa and Josh Harrison as locks to make the roster. With Bryce Harper slated to begin the season on the injured list as he rehabs from Tommy John surgery, the Phillies have no set, everyday DH, leaving them with effectively five seats on the bench. With three locked in, two spots remain available for the Phillies to fill.

Gelb notes that the Phillies are interested in acquiring a right-handed fourth outfielder to complement the starting outfield trio of Kyle Schwarber, Brandon Marsh, and Nick Castellanos, but there are plenty of internal candidates also capable of securing one of the remaining bench jobs: utilitymen Scott Kingery, Dalton Guthrie, and Kody Clemens are joined by outfielder Jake Cave and first baseman Darick Hall in the hunt for a spot on the Philadelphia bench to open the season.

All five players have relatively secure spots in the organization headed into the season: Guthrie, Clemens, Cave, and Hall all are on the 40-man roster with minor league options remaining, while Kingery is not on the 40-man roster but is set to remain in the organization during the final year of his ill-fated six-year, $24MM extension he signed with the Phillies ahead of the 2018 season, before he had taken a big league at-bat. Without fear of losing any of these players by not dedicating an Opening Day roster spot to them, the Phillies have plenty of flexibility in making their final decisions about which players to roster.

Looking at external options, the best right-handed fourth outfield option remaining unsigned is likely Albert Almora. Almora played in 64 games for the Reds in 2022 with solid defense at each of the three outfield spots, but struggled at the plate as he slashed just .223/.282/.349 in 235 plate appearances, good for just a 71 wRC+. That seems to be about in line with what a club should expect from Almora should they sign him for this season, given his career 80 wRC+ drops to 71 when looking at his performance since the start of the 2018 season.

While the pickings are currently slim on the free agent market, it remains possible that a player squeezed off their current club’s roster could be made available either by trade or by opting-out of their current minor-league pact and returning to the free agent market. Jake Marisnick, Monte Harrison, and Michael Hermosillo are among the numerous players around the league for whom that is a possibility as Spring Training draws toward a conclusion.

If the Philies are unable to find anyone outside of the organization to their liking, both Kingery and Guthrie are right-handed hitters with experience at all three outfield spots. Kingery has had a better spring to this point that Guthrie, as the former has raked to a .394/.459/.515 line this spring that far outshines Guthrie’s .250/.273/.375 line. With that being said, Guthrie has advantages of his own. As previously mentioned, he already has a 40-man roster spot, while Kingery would require a corresponding move to roster. Additionally, Guthrie raked in his first taste of big league action last season, posting a whopping 184 wRC+ in his fourteen-game cup of coffee that earned him a spot on the postseason roster during Philadelphia’s NL championship run.

It’s also worth noting that Kingery has largely struggled in his major league opportunities to this point in his career, with his already mediocre 73 wRC+ in 325 career games mostly buoyed by a 2019 season where he was league average at the plate (100 wRC+) in 500 plate appearances. Since then, Kingery has posted a brutal wRC+ of just 21, indicating he’s been 79% worse than league average at the plate in 52 big league games since the start of the 2020 season. Given his long-lasting struggles, it would be understandable if the Phillies were hesitant to trust his torrid spring.

Assuming the Phillies would like another left-handed bat on the bench in addition to Stubbs, the spot that doesn’t go to one of Kingery, Guthrie, or an external fourth outfielder would likely go to one of Hall, Clemens, or Cave. All three have raked in Grapefruit League play, but one separator could be that Clemens has by far the most positional flexibility of the three. Cave is confined to the outfield while Hall is limited to first base and the DH slot while Clemens has experience in the four corner spots and at second base, though Gelb indicates that the Phillies don’t see Clemens as a factor at the keystone.

That being said, Cave has the advantage of a long track record of major league experience, with 335 big league games under his belt to this point and a career wRC+ of 92, though he posted just an 81 in 54 games with the Twins last year. While the most defensively limited of the three options, Hall is the most interesting bat of the three, as he posted a 119 wRC+ in 101 Triple-A games last year before carrying that success into the big leagues, where he slashed .250/.282/.550 with a wRC+ of 120. For a team set to start the season without Harper, it’s possible that Hall’s lefty power might be too attractive to pass up, even with his defensive limitations.

While pairing Hall with one of Guthrie or Kingery certainly seems like an attractive option for the Phillies right now, an external addition or injury could certainly change that over the course of the next week or so, to say nothing of the reality that all five internal options seem sure to get major league opportunities at some point this year as the roster churns through the regular season.

Phillies Outright Scott Kingery

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The Phillies announced they’ve sent infielder Scott Kingery outright to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after he cleared waivers. Philadelphia needed to clear an active roster spot for Zack Wheeler, who’d been on paternity leave. Outrighting Kingery rather than merely optioning him also opens a spot on the 40-man roster, which now sits at 39.

Philadelphia just selected Kingery to the big league club on Tuesday. He appeared in one game as a defensive replacement but didn’t tally an at-bat before losing his roster spot. Bryson Stott and Didi Gregorius started all three games in the middle infield positions, and it seems the Phils are comfortable with Matt Vierling as a utility option while Johan Camargo is on the injured list.

Kingery has appeared in only 52 MLB games since the start of the 2020 season, hitting .144/.204/.250 in 143 trips to the plate. That’s obviously not the kind of production the organization envisioned from the former top prospect, who at one point looked as if he’d cement himself as their long-term second baseman. Instead, Kingery’s strong offensive numbers from the early part of his minor league career have never really carried over at the big league level.

The Phils signed the University of Arizona product to a six-year, $24MM guarantee shortly before he made his MLB debut. He’s under contract through 2023, making $6.25MM this season and $8.25MM next year. The Phils technically control him through 2026 via a trio of subsequent club options, but it’d take a massive turn of fortune over the next year and a half for the team to consider exercising any of those.

As a player with between three and five years of MLB service time, Kingery technically has the right to refuse an outright assignment in favor of free agency. Doing so would require forfeiting the remainder of the money on his deal, however, so he’ll certainly instead head back to Lehigh Valley. The 28-year-old is hitting .185/.297/.296 across 64 plate appearances with the IronPigs.

Phillies Select Scott Kingery

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The Phillies announced this afternoon they’ve selected infielder Scott Kingery back onto the major league roster. Utilityman Johan Camargo has been placed on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to June 6, due to a right knee strain in a corresponding move. Philadelphia already had an opening on the 40-man roster.

Kingery returns to the majors for the first time since being outrighted off the 40-man last June. The designation for assignment and subsequent outright was the culmination of a few seasons of struggles. Kingery hit at a league average level (.258/.315/.474) during the offensively-charged 2019 campaign, but he’s otherwise struggled mightily at the plate as a big leaguer. He’d posted well below-average numbers as a rookie in 2018, and he’s hit .144/.204/.250 in 143 trips to the plate since his sophomore campaign.

That’s certainly not how the Phillies had envisioned his career progressing. A former second-round pick, Kingery tore through the minor leagues over his first couple seasons of pro ball. Baseball America ranked the University of Arizona product as the game’s #31 prospect in advance of his rookie year, and the Philadelphia front office signed him to a six-year, $24MM guarantee a couple weeks before his major league debut. That investment hasn’t panned out as hoped, but the 28-year-old will get another opportunity to try to solve big league arms.

Kingery, who is making $6.25MM this season under the terms of the aforementioned extension, has gotten off to a rough start with Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Through 16 games, he’s hitting .185/.297/.296 while striking out in 34.4% of his plate appearances. That kind of swing-and-miss has been an unexpected issue for Kingery since 2018, as he’s never developed into the potential plus hitter some prospect evaluators anticipated. He’ll step into a second base mix that lost Jean Segura for a few months to finger surgery and has seen Nick Maton and Camargo hit the IL in recent days.

Camargo, signed to a one-year deal over the winter, has seen more playing time than envisioned because of Segura’s injury and Bryson Stott’s struggles. He got off to a nice start but had slumped of late, and he lands on the IL owner of a modest .246/.310/.338 line. Stott and Didi Gregorius figure to assume the bulk of the playing time up the middle, with Kingery on hand as a depth option.

Scott Kingery Undergoes Shoulder Surgery

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Phillies’ infielder/outfielder Scott Kingery recently underwent surgery on his right shoulder to repair a torn labrum, according to Todd Zolecki of MLB.com. Kingery will be out of action for the remainder of this season, though Zolecki notes it’s hoped he’ll recuperate by next year’s spring training.

This marks yet another disappointing chapter in the story of Kingery and the Phils. The team signed Kingery to a six-year $24MM contract prior to the 2018 season, before he had even played a game in the big leagues. The hope at the time was to secure the services of a highly-touted prospect at team-friendly rates, before he made himself more expensive through his production.

Unfortunately, Kingery has never been able to deliver on his initial promise in a sustained manner, producing a meager slash line of .229/.280/.387 in 1,127 plate appearances over the past four seasons and getting outrighted off the roster last month. This latest injury only further dims any hopes of the club reaping any rewards from their initial leap of faith with Kingery. The aforementioned contract still guarantees him $6.25MM and $8.25MM for 2022 and 2023, respectively, along with $1.75MM in buyouts for three club options the Phils hold over Kingery for 2024-2026.

If there is any chance of the utilityman righting the ship in the next few years, the first step will be what sounds like a lengthy rehab process after a significant medical procedure.

Phillies Outright Scott Kingery

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The Phillies announced that they have reinstated infielder/outfielder Scott Kingery from the injured list and outrighted him to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Kingery cleared waivers and is no longer part of the Phillies’ 40-man roster, though he’s still with the organization.

Needless to say, this is not what the Phillies had in mind when they signed Kingery to a six-year, $24MM guarantee entering the 2018 season. Kingery hadn’t even played in the majors at that point, making his deal the largest for anyone who hadn’t yet appeared in the bigs. The former second-round pick was a top-tier prospect then, which led the Phillies to gamble on locking him up at what they thought were team-friendly prices for the long haul. He’s earning $4MM this year, and the club owes him a combined $15MM from 2022-24 (including a $1MM buyout for the last of those seasons).

While Kingery’s pact also includes team options ranging from $13MM to $15MM from 2024-26, it seems doubtful he’ll ever rake in that money. After all, the 27-year-old has failed to establish himself as a viable major leaguer, having batted just .229/.280/.387 with 30 home runs and 25 stolen bases in 1,127 plate appearances. Kingery, who’s just 1-for-19 with 12 strikeouts in the bigs this season, hasn’t played with the Phillies since May 16. He’ll now have to try to make his way back to their roster via Triple-A, where he’s a .291/.330/.453 hitter across 307 trips to the plate.

Phillies Place Roman Quinn, Matt Joyce On Injured List

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Before this evening’s win over the Brewers, the Phillies placed outfielders Roman Quinn and Matt Joyce on the 10-day injured list. Quinn has a laceration on his right index finger, while Joyce suffered a right calf strain. In corresponding moves, outfielder Mickey Moniak and utilityman Scott Kingery were recalled from Triple-A Lehigh Valley.

The Joyce and Quinn injuries further thin a Phillies’ outfield that already looked to be in a difficult spot. Right fielder Bryce Harper has been incredible in the season’s early going, but he’s nursing a left wrist injury. The Phils are hopeful he won’t need to go on the IL, but utilityman Brad Miller got the nod at the position tonight. Andrew McCutchen is off to a bit of a rough start in left, while center field has been a train wreck.

Philadelphia has gotten a combined .112/.194/.194 line from their center fielders, by far the worst production in the league. Each of Quinn, Moniak, Adam Haseley and Odúbel Herrera have gotten off to bad starts. Haseley has been away from the team for a few weeks for personal reasons, and now Quinn’s on the shelf due to injury. That leaves the Phils with Herrera, Moniak and Kingery as options at the position, with Kingery coming off a dismal 2020 season. Nick Maton might get a look eventually, but the Phillies are currently using him to hold down second base while Jean Segura works back from an injury of his own.

Joyce has worked primarily as a pinch hitter, although he’s gotten some sporadic corner outfield time as well. The veteran left-handed hitter slashed a decent .252/.351/.331 over 148 plate appearances with the Marlins last season, although he hasn’t produced much in the early going this year.

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