Steve and I arrived at the Complex at 9:00 AM which is and will be the official opening time for visitors this spring unless or until it is changed.

The ground crew and staff were busy fixing any damage caused by Tuesday’s storm.  Fortunately, the damage appeared to be minimal.  The meal tents were still in place although some of the bindings on the canvas panels need to be reattached.  The mesh on the outfield fences was detached on the bottom of each panel as I mentioned in yesterday’s article.  They suffered no further damage but will need to be reattached.  And the mesh covering on two of the four batter eyes came loose on several panels and will need to be reattached.  All in all, not too bad for as fierce as the winds were yesterday.

Great day to watch the players.  The sun was out and a couple coaches were carrying bats.  You know what that means.  Fielding drills!  The position player groups fielded ground balls for the first time this year.  Actually, just the infielders and outfielders.  And it wasn’t a full-fledged fielding drill.  The coaches stood about 30 feet from the players and hit grounders to them.  Same with the outfielders.  Just ground balls.  The rest of the outdoor activities were the same as in previous days.  Stretching, running, long toss.

I identified a few more players today – Nolan Beltran, Juan Villavicencio, Aroon Escobar, Felix Reyes, Bryan Rincon, Angel Mata, Keaton Anthony, Lou Albrecht, Jordan Dissin, Raylin Heredia, Kehden Hettiger, Nikau Pouaka-Grego, Ricardo Rosario, Zach Arnold, Aidan Miller, Robert Moore, Devin Saltiban, Jared Thomas, Marcus Lee Sang, Hendry Mendez, Leandro Pineda, Luis Martinez, Wesley Moore.

Of special note, NPG was in the regular group and not the rehab group.  Thats good to see.

The guys I saw earlier this week (from the daily articles) –

(Tuesday) This brings me to the guys I saw today who I hadn’t seen yesterday.  There was Mick Abel, Andrew Baker, Wilmer Blanco (another Latin pitcher with a mature body, Cam Brown, Jean Cabrera (I saw him yesterday but didn’t recognize him with blond hair), Tristan Garnett, Estibenzon Jimenez, George Klassen (reported 100+ heater and a starter), Gunner Mayer, Christian McGowan, Alex Rao, Enrique Segura, Casey Steward.

(Monday) Anyway, aside from Andrew Painter, some of the players in attendance that I clearly saw were Carlos De La Cruz,  Avery Owusu-Asiedu (he put on some more muscle), Tommy McCollum (gawd, he’s built like the guy who plays Reacher, not the Tom Cruise Reacher), William Bergolla, Starlyn Caba, Luis Caicuta, TJayy Walton (correct spelling), Ethan Chenault, Jordi Martinez, Pan Wen-Hui, Mavis Graves, Micah Ottenbreit, AJ Shaver, Jake Eddington, Caleb Ricketts, Luke Russo, Alex McFarlane, Dominic Pipkin, Mitch Neunborn, Alex Garbrick, Trey Dillard, Giussepe Velasquez, Tyler McKay, Andrew Schultz, Saul Teran, Andrew Walling, Samuel Aldegheri, Brandon Beckel, Alexis De La Cruz (Hinkie, he’s built like Francisco Morales), Christian Hernandez, Eduardo Tait (pronounced as 2 syllables, tie-eat), and Jonathan Petit.

This just about concludes all the players at the Complex so far.  I’ll condense these three days of sightings in tomorrow’s article.  And, no I haven’t seen Crawford.  I don’t think he’s due til next week or the week after.  Along with a couple other guys.

Transactions

I don’t think any January’s transactions have posted.  But Contreras’ announced his signing back in December, Baseball America included it among its December transactions, Wells signing was posted on the Adelaide Giants’ ABL sight, and the Haake signing also showed up somewhere.

The assignments of the six DSL players had to occur because new rules require the DSL players to be on affiliate rosters to be attending workouts in the states.  Note that Starlyn Caba is on the FCL roster but does not count against the offseason player limit until he is cleared to take part in all drills by the doctor.  He finished the season on the injury list.  When that occurs, a corresponding release will need to happen as the organization is currently at the 175-offseason player limit.

The two stateside releases were made to make room for some of these guys as well.

January 2024

1/09/2024 – RHP Wilmer Blanco assigned to the FCL Phillies from DSL Phillies White
1/09/2024 – RHP Alexis De La Cruz assigned to the FCL Phillies from DSL Phillies White
1/09/2024 – C Angel Mata assigned to the FCL Phillies from DSL Phillies White
1/09/2024 – C Euduardo Tait assigned to the FCL Phillies from DSL Phillies White
1/09/2024 – INF Nolan Beltran assigned to the FCL Phillies from DSL Phillies White
1/09/2024 – INF Aroon Escobar assigned to the FCL Phillies from DSL Phillies White
1/09/2024 – Albert Rodriquez released by the FCL Phillies
1/09/2024 – Jehisbert Sevilla released by the FCL Phillies
1/09/2024 – SS Erick Baria released by DSL Phillies Red
1/09/2024 – SS Yoangel Ramos released by DSL Phillies Red
1/09/2024 – OF Jose Leanez released by DSL Phillies Red
1/09/2024 – 2B Arquedion Muller released by DSL Phillies Red
1/09/2024 – SS Luis Pelegrín released by DSL Phillies White
1/09/2024 – Phillies signed FA RHP Zach Haake to an MiLB contract
1/05/2024 – Phillies signed FA LHP Lachlan Wells to an MiLB contract

December 2023
12/22/2023 – Phillies signed FA RHP Efrain Contreras to an MiLB contract