Tag: Philadelphia Phillies

Koyo Aoyagi’s last 48 hours have been incredibly busy. The 31-year-old pitcher arrived in the United States on Friday morning and immediately joined his new Phillies teammates at BayCare Ballpark.

He unpacked his things in the clubhouse, met a few Phillies players and Dave Dombrowski, then went out for a long-toss session.

“It was my first day so I didn’t really know where I was supposed to go, but I was really excited,” Aoyagi said. “There are so many new things here.”

The Phillies signed Aoyagi in mid-January to a minor-league contract with an invitation to spring training. The right-hander had spent nine seasons pitching in Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball with a 3.08 ERA, making three All-Star teams and winning a championship in 2023. However, he was demoted to the minor leagues each of the last two seasons.

For four years, Aoyagi expressed his desire to pitch in the United States to his team, Hanshin. However, due to his underperformance in the past two seasons, no major-league team signed him to a guaranteed deal.

Aoyagi will compete for the final spot in the Phillies’ bullpen during spring training, but if he doesn’t make the team, he is willing to go to the minor leagues.

“The past few years in Japan, I wasn’t able to perform to the best of my abilities and the Phillies still saw something in me,” Aoyagi said. “For that, I really want to play for this team.”

From Hideo Nomo to Masahiro Tanaka to Shohei Ohtani to Yoshinobu Yamamoto to Roki Sasaki, the Phillies haven’t been a major player for top Japanese talent trying to make the transition to Major League Baseball.

They pursued Yamamoto last offseason, offering him a massive deal, but Yamamoto signed with the Dodgers for 12 years and $325 million. Sasaki, a top international free agent, also joined the Dodgers. The Phillies showed interest in Sasaki but didn’t make his shortlist.

Aoyagi’s potential appearance in the major leagues could help the Phillies build connections in Japan. While they wouldn’t bring him in just for that reason, it was part of the team’s interest in giving him a chance.

“We’ve liked him. He was looking for a big-league opportunity, it didn’t come for him, so we felt we liked him enough to bring him in and give him an opportunity,” said Dave Dombrowski. “He is open-minded to go to Triple A. We feel that he gives us an opportunity to provide depth in the organization.”

“I think also it’s a great opportunity for the organization as we try to grow in the Far East to have someone come into camp like this. There has not been — it’s not like we tried to sign a bunch of them — but we have tried to sign a couple (of Japanese players) and we have not really had the door open to us as much as we had hoped.

We really increased our operations in the Far East, we scout there a lot more, and we think it’s a great opportunity to show how welcoming our organization is. Hopefully, that will also be part of the equation. But the reality is we wouldn’t do that unless we thought he had an opportunity to help us at some point during the season.”

Aoyagi is a side-armer who throws a two-seam fastball and a slider. His unique throwing style could give the Phillies bullpen a different look. The Phillies also have another side-armer, Jose Cuas, in camp, who has appeared in 132 big-league games over the past three seasons.

“You’re not gonna have seven guys who throw 100 with great sliders, so you’ve got to mix it up a little bit,” said manager Rob Thomson.

Whether in the majors or minors, Aoyagi is eager to face the best competition. He would take pride in being the first player from Japan to play for the Phillies. While they’ve had Tadahito Iguchi and So Taguchi, both were already in the majors before joining the team.

“I wasn’t too aware of that but me pitching on a big-league mound would definitely bring some attention to the Phillies and that would be able to recruit Japanese players more, so that would be a big thing for me,” Aoyagi said.

“In the States, there are so many countries represented. I’m excited to see how my stuff is against them.”

Max Kepler and the Philadelphia Phillies agreed on a one-year, $10 million contract on Friday, with the expectation that Kepler will become the team’s starting left fielder.

Kepler spent his entire 10-year career with the Minnesota Twins. Over 1,072 games, he has a .237 batting average, with 161 home runs and 508 RBIs.

Phillies president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, said the team will give Kepler the opportunity to play every day in left field.

“We think he can,” Dombrowski said.

Kepler had a tough 2024 season, hitting only eight home runs and 42 RBIs due to injuries. Dombrowski explained that Kepler had core surgery to fix a sports hernia during the offseason, which, along with left knee tendinitis, kept him from playing a full season. He played just 105 games.

“Max was very careful. He said, ‘I don’t want to make any excuses,’” Dombrowski said. “It does affect you. It just does. You try to play through it but it’s not easy. It’s a tough (injury) to play through.”

In his six career games at Citizens Bank Park, Kepler has hit four home runs and has a .955 slugging percentage over 23 plate appearances. The Twins signed Kepler when he was a teenager from Germany.

With Kepler set for left field, the Phillies will keep Nick Castellanos in right field and continue with Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas in center field.

“We think it’s easier to just leave Nick in right field. Let him play out there,” Dombrowski said. “We think Max will make that adjustment very comfortably and he’s willing to do so.”

The Phillies have not made many moves this offseason after winning the NL East but losing to the Mets in the NL Division Series. Their only other notable signing was closer Jordan Romano, who joined on a one-year, $8.5 million contract.

Romano, an All-Star in 2022 and 2023, spent his first six seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays. He has 105 saves and a 2.90 ERA in 231 relief appearances.

With one of the highest payrolls in baseball, Dombrowski said he may not make any more big moves for the upcoming season.

“I would be surprised if we got into impactful free-agent type-of signings from an offensive perspective,” Dombrowski said. “I don’t want to say it’s a tight payroll.

From an ownership perspective, I don’t think I’ve ever gone to John (Middleton) on anything and him say, no, don’t do something. But you still try and keep things in perspective. We’re over $300 million and everybody we sign is a major penalty at this point.”

What’s next?

Dombrowski mentioned that the Phillies would like to add a potential fifth starter who could also pitch out of the bullpen.

“We’ll keep our mind open,” Dombrowski said.

The Philadelphia Phillies have signed closer Jordan Romano to a one-year contract worth $8.5 million, taking a short-term chance that the right-handed pitcher can recover from a right elbow injury.

The deal, announced by the Phillies on Monday, includes an additional $500,000 for Romano if he pitches at least 60 innings.

Romano, an All-Star in 2022 and 2023, spent his first six seasons in Major League Baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays. He has 105 career saves and a 2.90 ERA in 231 relief appearances.

Among the 17 pitchers in the majors who have had at least 100 save opportunities since 2019, Romano has the second-best save percentage at 88.98%, just behind Josh Hader (187 for 210, 89.04%). Romano’s 105 saves rank ninth among all pitchers in baseball since 2019.

The 31-year-old Romano had a limited season last year, saving just eight games in 15 appearances. He had arthroscopic surgery on his elbow in July.

Romano was let go by Toronto last month when the team chose not to offer him a contract that would have made him eligible for arbitration.

“Everyone loves him,” Blue Jays manager John Schneider said. “I spoke to him after we non-tendered him, and he understood it. Very professional about it. I haven’t heard back from him yet today, but he was great. He was kind of what we stood for in how he went about his business, the teammate that he was, the intensity in which he competed with.”

Romano’s signing might lead to the departure of one or both of Carlos Estévez and Jeff Hoffman from Philadelphia. Both former All-Star relievers closed games for the Phillies last season but struggled badly in the postseason. Both players are free agents.