Lots of small moves.
Wednesday, March 31st, 2004As always at the end of spring training there are a bunch of small time roster moves being made, most of them not too exciting, but with a few points worth noting.
The previous move really does seem to be for an insurance policy. Hernandez did have a couple options left, and has since been sent down, so he’s there solely as a backup in case one of the current two catchers gets hurt. It’s a good move and well worth doing on their part. Plus since Bud Smith has cleared waivers, the sole cost to the team was the cost of the waiver claim on Hernandez. Useful spare part acquired for cheap. Bravo Mr. Wade. Those are the sorts of moves that good teams make.
Last week the Phils also traded Nate Espy to the Cardinals for a PTBNL. I suspect the player will wind up being minor league filler material. I’ve been a fan of Espy for a while. He’s got the “moderate power but a walking fool” mix of skills that I think is woefully undervalued in the game, so I thought he had the potential to be a real help for some team. He’s sat around the minors for long enough that he may have missed his chance, but I hope the Cards can find a use for him. The Phillies seemed determined not to give him an opportunity, at one point saying that they were concerned his throwing arms might not be strong enough. Which would have made a lot more sense if he wasn’t a first baseman…
The Phils also picked up Pablo Ozuna which for all the world looks like insurance in case Tomas Perez’s foot continues to bother him. Otherwise I suspect it’s only an issue for Scranton watchers.
Meanwhile I just noticed buried on the Phillies website that they released Victor Alvarez today. He had appeared in one spring training game very early in the month and then completely disappeared. I thought I had seen somewhere that he was hurt, but I couldn’t find a reference to that when I went looking later. He hadn’t been mentioned in any newspaper articles recently either. This has all the hallmarks of something where there’s some hidden reason for what’s going on, but we’re likely to never hear it.