What a weekend in Clearwater. After a long winter of little to report on, the Phillies actually came back and played two games this weekend, officially starting their spring training slate. In one, they out-clobbered the Blue Jays in their debut. In the other, Aaron Nola led the pitching staff to a strangling of the Yankees.
Well. Damn, Phillies.
The important thing to remember right now is that nothing is real. Spring is full of citrus-scented hallucinations, like a team turning a double play when there’s already two outs and no one on first. All we really learned from first 48 hours of the Phillies being back is that Chris Berman once asked to call Phillies radio commentator Kevin Stocker “The Night Stocker,” a fun baseball nickname inspired by a serial killer from the eighties.
It is, of course, important to remember that in training camp, the focus should be on players’ individual mechanics or results and that baseball is back, rather than coming to broad generalizations from a couple of plate appearances. But with all of those cynical qualifications and fun Kevin Stocker facts out of the way, we can address what we saw with our eyes: the first firsts of a brand new Phillies season.
First at-bat: Whit Merrifield
It only made sense for the Phillies to give the first AB of 2024 to Merrifield, the 35-year-old bench player whose acquisition caused a firestorm of controversy when it gave people something to care about. The argument raged on for days as people determined Merrifield to be the signing most key to the Phillies potential success in 2024 and the devastating move that would cripple them for years to come.
Amid it all, the Phillies’ newest face opened the season with a rousing ground ball out to third base, giving everyone on either side of the debate–Is he still fast? Can he play center? Did you know he was an all-star last year and also hit .170 from August until the end of the season?–exactly what they needed to say “I told you so.” He would also double later. Scientists are still trying to decode what that means.
First strikeout: Johan Rojas
The Phillies center field hopeful K’d in his first appearance of the spring, something we were promised he would never do again. At least, that’s what some of us read when it was reported that Rojas was working on his hitting approach all winter, getting a few swings in the Dominican Winter League, and practicing his bunting to make it a bigger dimension of his game. The Phillies want Rojas to play a bigger part in their offense, or at least a part. Striking out isn’t really his bane, though; he did that about as often as J.T. Realmuto last year (in less than half the PA)–his problem is driving the ball into the ground.
But the Phillies prefer to do things together, showcasing their delightful chemistry, so they struck out a lot more as a team. They finished third in the NL in strikeouts (1,481) as a team. They had more regular season K’s than any other NL postseason team as a team. They want to get better at it–or not doing it–by having guys get more aggressive and avoid two-strike counts. But striking out a bunch likely remains in this team’s future and Rojas was just popping the cork on 2024. Baseball is back!
First back-to-back strikeout: Edmundo Sosa
Sosa kept the strikeout-train going by closing out the first inning with a swing and a miss. Did you know that last year, the Phillies K% as a team was 23.9%, tying them with the Yankees, who are projected to be pretty good this year, and putting them just ahead of the White Sox, who are projected to be probably the worst team in the sport (other than the A’s)? The other teams to make a League Championship Series–the Diamondbacks (20.4%), Astros (19.8%), and Rangers (22.5%) did significantly better in this regard. But this is nothing to think about or dwell on right now. Did I mention that Sosa just started wearing contact lenses, and also that baseball is back?
First walk: Kody Clemens
Well, look who it is. The Phillies’ first lineup of 2024 may not have had the most starting players’ names in it, but it did have plenty of recognizable ones. You will remember Clemens from his time serving as a Phillies first baseman following Rhys Hoskins’ injury last season. He hit some line drives, he pulled the ball a bunch, he made a lot of medium-hard contact. What Clemens didn’t do a lot of in 2023 was draw a walk. In his limited windows of playing time, he did that at about the same rate as Nick Castellanos–who doesn’t really do that. Perhaps Clemens was showing a new dimension to his game. Or perhaps this was a single at-bat, the individual significance of which is merely that it was Clemens’ first of the spring. But that’s not really as fun to think about. Behold our new on-base king!
First home run: Weston Wilson
But the tone for game one was hardly set in the quiet first inning. This one quickly, or as quickly as things move in baseball, turned into a power display for both sides as the Phillies and Blue Jays see-sawed between run-scoring opportunities. Toronto already had a 3-0 lead when Wilson came to the plate, thanks in large part to Bo Bichette attacking the Phillies like a purse dog who got into some energy pills: the Toronto shortstop had two hits early in the count in his first two at-bats and immediately stole a base his second time on.
Weston stepped in with Clemens on first and walloped a shot to left that did its best to get into orbit; high enough that the somewhat-startled broadcast referred to it as “towering” multiple times before the end of the replay. Weston, a guy whose record says that he’s 6’ 3” but looks at least six inches taller than that, triggered some people in the audience into another old spring training tradition: Rooting for a AAAA hitter to wreck the Grapefruit League all spring.
First home run in the same inning as another home run: Scott Kingery
Look at you, Scott Kingery. The player I informally chose to be the Phillies’ MVP of spring training got things started by punishing a 97 mph pitch over the plate out to the batter’s eye in center. He came up one batter after Wilson and tied the game with a solo shot that made everybody sit up and think, is this Scott Kingery’s year? Matt Klentak (the man who gave Kingery his infamous six-year extension before he’d played any big league ball) may be in Milwaukee doing paper work now, but his former stud is still socking springtime dingers. Or at least one.
First single-inning humiliation of the other team: The 5th inning
Whatever mercy the Phillies had woken up with on Saturday was gone by the time the fifth inning came around. Down 7-4, they began to absolutely hammer Blue Jays high-numbered spring training attendee Yosver Zulueta, tagging him for six of their ten runs in the frame. Everybody got into it: newcomer David Dahl knocked in a run, Erick Brito brought in another one on a lightly tapped grounder, Rojas hit an RBI triple, Trevor Schweke reached on a throwing error, Matt Kroon hit a three-run shot. Now, I know what you’re thinking: Who are these people? But that’s the glory of spring: information-gathering. Especially early on, you’re going to see a lot of names you don’t recognize, making this the perfect time to get familiar with Phillies players who don’t have 10+-year contracts.
A 21-year-old from Venezuela like Brito can cut into a lead with a little soft contact and tell you something. He didn’t thrive offensively at High-A Jersey Shore last year, but he did look pretty good fielding the kind of ground ball he hit this weekend. Dahl is a 2019 MLB all-star who has spent most of his time in the minors since 2021. Matt Kroon, a 2018 Phillies draft pick, was projected to grow into a more powerful swing as he added more muscle.
Isn’t this fun? Way better than real baseball. Or at least, no baseball.
First lead almost blown: The 9th inning
After the Phillies blasted their way to a 14-9 lead, they did the other thing they do sometimes and let their opponent fight their way back into it. Three runs came in for Toronto in the sixth after the Phillies had Michael Mercado replace Dylan Covey on the mound. Mercado loaded the bases with no outs and then gave up a bases-clearing double to make it 14-12. A sac fly in the ninth made it a one-run game, but the Phillies were able to get the last out before they sent everyone who swore they wouldn’t overreact to a spring training game into an emotional spiral that would ruin the whole week.
First almost-no-hitter: Aaron Nola and the bullpen
We’re all aware of Nola’s polarities, and if you’re a results-based person, then you had to have been happy to see Nola shut down the Yankees in game two on Sunday. Nola plowed through Yankees hitters you will not see on opening day for two innings, allowing nothing and striking out three. Even more charming was the Phillies bullpen arms that were trotted out afterward, all of whom kept trouble off the basepaths and didn’t allow a hit until Gregory Soto gave up a single in the eighth–the only Yankees hit of the game. Matt Strahm, Jeff Hoffman, and Jose Alvarado combined to pitch three innings, strike out four, and allow one base runner on a walk. Mick Abel came out for an inning and struck out two of the three batters he faced, getting his mid-90s fastball to come inside and then complementing it with an off-speed slider going the other way that scrambled a hitter’s brain. Even Seranthony Dominguez got a clean inning in there.
They weren’t facing Aaron Judge or Juan Soto, instead the Yankees are keeping their stars hidden until they feel the public has earned the right to see them. Classic Yankees.
Conclusion: Baseball!
Spring training has a lot of moving parts as starters swing their way into playing shape and pitchers shake off the rust. Trea Turner, Nick Castellanos, and Kyle Schwarber all made their debuts this weekend; Garrett Stubbs knocked in a run. Young non-roster invitees are pushing to impress and a spot or two in the roster are still waiting to be officially claimed. The Phillies have a few things to figure out this spring, and they can look good doing it. They won’t always, but there’s a lot of exhibition action to go and a lot more information to gather.
Also, did you know Kevin Stocker’s brother works for Pixar?
