Pitching, Pitching, and more pitching has been Matt Klentak’s emphasis all throughout the off-season and he keeps that trend going today with the signings of Andrew Bailey and Edward Mujica. Both were signed to minor league contracts today with invites to Spring Training and they join other veteran bullpen candidates James Russell and Ernesto Frieri. It should be an exciting competition to watch during Spring Training because these relievers have a second chance to re-establish themselves and provide leadership to a young club.
Bailey, 31-years old, is a South Jersey native, who only pitched in 10 games for the Yankees last year going 0-1 with a 5.19 ERA in eight innings of work. Bailey is still suffering from the after effects of a shoulder injury that kept him out for the 2014 season and he hasn’t quite been able to get back to form yet. It remains to be seen what the Phillies hope to get out of Andrew Bailey, but he does a project as a candidate to be their closer since he has experience in the past with the job.
Mujica, 31-years old, hasn’t been able to find any success in the roles he’s been put in since his career best season in 2013 with the Cardinals where he had 37 saves and a 2.78 ERA. Since then, Mujica’s ERA has ranged from 3.90 to 4.75 and it’s kind of perplexing why that is. His pitches haven’t regressed and the walks haven’t spiked yet he’s just getting hit hard just about every time he was called on. Edward Mujica seems like your prototypical change of scenery type of player, but not sure if that will do him any good here.
This year is probably the deepest the Phillies have ever been with their rotation and their bullpen, which is just how Matt Klentak wants it. This Spring Training should be interesting to watch because there are definitely some position/rotation battles to keep an eye out for and nobody has a clue how the bullpen will end up shaking out without too many givens.
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