Each and every season, teams need to sign players to minor league contracts for two reasons. First, they need to stock their upper minors with players that can fill in if the major league roster finds itself in a bind. Second, if that player is good enough during spring training, he can possibly fill a cheap need in the majors right out of the gate. The Phillies are no different and have already made several minor league signings at this point in the offseason. Let’s look at a few of them and see what they might offer.
When de la Cruz was signed, the team hadn’t signed Adolis Garcia yet. Their intentions with Nick Castellanos have been pretty well known all offseason long, so the team was going to be interested in adding right handed power to their outfield depth chart.
de la Cruz is at least that. He has had seasons where he’s hit 21 and 19 home runs, but 2025 was a pretty disappointing in all facets of the game. He didn’t hit, he didn’t defend well and didn’t garner any interest in a major league deal. The fact that he took a minor league deal from the Phillies so early suggests this. They’ll need something in Lehigh Valley to call up in an emergency, so for now, let’s hope he can regain some of that lost power he had.
Yeah yeah, this isn’t really a minor league deal (he was claimed off waivers in November), but this one actually somewhat intrigues me. Leon’s numbers in the minor leagues were quite good, what with his back-to-back 20/20 seasons in 2023 and 2024, but it all fell apart in 2025. He suffered a knee injury at the beginning of the season and never really got his footing back. He was designated for assignment by the Orioles after they had claimed him off waivers from the Astros, at which point the Phillies snapped him up. Again, useful depth that maybe they can unlock a little something with.
And he hits right handed!
The youngest of the bunch, Peguero is only 24 years old right now and can play all three infield positions that aren’t first base. There is value in having that kind of versatility in the system and at his age, he’s still young enough that were he start at Lehigh Valley, he can move around that infield as well. So why was he available?
Notice there hasn’t been much said about his offense.
While in the minor leagues coming with Pittsburgh, Peguero did show some speed and a sprinkle of power, but once exposed to major league pitching, it simply proved to be too much. The Pirates have other, better options to do the same thing he can do, hence his moving to another organization. He’s got something of an idea of the strike zone and doesn’t strike out too, too much, but there is almost no power to his name. He’d be a contact first, glove can play anywhere type of utility player should the team need to call on him, but again, those types of players have a usefulness about them. Though Aidan Miller would probably get the call over him should they need someone for a long stretch of time, he’d be a fine player to call up for ten days if needed without worrying about another team putting in a claim.
Let’s just hope the Phillies don’t actually have to call on him.
A typical Phillies arm that they like to stash in the minor leagues, Torres has a good arm, alright strike out clips and almost no clue where the ball is headed once it starts it’s final flight towards home. The team likes velocity, something innate in a pitcher, so a pitcher like Torres would appeal to them. If they can tweak a few things with his secondary stuff, well, maybe he has a shot at coming up as a one day fill-in.
Ah, finally, someone with extended major league experience. The team has had trouble finding and convincing these types of pitchers to join their organization the past few years since the path to getting major league innings was always so blocked. With a little bit more haziness surrounding the rotation than in years’ past to begin 2026, Richards might see an opportunity to make a few starts.
With Richards, it’s all about the changeup. His fastball velocity hovers in the 90-92 range, so he needs that cambio to get by. It’s mostly been those two pitches he has relied on in the past, but he has recently added a slider whose movement profile looks like a Cotham specialty of upgrading to a cutter.
The key is going to be getting this changeup back to where it was. The whiff rates he was getting on the pitch were excellent in 2021-23 until it started falling off a cliff.
If they can figure that out and/or add another pitch to his mix, they might really have something here.
Well, outside of team’s apparent love of all ways to say the first name, Wilson brings a bit more pitching depth to the organization. He pitched with the White Sox last year and wasn’t very good. He didn’t strike out a lot of batters, instead getting a lot of contact. The problem was that the contact he gave up was hard and often went over the fence. Going back through his career, he’s never truly been a strikeout artist, instead relying on getting that contact to go at a fielder. In 2025, it bit him when that contact found places to fall.
Interestingly enough, in 2024, his fastball was in the 86th percentile in run value according to Baseball Savant. Last year, it fell back to earth into the 3rd percentile. In that 2024 season, he was using a cutter 35% of the time, a sinker 32% of the time. Last year, those numbers fell to 24% and 24% respectively. Maybe the Phillies can work on his getting those numbers back to where they were (with better coaching on those pitches) to see if he can give them something at the minor league level.
Another signing that adds some depth at the Triple-A level, Stoudt hasn’t done a whole lot in the different organizations he’s been in, but as with other arms, he can throw the ball pretty hard (94.7 average velocity last season with Baltimore’s system). There’s a slider and changeup in the arsenal as well, but outside of that, Stoudt looks like he’ll just be a organizational arm. With the depth that they need to put together in Lehigh Valley, that’s completely fine.