Phillies make some minor moves, bring back a familiar face
Another handsome Dave?
Don’t panic, take a deep breath, yes David Buchanan is a Philadelphia Phillie again, but you’re not re-living in 2014.
After an ignominious end to his Major League career in 2015 when he posted a 6.99 ERA in 15 starts for a last place Phillies team, Buchanan bounced around as many as five different leagues, from the minors to Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball to the Korean Baseball Organization, where he finally found a more permanent home with the Samsung Lions.
After finding some real consistency and a spot at the top of the Lions’ rotation with a 2.54 ERA over 30 starts during 2023, and a 3.02 ERA across four full seasons in South Korea, Buchanan is finally returning home to the states at age-34, where the Phillies officially announced he was signed to a minor league deal with an invite to Major League spring training.
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Buchanan isn’t the only new pitching project for the Phillies development staff this spring. The club also announced the signing of Kaleb Ort, claimed off waivers from the Miami Marlins.
Aged 32 as of 2024, Ort made his first Opening Day roster in 2023 with the Boston Red Sox as a reliever, but none of his three stints in the bigs have produced adequate results. Across three brief seasons and 51.2 MLB innings, Ort has a 6.27 ERA.
Despite that lofty figure, there are encouraging signs behind the traditional numbers. Ort whiffed 9.4 batters per nine in 2023 and walked only 3.5 per nine with a fastball that tops out at 99mph. However, Ort’s struggles with the long ball held him back. Where Buchanan allowed only four home runs in 188.0 IP, Ort surrendered six homers in 23.0 IP.
While those figures may be disconcerting, the Phillies’ minor league staff has done well in extracting the talent in former fringe relievers since team president Dave Dombrowski took over in 2021, as evidenced by Andrew Bellati and Jeff Hoffman.
Ort’s 12.5 K/9 throughout his Triple-A career is encouraging, and even at the Major League level his slider has devastating horizontal movement that should play well against right-handed hitters.
