Phillies takeaways as opening day looms: Case for Scott Kingery, who’s having best camp and more

Kingery is a solid candidate in a five-way competition for two bench spots, a new power arm is impressing and other observations from Phillies camp.

Scott Kingery is batting .433 (13-for-30) with one homer in 12 spring training games.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

by Scott Lauber

Published March 17, 2023, 6:42 p.m. ET

DUNEDIN, Fla. — When the Phillies turned Scott Kingery into a jack-of-all-trades utility player as an ascending rookie in 2018, the critics screamed that shuttling between positions would be detrimental to his development. Five years later, his versatility may be the thing that leads him back to the major-league roster.

The irony isn’t lost on Kingery.

“There is irony,” he said Friday, laughing at the mere thought of it. “Up through the minors, it was all second base. To go from three straight years of second base to center field, third, left, right, short, second, at the time I was like, ‘OK, we’re going to have to figure this out.’ Now, it’s more of a comfortable role for me. I just need to know what glove I need to bring out and I can go play.”

It’s been a while since Kingery was able to play as freely as he has this spring. And less than two weeks until opening day, he has gone from a dark horse to make the opening-day roster to a solid candidate in a five-way competition for two bench spots.

Kingery is batting .433 (13-for-30) with one homer in 12 spring training games. He has played four positions and started at three, including shortstop and center field. His swing is flatter, more like it was coming up through the minor leagues than the uppercut-crazed freak show it became over the last few years. And he’s finally healthy after shoulder surgery in 2021 and long recovery that dragged into last season.

“He looks like he’s the old Scott Kingery again,” manager Rob Thomson said.

Remember that guy? There are echoes of the 2018 camp, when Kingery forced his way onto the opening-day roster by hitting everything in sight and being willing to sign a six-year, $24 million contract before ever playing in the majors.

Kingery, now 28, is entering the final year of that deal. He’s no longer on the 40-man roster, which would seem to leave him at a disadvantage compared to Darick Hall, Jake Cave, Kody Clemens, and Dalton Guthrie. But it would be easy enough to rectify. The Phillies likely will transfer Bryce Harper to the 60-day injured list before the season, which would open a 40-man spot.

Each of the bench candidates is having a terrific spring. Each can be sent to the minors without going through waivers. Each has a different skill set. Kingery would fit into the roster as a right-handed hitter who could play center field. (Brandon Marsh, the primary center fielder, bats from the left side.) But the Phillies also could choose to carry Hall and Cave, or Clemens, all of whom bat left-handed.

These figure to be tough decisions, but also good ones.

“We petitioned the league if we could carry 30 players this year,” Thomson joked. “We haven’t heard back from them on that.”

Kingery isn’t obsessing over it. Not after everything he’s been through. If anything, he can lean on his experience from 2018 to help navigate his path back.

“The expectations are a little different than 2018, but to have been through that kind of camp where I went out and proved myself, it’s very similar,” Kingery said. “I’m just happy with the way I’ve battled in the box and been able to play multiple positions. That’s something that I went through in 2018 as well. The goal was to get on the field, be healthy, and just stay in camp as long as I could. I’m happy with how it’s gone. Just going to keep trying to prove that I deserve a spot.”

Other thoughts and observations with two weeks until opening day:

1. There isn’t a known correlation between Andrew Painter’s cutter usage in his March 1 spring training start and his sprained right elbow. But it’s worth wondering why the 19-year-old phenom was unleashing a pitch in a game that he only developed in the offseason. “It’s not this fundamentally different pitch for him,” pitching coach Caleb Cotham said. “It’s really a tighter version of the slider. Maybe a little easier to throw for strikes. Maybe we threw too many fastballs, but he has a good fastball. You could always say, ‘We should’ve done this or that.’”

2. Good luck finding a Phillies pitcher who’s having a better camp than Yunior Marte. It isn’t only that the 28-year-old has allowed one run and struck out six batters in six innings. Lightning seems to shoot from his right arm. Acquired from the Giants for triple-A lefty Erik Miller, Marté can elevate or sink his fastball at 97 mph and has a late-breaking slider. His stuff — Thomson calls it “filth” — makes him the frontrunner for the last bullpen spot.

3. If you’re waiting for the Phillies to name a closer, sorry, it’s not happening. Thomson will stick to his plan of using Craig Kimbrel, Seranthony Domínguez, and lefties José Alvarado and Gregory Soto in the ninth inning depending on matchups. “Some guys get lefties out, some guys get righties out, some guys get both out,” Thomson said. “And they’re all comfortable pitching in the ninth. Might as well utilize our strengths as much as we can.”

4. Kimbrel never worried that he would have to junk his signature pre-pitch pose — torso bent parallel to the ground, right arm dangled at a 90-degree angle — to comply with the new pitch clock. He said PitchCom, the electronic system of receiving signs, has helped enable him to deliver a pitch within 15 seconds with the bases empty. “I’m just going to do what I do and work within the rules,” Kimbrel said. “It’s quick. But there’s no getting away from it, so just have to work with it.”

5. Thomson said the Edmundo Sosa center field experiment is more than a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency scenario. But it’s also clear that the learning curve in the outfield is steep for the slick-fielding infielder, who has had trouble reading the ball off the bat in two starts in center field. “I think, as time goes on, he’s going to get better,” Thomson said. “Doesn’t mean that it is. But I think that’s what’s going to happen.”

6. A few weeks ago, after banging a splitter off the center-field batter’s eye, Hall remarked that it may have been the first time in seven years of pro ball that he hit out an offspeed pitch without pulling it to right field. He went deep the other way to left field Thursday night, albeit off a sinker. Hall leads the team with five homers, which puts him in strong position to win a job, especially with the Phillies in need of left-handed power while Harper is out.

7. Left-hander Bailey Falter allowed an .818 OPS to right-handed batters last season, compared to .671 against lefites. Maybe his changeup might help. Falter threw the pitch only 4.2% of the time last year. “I’d encourage him to throw his changeup,” Thomson said. “Because I’ve seen good depth with it in earlier starts. I’d encourage him to keep using it.”

8. Start the Aaron Nola contract extension clock. The sides ramped up talks last month, according to a source, but Nola also has said he’d prefer not to discuss a new deal once the season opens. He’s eligible for free agency at season’s end. Tick, tock.