A day after the Phillies were searching for a bat and after another team got rid of “The Bat,” the Phillies expressed that they have no interest in bringing back Pat Burrell at this moment blogged Todd Zolecki.
Ruben Amaro, Jr. summed it up, stating the obvious reason as to why any sensible person wouldn’t want him back in Philly:
“We just don’t have a role for him right now. There isn’t a fit.”
Burrell cleared waivers from Tampa Bay and is now a free agent. It will only cost a team $300,000 to sign Burrell, which is cheap for a decent bat off the bench. Unfortunately, Burrell is a .227 hitter off the bench.
Burrell batted .218 with Tampa Bay, hitting only 16 homers and driving in 77 runs. His OBP was .311 and his slugging was .361, horrible numbers compared with his pretty successful career in Philadelphia.
Now was Amaro stated, there is no room on the Phillies roster for him. Ben Francisco and Ross Gload are much better hitting and fielding options than Burrell off the bench. Also as Zolecki pointed out, the two don’t even get much playing time to begin with.
Bringing in Burrell would be a publicity stunt but a liability to the Phillies. I’m sorry all you nostalgic Burrell lovers, he’s not coming back and should not come back. We don’t need another Matt Stairs on this team.
TTB 