Phillies sign RHP Taijuan Walker

[andyb]

I agree Turner will be the shortstop. If Stott and Turner ever switch it will likely be coming back from an injury or after an offseason where Turner's defense is criticized.

The big question is whether Stott is better. I think he might be a tiny bit better, but in that case the tie goes to the veteran whose bat is certain to be in the lineup (remember Sosa could still platoon with Stott). Sosa is less certain to be in the lineup so his job HAS to include all the infield positions. I also anticipate Sosa playing SS on Turner's off days to give Stott some consistency.

If Turner maintains his defense for a few more years (and Stott ages to 27 or 28) the real challenge to Turner could be a kid like Bergolla.

[zambonir]

I think I already posted this (and, incidentally, while I get the value of posting breaking news like major signings as their own thread, we now essentially have four different threads all discussing hot stove/off-season/next season in general) but it's interesting to me that there have always been questions about whether Stott would stick at SS and it wound up being 2B where he thrived initially and yet some (I believe including Keith Law) think he's already better than Turner defensively.

At the end of the day, Dombrowski gave Didi a two-year deal and now he's signed Stott, so I think that tells us that he and the front office always saw Stott at 2B.

I'm still intrigued by Turner at 3B tbh, does he have the arm?

[andyb]

I'm still intrigued by Turner at 3B tbh, does he have the arm?

There you go, posting about Turner in the Walker thread!

[zambonir]

Haha yes I'm aware. Not sure the name "Walker" has appeared in this thread for 20 posts (and the discussion about race related to him is in a whole different one too. The Turner thread, in fact).

[julio]

Haha yes I'm aware. Not sure the name "Walker" has appeared in this thread for 20 posts (and the discussion about race related to him is in a whole different one too. The Turner thread, in fact).

Yep, it's a god-awful mess!

And you messy kids are just going to have to live with it!

It will settle down. It's been a really interesting, and exciting, Winter Meetings. I keep coming back here, thinking, "Who did we sign since last night?"

[zambonir]

Next bit of news should be a few roster deletions.

[andyb]

I am OK with the random threads. It is just going to happen and whenever we post it is sometimes hard to stay on topic (Turner's contract affects lots of other things on the roster).

Locking them after a week is probably good. Getting back to a Phillies and non-Phillies set of offseason threads is good. Those are probably broad enough to capture rule 5 and 40-man moves. We will need at least one 40-man move when the 2 pitchers are official.

[Squire]

This Phillies have finally made this signing official this morning

https://twitter.com/Phillies/status/1603737206627209221

[andyb]

And Tayler Scott was designated for assignment. A good chance he clears waivers I imagine. Also will save this board from a number of unintentional misspellings of his first name.

[zambonir]

Ha, funny. For me at least, when the spelling is so blatantly unusual I tend to remember it. But autocorrect probably has other ideas.

[Philsmania]

I wonder how many men spell it that way thanks to Taylor Swift.

[zambonir]

I'm actually gonna have more trouble spellling Taijuan (instinct is to drop the "i")

[phillychuck]

I wonder how many men spell it that way thanks to Taylor Swift.

Approximately zero? Why would Taylor Swift have anything to do with changing the spelling to Tayler?

[andyb]

He is going to wear number 99. I thought he'd be the first since Wild Thing, but Turk Wendell and So Taguchi (!!) have worn it also.