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Phillies Sign Former Braves Reliever to Minor League Deal

Adam Taylor McKillop
The Philadelphia Phillies sign a former Atlanta Braves reliever to a minor league contract.
The Philadelphia Phillies sign a former Atlanta Braves reliever to a minor league contract. / ASSOCIATED PRESS
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The Philadelphia Phillies, fresh off a World Series appearance, made massive moves in the offseason to round out their championship roster. With new names like Trea Turner, Taijuan Walker and Gregory Soto in the mix, Philadelphia has a legitimate shot to win it all next season.

But, baseball is a long season, and sometimes the most important offseason moves fly under the radar. Perhaps it's a long-inning reliever that saves Zack Wheelers' arm a handful of precious innings in June, or a lefty swinging role player who comes up with a big hit in August. All 162 games count.

That's the sort of move Philadelphia pulled off this week when they agreed to a minor league contract with former Atlanta Braves reliever Jesus Cruz.

It's still unclear if Cruz will receive a Spring Training invite, but he's been added to the organizational mix.

Cruz has just eight appearances on his MLB resume, the majority coming last year with the Braves. He did allow eight hits across 8.2 innings pitched, but also struck out 6 of the batters he faced. The strike out numbers are most attractive, something Cruz excelled at in the minor leagues.

In 2022, the righty struck out 32.2% of batters he faced in Triple-A. He's got swing-and-miss stuff, and if the Phillies can work on his command, he has the potential to get batters out at the big league level.

For now, the Phillies hold +1400 odds to win the 2023 World Series on FanDuel Sportsbook.

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Adam Taylor McKillop is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Adam Taylor also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username atmckillop. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel. 

Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change. 

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