The Phillies have signed catcher José Godoy and right-hander Beau Burrows to minor league deals, per the transaction tracker of each player at MLB.com. Godoy is represented by The MAS+ Agency, while Burrows is a Frontline client. Phillies Tailgate reported Godoy’s signing a few days ago while philliesbaseballfan.com had Burrows.
Godoy, 29, signed a minor league deal with the Rangers in February, but it appears he was released at some point and now has a new deal with the Phillies. The backstop has a small amount of major league experience, with 62 plate appearances in 26 games, suiting up for the Mariners, Twins and Pirates. He hit .123/.194/.140 in that small sample of work.
Naturally, he has a larger and more impressive body of work at the Triple-A level. He has slashed .270/.328/.403 in 741 plate appearances there over five separate seasons. He’s also considered to be a strong defender behind the dish.
The Phils have J.T. Realmuto and Garrett Stubbs sharing the catching duties, but Rafael Marchán missed all of spring training due to back problems and hasn’t yet gotten back on the field. The Phil also signed Cam Gallagher and Aramis Garcia to minor league deals this offseason, but the former has been placed on the restricted list, per Phillies Tailgate. It’s unclear why Gallagher is unavailable, but it seems Godoy will share the catching duties with Garcia at Lehigh Valley for now.
Burrows, 27, has 17 2/3 innings of major league experience with an earned run average of 10.70 in that small sample. He spent last year in Atlanta’s minor league system with a 5.42 ERA in 76 1/3 innings, striking out 22.4% of batters faced while walking 10.6%. He had signed a minor league deal with the Twins a couple of months ago but was recently released.
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