Today I Learned that Scott Kingery is Still with the Phillies
The Phillies sent out their list of non-roster Spring Training invites on Thursday, and look who’s there:
Scott Kingery, INF/OF – Kingery, 29, spent last season with triple-A Lehigh Valley where he slashed .244/.325/.400 in 117 games. His 68 runs scored for the IronPigs were second-most on the club and he was successful in 24 of his 25 (96.0%) stolen base attempts while setting an IronPigs franchise record with 23 consecutive stolen bases. Defensively, he appeared in 64 games at shortstop, 37 at second base and 18 in center field. A native of Phoenix, Ariz., Kingery was originally selected by the Phillies in the second round of the 2015 MLB Draft.
So back in November, the Phils declined his $13 million option for 2024. It was a 5:50 p.m. Friday news dump.
At that point, we thought he was done for good, but according to Tim Kelly at Phillies Nation, Kingery remains with the org for this reason:
Correction, because I don’t remember this ever coming in to play before:
The Phillies declined their 2024 club option for Scott Kingery, but he remains in the organization on the final year of his original minor league contract signed with the club back in 2015.
— Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) November 3, 2023
Bonkers. Had no idea.
According to Spotrac, Kingery has made more than $23 million dollars with the Phillies going back to 2015. He’s played 325 games at the Major League level, 273 of which took place in 2018 and 2019. Since the end of the 2019 season, he’s played just 52 games, logging 19 hits and six RBI.
Whoever this man’s agent is, we need to get him on line 1.