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Garrett Stubbs Has Been Designated for Assignment
Published:
Phils sent out the Opening Day roster:
Pitchers (13): Left-handers – José Alvarado, Kyle Backhus, Tanner Banks, Jesús Luzardo, Tim Mayza and Cristopher Sánchez. Right-handers – Jonathan Bowlan, Jhoan Duran, Brad Keller, Aaron Nola, Andrew Painter, Zach Pop and Taijuan Walker.
Catchers (2): Rafael Marchán and J.T. Realmuto.
Infielders (6): Alec Bohm, Bryce Harper, Dylan Moore, Edmundo Sosa, Bryson Stott and Trea Turner.
Outfielders (4): Justin Crawford, Adolis García, Otto Kemp and Brandon Marsh.
Designated Hitter (1): Kyle Schwarber.
The Phillies selected the contracts of Crawford and infielder Christian Cairo, and optioned Cairo to triple-A Lehigh Valley. Catcher Garrett Stubbs was designated for assignment.
Additionally, the Phillies placed right-handed pitchers Orion Kerkering (right hamstring strain), Max Lazar (left oblique strain) and Zack Wheeler (right shoulder surgery) on the 15-day injured list, all retroactive to March 22.
No surprises here, though the DFA of Stubbs probably the biggest talking point.
He signed a split contract with the Phils at the end of last season, so if he clears waivers he can go down to Lehigh Valley and make $575,000 this season. He gives up the salary if he declares free agency.
Garrett went from beloved clubhouse guy to public enemy #1 after the 2022 and 2023 vibes wore off. He was totally ripped for the Arizona pool comments, which he called “a joke,” and I’m inclined to agree with him, not because he was cool with CB, but because the thing really was blown out of proportion. I think Phillies fans were done with the honeymoon period and Stubbs became an identifiable target for collective fan ire when the calendar flipped to 2024.
Here’s how he explained the whole thing on Crossing Broadcast a few years ago:
Kinkead: Were you surprised at how the quote about the Arizona pool was received?
Stubbs: What a joke dude! I was like, the Philadelphia Inquirer, they write the article and they do it with a negative connotation. They even tweet it with ‘this is bad vibes from the chief vibes officer,’ yadda yadda yadda. We were cracking up and blown by people actually taking the ‘if we win two wins in Arizona, we’ll beeline it for the pool,’ like get out of here with that. And then, the other funny part is that the whole conversation that that quote came out of, it was me and (audio drops) reporters on a practice day, and I was trolling myself about how to get into a NLCS game, one how cool it was, that it was frickin’ awesome, but two, trolling myself about the fact that I don’t play and I got in there. We gotta score 10 runs, maybe if we score 15 runs I’ll get an at-bat. And I’m messing around with them about that. Then someone asked me if I had seen seen the memes about the pool, there’s a bunch of memes about LeBron staring down whoever in the playoff game, and it’s Stubbs staring down the pool. There was one with Forrest Gump running down the road. And it said ‘Stubbs beelining it for the pool.’ Everyone was having fun with it. And they asked me, ‘hey if you win two games here in Arizona, will you jump in the pool?’ I brought up Paul Sewald talking about how ‘if people win in our stadium, go ahead and jump in the pool.’ So I thought, if he says it, and there’s no disrespect there, then yeah, if we win two games in Arizona, we’ll beeline it for the pool.
Kinkead: It’s funny because we had a field day with the Orlando Arcia thing, and Bryce staring him down when he went around the base path. And then Merrill Kelly comes out before Game 2 and says something totally innocuous, about how loud the stadium was going to be. But you give Philly fans an inch and they say, ‘oh yeah we’re gonna prove you a certain way.’ But Merrill Kelly wasn’t coming in here and saying ‘Citizens Bank Park sucks and every Phillies fan is a piece of shit.’ The concept of bulletin board material is funny to me because you’re playing in the NLCS already. If you can’t get motivated to play in the NLCS with a trip to the World Series on the line, then really what the hell are you a professional athlete for in the first place?
Stubbs: Dude, the amount of times I said that exact quote, and this is the first interview where anybody’s asked me. Those reporters that were there during that interview, they came up to me the next day, after it had caught fire, and the guy who wrote it, (audio drops), but literally every other person who was there for that interview was like ‘dude I am so sorry, I can’t believe they went and wrote it in the direction that they did.’ And I was like ‘dude, you don’t have to apologize, because one, you didn’t write it, and two, people are gonna draw to whatever (conclusion) they want to draw to.’ The Merrill Kelly quote, we were laughing about it, because in the locker room we knew fans were going to find a reason for this one. But we knew Merrill Kelly was just saying ‘I played in the WBC, awesome atmosphere, the (Citizens Bank Park) atmosphere, can’t imagine it would get much bigger, but we’ll see,’ that kind of thing. People blew it up.
Kinkead: Well maybe I contributed because I went on Twitter and said Garrett Stubbs should take a shit in the pool.
Stubbs: (laughing) Yeah, but that’s just being funny. You’re just messing around being funny and people run away with whatever they want to.
Pagan: So is bulletin board material not real?
Stubbs: For the fans, I think it’s a great way to get in somebody’s head. I think people enjoy that. But inside a locker room dude, if you think Bryce Harper needed Orlando Arcia to say something for him to hit two homers in a playoff game, have you ever watched that guy play baseball before?
Bottom line, Stubbs was part of some really memorable moments with the 2022 and 2023 teams. Fan enthusiasm was sky high back then and the Phillies could do no wrong. Then things start to wear off and we get annoyed, which happens. But when you look back 5-10 years from now, I think the attitude towards him will be more positive than negative.
Meantime, we will throw our support behind Rafael Marchan and the 2026 Phils. Let’s goooooooo
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com