» Former Phillies’ Outfielder Burrell Signs with Tampa Bay

Former Phillies’ Outfielder Burrell Signs with Tampa Bay

Six days ago, former Phillies righthanded hitting leftfielder and free agent Pat ‘the Bat’ Burrell inked a a $16 million, two-year deal with the Tampa Bay Rays.

AP Sports Writer Fred Goodall reports background on the deal and Burrell’s sentiments for Yahoo sports;

The 32-year-old slugger spent the past nine seasons with the Philadelphia Phillies, who defeated the Rays in the World Series a little more than two months ago.

“At the end of last year, obviously I got a chance to know the team pretty well,” said Burrell, who hit .250 with 33 homers, 33 doubles, 86 RBIs and 102 walks in a career-high 157 games in 2008.

“Coming into free agency, the thing that was most important to me was to go somewhere I thought had as good a chance or better to repeat and go back to the World Series, or at least get into the playoffs.”

A .257 career hitter with 251 homers and 827 RBIs, Burrell has averaged 31 homers, 99 RBIs and 103 walks over the past four seasons. He was the everyday left fielder in Philadelphia, but Tampa Bay plans to use him mostly at designated hitter.

One of the Rays’ top priorities was to add a power hitter to a lineup that also features Carlos Pena, Evan Longoria, B.J. Upton and Carl Crawford.

The club looked at some left-handed hitters, including Jason Giambi, but Burrell appeared a better fit from the start, especially considering Tampa Bay struggled against left-handed pitching last season.

“He solidifies the middle of our already potent lineup,” vice president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said.

“We weren’t just singularly focused on a right-handed hitter, but it certainly is an advantage for us in terms of the way our lineup stacks up currently. We feel like any time you can add a hitter like Pat to the middle of the lineup, we’re a much-improved team today than we were at the end of last season.”

As previously stated on this blog, “Thanks for the memories…”, particularly his important winning hits in the 2008 post-season, particularly in World Series game 5. Pat ‘the Bat’ will be missed.

While speaking of the Phils, 4 days ago veteran 2nd baseman Marcus Giles was signed to a one-year minor league contract which would be worth $600,000 if he makes the Phillies’ 40 man roster.

The AP report notes;

Giles, who was out of the majors last year after being released by Colorado in spring training, provides another option for the World Series champions with second baseman Chase Utley and third baseman Pedro Feliz recovering from offseason operations.

The 30-year-old Giles is a career .277 hitter with 76 homers and 333 RBIs in seven seasons, the first six spent with Atlanta and one with San Diego. Giles’ best season was in 2003 when he hit .316 with 49 doubles, 21 homers and 69 RBIs. He batted .311 and .291 the following two seasons. Giles only hit .229 in ‘07 with the Padres.

In other Phillies news, Inquirer staff writer Jim Salisbury as well as MLB -Sports Rumors both posed the possibility that the Phils could sign veteran infielder Nomar Garciaparra as a righthanded hitter off of the bench.

MLB - Sports Rumors cites;

A team source Saturday… that said the Phillies had interest in the 35-year-old former two-time American League batting champion. The Phils have not made an offer, but may if Garciaparra tells them that he wants to play in 2009.

Salisbury notes;