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Phillies Send Two Spring Standouts to Minor-League Camp

It was a confidence-building month of March for the two young players the Phillies reassigned on Wednesday.
Corey Seidman|
The Phillies have 46 players left on their active spring training roster.
The Phillies have 46 players left on their active spring training roster. | Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images

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Philadelphia Phillies

The Phillies reassigned two more young position players to minor-league camp on Wednesday and are down to 46 on their active spring training roster.

They will need to make 20 more decisions between now and Opening Day. Some of these moves may have come earlier if the Phils didn't have 10 players participate in the World Baseball Classic and six make it to the semifinals.

Updates and background info on the two players reassigned:

OF Dante Nori (21)

The Phillies' 2024 first-round pick stood out so much in the WBC that he was named to the World Baseball Classic All-Tournament Team. He and Aaron Nola, both from Team Italy, were the two Phils honored.

Nori's eight hits, .400 batting average and six RBI led Team Italy despite him being the youngest position player on the roster.

The 21-year-old, left-handed-hitting outfielder belted two homers to right-center field in Italy's first win over Brazil and kept raking from there.

Nori was moved up from ninth to leadoff in the second game and reached base three more times.

He hit a sacrifice fly in Italy's two-run win over Team USA in Game 3.

He brought in a run with a well-executed safety squeeze that helped break open a must-win game against Mexico.

And Nori drove in one of Italy's two runs in the semifinal loss to Venezuela.

Talk about a confidence-building tournament for a player with just a handful of games above Single-A.

"He's performed very well at a pretty high level," Phillies manager Rob Thomson told reporters, including The Athletic. "I don't know where he's going to start the season, but he's a guy to think about."

Ranked this month by MLB Pipeline as the Phillies' No. 7 prospect, Nori hit last season at Single-A, he hit in the Arizona Fall League and hit in the WBC. Before the tournament, the expectation was that he would open the season at Double-A Reading and could potentially hit his way to Triple-A by the summer.

The Phillies have developed so few homegrown, everyday outfielders over the last 15 years, but Justin Crawford and Nori have a chance to help for a long time.

1B/LF Felix Reyes (24)

Reyes, who turns 25 next Thursday, hit .335 last season with Reading to lead all of Double-A and win the Eastern League MVP award. It was a loud .335, too, with 34 doubles, four triples and 15 home runs.

The Phillies are trying to find a position for the right-handed-hitting Reyes, who offers much more bat than glove. He played 18 Grapefruit League games, 14 of them at first base, two as a mid-game substitute in left field and two at DH.

Reyes signed with the Phillies as an amateur free agent in February 2020 and broke out last season. The performance earned him a non-roster invite to spring training, where he went 10-for-33 (.303) for the Phils with a double, three home runs and a team-leading 11 RBI.

He figures to open the season with Triple-A Lehigh Valley and should see even more early reps at first base with fellow first base prospect Keaton Anthony breaking a bone in his foot earlier this month.

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Corey Seidman
COREY SEIDMAN

A Philly sports lifer who grew up a diehard fan before shifting to cover the Phillies beginning in 2011 as a writer, reporter, podcaster and on-air host. Believes in blending analytics with old-school feel and observation, and can often be found watching four games at once when the Phillies aren't playing.

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