Former Guardians pitcher who had blink-and-you'll-miss-it tenure signs with Phillies

Pitching injuries always tend to lead to weird roster moves. 

Take, for example, the 2024 Cleveland Guardians. While that iteration of the Guardians cruised to an American League Central title and never really had to worry about any of the other teams in the division that were nipping at their heels, they did so while having to run through a plethora of pitchers due to injuries. 

One of those pitchers was Connor Gillispie, who had a three-game stint with Cleveland in the dog days of the season in August. 

He’s had quite a MLB ride since that time with Cleveland and he added another stamp on his proverbial transaction passport on Friday when he signed a minor league deal with the Phillies. 

Former Guardians pitcher Connor Gillispie signs with the Phillies 

Gillispie’s journey with the Guardians started when Cleveland picked him in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 Draft from Baltimore. 

He posted a 4.01 ERA across 89 2/3 innings in Triple-A with the Guardians before being called up in August, though he had allowed an eye-popping 19 home runs in Triple-A at the time of the call-up. 

He made his Guardians debut on Aug. 4 with three innings of long relief against the Orioles (his former team) before allowing one run in three innings against the Yankees later in the season and two scoreless innings against the Royals. 

The Guardians ended up designating him for assignment after the season, and he quickly signed a contract with the Braves. His tenure in Atlanta didn’t last long, however, as the Braves DFA’d him to make room for Jurickson Profar. 

The Marlins ended up claiming him off waivers, and he appeared in 26 big league innings for them last season, albeit with a ghastly 8.26 ERA. 

The Marlins outrighted him off their roster midway through the season and he had a brief stint with the Twins, but ended up posting a 14.49 ERA in 13 2/3 innings for Minnesota’s Triple-A team. 

He’s going to be a pure depth arm with the Phillies, though he does have one minor league option remaining so the Phillies would be able to still send him back to Triple-A should they choose to add him to the roster. 

The Phillies have one of the more complete rosters in MLB thanks to a rotation led by thanks to Zack Wheeler (who is working his way back from injury), Cristopher Sánchez, Jesús Luzardo, Aaron Nola and Taijuan Walker, but Gillispie is a solid insurance option who has some MLB experience. 

He clearly hasn’t done enough recently to earn an MLB opportunity, but perhaps a stint in a new organization will be enough to help him unlock whatever he was able to show in his short stint with Cleveland.