The Major League Baseball regular season is finally upon us, as the Philadelphia Phillies opened their home schedule on Monday with a rousing 6-1 win over the Colorado Rockies at Citizens Bank Park. While the season is young, and the pitching staff is relatively healthy (aside from Ranger Suárez's ill-timed start on the 15-day IL), there's always a need for more pitching depth over the course of a 162-game schedule.
The Phillies added to their minor league pitching depth on Tuesday, claiming right-hander Brett de Geus off waivers from the NL East rival Miami Marlins. The team announced the move on social media and that they had optioned him to Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
The Phillies have claimed RHP Brett de Geus off waivers from the Miami Marlins and optioned him to Lehigh Valley (AAA).
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) April 1, 2025
Phillies' waiver claim Brett de Geus has been around the league since being drafted in 2017
de Geus, 27, began the 2025 season with the Marlins' Triple-A affiliate in Jacksonville before being designated for assignment to get him off the 40-man roster. He made one appearance for the Jumbo Shrimp, giving up four runs (one earned) on five hits over 1 1/3 innings.
Originally a 33rd round draft pick in 2017 by the Los Angeles Dodgers, de Geus has been well-traveled around the league over the years. After two seasons in the Dodgers system, de Geus split 2021 between the Texas Rangers, where he made his MLB debut, and the Arizona Diamondbacks. He pitched to a 7.56 ERA in 50 innings in his debut season.
After spending 2022 in Arizona's minor leagues, he moved on to the Kansas City Royals in 2023, and the Seattle Mariners, the Marlins and the Toronto Blue Jays in 2024. He threw a total of 11 1/3 innings over 13 relief appearances in the majors for those three teams, finishing with a 7.15 ERA and 1.59 WHIP. The Blue Jays traded him to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the offseason, but he was designated for assignment and picked up by Miami.
Now with his ninth MLB franchise, de Geus will have his work cut out for him to get another sniff of the big leagues. Last season, he featured a 96.6 mph sinker (46 percent usage), an 85.1 mph curve (28 percent), an 89.7 mph cutter (21 percent), an 88.6 mph splitter (five percent) and a 98 mph four-seam fastball (one percent).
While de Geus doesn't possess big strikeout stuff (16.6 percent career strikeout rate) and can struggle with command (10 percent career walk rate), he is good at missing barrels and getting ground balls. He has a career 52.5 percent ground ball rate and 22.5 percent fly ball rate. Whether he can excel in those areas enough to warrant a look in the Phillies' bullpen when an arm is needed this season remains to be seen.
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