We are just a couple of days away from seeing the Philadelphia Phillies in action — with spring training games set to start this weekend. While Wednesday was a reasonably quiet day, there was interesting news regarding an unexpected arrival at camp.
When the Phillies selected Noah Song in the Rule 5 draft, it was a very curious decision. Song was a highly regarded amateur pitcher when the Boston Red Sox drafted him. However, because he pitched for the U.S. Naval Academy, he had to go out on active duty with the military.
It appears that since the Phillies snatched Song this past offseason, he has been granted permission to transfer his service from active duty to selective reserves with the Navy. He can now report to Phillies camp earlier than anyone thought.
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Elsewhere in "Phillies land," Andrew Painter continues to impress everyone — including his teammates. While Kyle Schwarber hit a home run off of a curve that Painter hung against him in live BP, the slugger was still in awe of the raw stuff he had, as well as how well he has conducted himself in camp. By all accounts, Painter is saying and doing all the right things as he hopes to make the club out of spring training.
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The Angels will have some extra help from a future Hall of Famer, as Albert Pujols is coming back as a special assistant. It is certainly a little strange that he didn't take that kind of a position with the Cardinals, but he also doesn't have the same connection to that current front office. Overall, it can't hurt the Angels to have someone of Pujols' stature around.
The Yankees got some injury news on Wednesday, as right-hander Frankie Montas and catcher Ben Rortvedt underwent surgery for different ailments. Montas' surgery was already a known inevitability, as he needed a cleanup procedure on his bulky shoulder. In Rortvedt's case, he had been having issues with his finger that turned out to be related to an aneurysm in his shoulder that required surgery.