Every year we get excited for the start of the Spring Training schedule of games. A long winter without baseball finally ends, even if the games don’t count. Then we quickly remember that the spring games are usually for the players we’ve never heard of or may never hear from again, as anyone important is extremely limited in their playing time.
But those limitations for regular starters allows for some fun or interesting stories to arise over the course of the spring season. Sometimes a player comes out of absolutely nowhere, tears up the Grapefruit League, and captures the heart of Phillies fans everywhere. Perhaps none embody this idea more than Scott Kingery.
Kingery may not have come out of nowhere, as he was a well-regarded prospect in the Phillies system, but he impressed in his first taste of MLB camp in 2017, hitting .286 with two home runs in ten games before going back to Reading. Kingery then burst onto the scene in 2018 when he hit .411 with five home runs in 22 games during the spring. His performance was so impressive that it earned him not only a call up to the Majors after just three years in the Minors, but general manager Matt Klentak awarded Kingery with an unprecedented six year, $24M contract extension. It was a large commitment to a player who had never appeared in the Majors to that point, but Kingery had put together two impressive camps, and it looked clear he was ready for the Majors.
But things didn’t work out that way, as Kingery struggled to ever come close to his torrid springs and had his career derailed by mismanagement, bad advice, COVID-19, and injuries. The once promising prospect hit only .229 with a .667 OPS across parts of five seasons with the Phillies. He returned to the minor leagues in 2022 and stayed there for the next two full seasons before being traded to the Angels in November of 2024.
Another name that comes to mind when thinking about spring training legends is Brock Stassi. The lefty first baseman did actually come out of nowhere and tore apart the Grapefruit League in 2017, hitting .306 with 6 home runs in 25 games. The Phillies had a spot on their bench, and Stassi earned a spot on the 2017 Opening Day roster, getting his first crack at the Majors at the age of 27 after six seasons in the minor leagues. He even earned his own fan group, as “Brock’s Crocs” started to appear at Citizens Bank Park. Unfortunately, the Cinderella story ended there, as Stassi lasted just 51 games with the Phillies, hitting .167 with a .573 OPS. He was sent back to Triple-A and ultimately designated for assignment in August. Stassi bounced around between organizations after electing free agency, but he never again appeared in a major league game. Stassi ultimately wound up back with the Phillies organization after his career, coaching with their minor league affiliates in 2023 and 2024 before being hired by the Mariners as a hitting coach for their low-A affiliate in 2025.
These are just two names of players who were the MVPs of spring training but never found much success in the majors. But we’ll always have that time in late February and early March where it looked like they might be something. Who is your favorite Phillies Spring Training MVP?