Phillies sign Aaron Cook to minor-league deal

The Philadelphia Phillies have signed veteran right-hander Aaron Cook to a split contract that will pay him $1.625 million if he makes the big-league roster, reports Jon Morosi of FOX Sports:

Source: Aaron Cook signs minor league deal with #Phillies. Worth $1.625MM in majors. @mlbonfox

— Jon Morosi (@jonmorosi) January 16, 2013

Cook, 33, pitched for the injury-plagued Red Sox last season, earning notoriety for his inability to strike anyone out. The right-hander made 18 starts for Boston, racking up 94 innings of work, and yet managed to only strikeout 20 batters in that span. (Funny enough, one of those batters was wunderkind Mike Trout, which is just another example of how impossible it is to predict baseball.)

Prior to last season, Cook had spent his entire career in the not-so-friendly confines of Coors Field. Despite the stadium's propensity for eating contact pitchers alive, Cook actually did pretty well in Denver, posting a 4.53 ERA and 3.8 K/9 rate -- as well as an All-Star Game appearance -- in his decade with the Rockies.

The Phillies likely hope that Cook's pitch-to-contact ways will work much the same way in Citizen's Bank Park as they did at Coors for most of the last decade.