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The Phillies have agreed to a minor-league contract with right-hander Drew Hutchison, the team announced earlier today. The deal also comes with an invite to spring training.
Hutchison has been with the Pirates organization since 2016, but the 27-year-old spent the entire 2017 season with the team’s Triple-A squad, throwing 159 1⁄3 innings with a 3.56 ERA and 1.29 WHIP.
In his last stint of major league action, Hutchison threw just 24 innings in 2016 between the Pirates and Blue Jays, after being a top-10 prospect in Toronto’s organization. The former 15th-round pick showed signs of promise during his time north of the border, but failed to establish any consistency and finished his Blue Jays tenure with a 4.92 ERA and 9.4 hits per nine innings over four seasons.
Should Hutchison find some of his seemingly lost potential in Philadelphia, he will be competing against a crowd of hopeful starters, including Jerad Eickhoff, Vince Velasquez, Ben Lively and Nick Pivetta.