The Phillies have signed 32-year old lefty swinging OF/1B Brad Wilkerson to a minor league deal. Wilkerson only played in 2 games in AAA-ball last season and he was 1 for 9 (.111 avg, .311 OPS). Wilkerson last played in the majors in 2008 with the Mariners and Blue Jays. He has now played in 972 games in his major league career and he is 788 for 3,187 (.247 avg, .790 OPS) with 500 runs scored, 122 homers, 399 RBIs and 53 stolen bases. Wilkerson has whiffed 947 times in his major league career so don’t look for him to hit much better than .250 in the event that the Phillies give him a call to the show at some point in 2010. I still like this signing for the Phillies as they have nothing to lose in giving him a shot this spring.

The Phillies have signed 28-year old righty reliever Oscar Villarreal to a minor league deal. He last pitched in the majors in 2008 with the Astros. Villarreal has pitched in 258 games (5 starts) in his major league career and he is 24-15 with 1 save, a 3.86 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP. It never hurts to give a guy who has had success in the majors a chance in spring training so I like this move for the Phillies.

The Phillies have signed 29-year old righty swinging 2B/SS/3B Luis Maza to a minor league deal. He played in 100 games in AAA-ball last season and he was 98 for 327 (.300 avg, .768 OPS) with 55 runs scored, 5 homers and 44 RBIs. Maza has also played in 45 games in his major league career and he is 18 for 79 (.228 avg, .561 OPS) with 7 runs scored, 1 homer and 4 RBIs. The Phillies will likely stash Maza in AAA and promote him if the need arises.

The Phillies have signed 29-year old switch-hitting outfielder Freddy Guzman to a minor league deal. Guzman played in 10 games for the Yankees last season and he was 1 for 6 (.167 avg, .310 OPS) with 2 runs scored, 1 RBI and 4 stolen bases. He also played in 101 games in AAA-ball last year in which he was 78 for 350 (.223 avg, .567 OPS) with 44 runs scored, 2 homers, 17 RBIs and 45 stolen bases. Guzman has now played in 47 games in his major league career and he is 20 for 95 (.211 avg, .529 OPS) with 13 runs scored, 1 homer, 7 RBIs and 9 stolen bases. The Phillies will stash Guzman in AAA and call him up if they need a speedy runner/late game defensive replacement.

The Phillies have claimed 24-year old righty swinging Brian Bocock off waivers from the Blue Jays. He played in 122 games in A+AA ball last season and he was 105 for 456 (.230 avg, .618 OPS) with 65 runs scored, 3 homers, 51 RBIs and 8 stolen bases. Bocock has played in the majors during the 2008 season with the Giants when he appeared in 32 games in which he was 11 for 77 (.143 avg, .414 OPS) with 4 runs scored, 2 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. I don’t know why the Phillies even bothered to bring Bocock in as he simply can’t hit the ball.