Tyler Spangler is officially a Phillie.<\/p>\n
The Phillies signed the 18-year-old shortstop, the 36th overall pick in this year\u2019s MLB Draft, on Friday. He received a $3.25 million bonus, above the $2,758,800 slot value for the pick, according to MLB.com\u2019s Jim Callis.<\/p>\n
The club also announced it has signed its other 19 draft picks, along with a handful of undrafted free agents.<\/p>\n
Spangler, a 6-foot-3, 195-pound left-handed hitter from De La Salle High School in Concord, California, was the Phillies\u2019 first pick after the club dropped 10 spots as a penalty for exceeding luxury tax thresholds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s awesome,\u201d Spangler said after the club introduced him at Citizens Bank Park. \u201cWords can\u2019t really describe it, to be honest.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Spangler, the next step is developing at the club’s complex in Clearwater.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust go to Florida, develop, work hard,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s kind of what I do, just put my best foot forward and keep working hard and hopefully develop.\u201d<\/p>\n
The questions around Spangler were obvious on draft night.<\/p>\n
He missed his senior season because of a back injury. That carried extra weight in the Phillies\u2019 system because Aidan Miller, the organization\u2019s top-ranked prospect and another high school shortstop taken early in the draft, has not played this season because of a back injury.<\/p>\n
After the draft, Phillies scouting director Brian Barber said the club did \u201cextensive medical reviews\u201d on Spangler and felt \u201ccompletely comfortable\u201d taking him.<\/p>\n
Spangler said Friday he is ready.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a little problem with my back,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel great right now… I’m ready to start.\u201d<\/p>\n
The MLB Draft Combine at Chase Field in Arizona at the end of June gave teams another look at Spangler after his missed senior season.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuper important,\u201d Spangler said of the Combine. \u201cGoing out there and taking BP in a big league stadium for the first time in a while, it was surreal. It was awesome. Just being in a big, big park, it\u2019s sweet. I was just super happy that I went out there and felt great. No issues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scott Boras, Spangler\u2019s agent, said the decision to shut him down was made with his professional future in mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of this is core strength,\u201d Boras said. \u201cWe have a young player, we want to really focus on his core strength, so the leg strength, so then going into the professional world, he\u2019ll have a very, very strong foundation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boras said Spangler \u201cprobably could have played with it,\u201d but the plan was to remove any doubt before the draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a minor issue,\u201d Boras said. \u201cLet\u2019s resolve it and focus toward what we\u2019re going to do in the combine.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spangler has drawn Corey Seager comparisons because of his size, position and left-handed swing.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeager\u2019s a good one,\u201d Spangler said. \u201cBigger shortstop, left-handed hitter. Love the way he plays. I always watch Barry Bonds too, just the way he swings it. I feel like I model my game after those two guys.\u201d<\/p>\n
He does not view the comparison as pressure.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot at all,\u201d Spangler said. \u201cI\u2019m my own player. I do everything my own way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barber called Spangler \u201ca total package player\u201d after the Phillies drafted him. He said the organization sees him staying at shortstop, with a hit-first profile now and power to come.<\/p>\n
Boras also sees a player who fits the Phillies\u2019 recent run of high-upside prep picks.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe can really play on the dirt,\u201d Boras said. \u201cVery high baseball IQ, great baseball skills.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spangler\u2019s first trip to Philadelphia also came on a Friday night with an entertaining matchup in town.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery first time,\u201d Spangler said. \u201cIt\u2019s awesome. Tonight, Yankees-Phillies, great game, Friday night. It\u2019s gonna be awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
He got a quick introduction to the city, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew the cheesesteaks were good, so I had to try that,\u201d Spangler said. \u201cHad to try Angelo\u2019s pizza, a couple local spots around here.\u201d<\/p>\n
His first official day as a Phillie also happened to fall on the same day the Sixers signed LeBron James. Spangler grew up in the Bay Area as a Warriors fan, one of the other teams pursuing James, so that part came with some grief from home.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was happy,\u201d Spangler said. \u201cBut I\u2019m from the Bay Area, California, so the Warriors were another option. I\u2019ve been a Warriors fan my whole life, but all my friends were giving me a hard time back home on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The baseball part starts now.<\/p>\n
Spangler\u2019s senior season did not go the way he planned, but the deal is done, the Phillies are comfortable with his health and his pro career is about to begin.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m ready to go,\u201d Spangler said. \u201cIt\u2019s been a little bit since I played the game, so I\u2019m super, super excited.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tyler Spangler is officially a Phillie. The Phillies signed the 18-year-old shortstop, the 36th overall pick in this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":824952,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,266099,82],"class_list":["post-824951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-phillies-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824951"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824951\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/824952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}