The Phillies equipment truck only left Philadelphia yesterday. One of those players who had a jersey on the truck headed down to Clearwater will not make it. Phillies Spring Training invitee Steve Geltz has been suspended 100 games for a third violation of a drug of abuse, reports Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
Four players in all received suspensions. They were all not on 40-man rosters, but had chances to make major league rosters. The others were catcher Alex Ciuffo of the Tampa Bay Rays organization, pitcher Alex Cunningham of the San Diego Padres organization, and second baseman Mitchell Tollman of the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. These three players received a 50-game suspension.
Geltz was entering Spring Training to compete for a spot in the Phillies bullpen. Geltz has 110 major league games under his belt and would have had the opportunity to show that he belonged in the major leagues. Consider Geltz akin to the likes of Michael Mariot, who signed as a minor league free agent but spent a good amount of Spring Training with the big league club and had opportunities in 2016.
The Phillies have many bullpen options after adding Tommy Hunter and Pat Neshek this offseason, so Geltz making the Opening Day roster was somewhat of a longshot in 2018.
