In a span of 54 days last spring, Cal Stevenson played for three different organizations in four different cities.

First was Oakland where he played at Triple-A Las Vegas. The A’s designated him for assignment and then dealt him to San Francisco where he played at Triple-A Sacramento for former IronPigs manager Dave Brundage and also played in six MLB games with the Giants. Stevenson was then DFA’d by San Francisco and claimed off waivers from the Phillies only to again be designated for assignment 12 days later. This time, Stevenson cleared waivers and remained in the Phillies organization at Lehigh Valley.

Playing for multiple organizations in multiple cities became somewhat of the norm for Stevenson. After being a 10th round pick by Toronto in 2018, Stevenson was dealt to Houston a year later and then dealt to Tampa Bay in January of 2020. After a short stint with the Rays, Stevenson went to the Oakland A’s organization where he made his MLB debut in August of 2022. The end result after all of the moving around was having played 29 games in the majors with a .145 average.

Stevenson re-signed with the Phillies following the 2023 season and had spent the entire season with Lehigh Valley until he had his contract purchased by the Phillies and he returned to the majors during the Phillies current road trip, making him the latest in a long line of players to take a shot at impressing the team enough to end their revolving door of outfielders in the starting lineup. So far, nobody has been able to impress the Phillies enough to stick in the outfield other than Nick Castellanos. Brandon Marsh has gotten a consistent amount of playing time but he is coming off an 0-for-20 slump and sits against some of the tougher lefties. Johan Rojas and Christian Pache were a platoon in center field for a while but didn’t quench the thirst of the Phillies and Pache was later dealt to the Orioles, designated for assignment and then signed with the Miami Marlins. David Dahl took a crack at breaking the lineup but was later returned to Lehigh Valley.

Stevenson turns 28 next month and has produced well at Triple-A where he has played in 248 games and has a .284 average over three seasons. Having a steady home may be a factor in Stevenson producing his best Triple-A numbers of his career with a line of 7-39-.307/.420/.488 and a career-high 27 steals, besting his previous high of 19 from last season.

Keep in mind that Stevenson has never had an extended stretch of games at the major league level to truly test what he may be able to do for a team. With manager Rob Thomson’s penchant for platooning players and mixing and matching based on matchups, it’s not likely that Stevenson is going to see any extended time and it is very possible that he will only be on the major league roster until Austin Hays returns from the IL. Stevenson has played all three outfield positions and has impressive defensive numbers throughout his career, so perhaps his combination of a strong glove and some speed for on the base paths can extend his stay, but he has to find a way to get on base or risk being returned to the minors, which would require that he go through waivers again.

WHO WENT WHERE?... To make room for Stevenson on the 40-man roster, the Phillies had to DFA Lehigh Valley fan favorite Darick Hall, who recently broke the IronPigs all-time record for home runs when he surpassed Andy Tracy. Hall had to be exposed to waivers and went unclaimed by another team meaning that he will be back with Lehigh Valley this week for their trip to Worcester, but he is no longer on the 40-man roster. Pitcher Max Castillo, who was DFA’d to make room for the Phillies to add pitcher Max Lazar to the 40-man roster for his first trip to the majors, also cleared waivers and will return to the IronPigs. Allard pitched in three games for the Phillies – two starts and one extended relief outing – and over his 13 innings posted a 3.46 ERA was also optioned back to the IronPigs and will be with the team this week. The Phillies claimed pitcher Kyle Tyler from Miami and designated reliever Nick Nelson for assignment to clear another spot on the 40-man roster.

ANOTHER EXIT… At one point the Phillies regarded outfielder Simon Muzziotti as a pretty good prospect. That point passed and the Phillies recently outrighted the 25-year-old making him a free agent eligible to sign elsewhere. Muzziotti made his MLB debut with the Phillies in 2022, playing nine games in center field and batting .143 (1-7).

WHAT A WEEK… Weather made the early part of last week a mess for teams on the Eastern Seaboard and elsewhere. Fortunately, the weather cleared late in the week and the RailRiders (Yankees) and IronPigs were able to play all six games with Lehigh Valley winning just one of them. Lehigh Valley has lost six of their last seven games, dropping them to 21-16 in the second half of the season, putting them into a virtual tie with Rochester (22-17) at the top of the division standings. Scranton used the week to pull themselves to just ½ game behind both teams with a 21-17 record.