Phillies invite Cedric Hunter to spring training

It was starting to be a while since the Phillies last did a thing, but a thing they did on this very day by inviting outfielder Cedric Hunter to spring training.

Hunter is a minor league lifer, having spent ten years in the lower realms of the Padres, Cardinals, Indians, and Braves organizations since the age of 18. In that time, he's put together a slash line of .288/.348/.413.

The Padres took him in 2006 from a disappointing offering from the Georgia baseball talent pool, but he was believed by some to be San Diego's best asset at the time. He was certainly known for being all-business, arriving at the ball park with everything but a briefcase full of files.

An area scout in Georgia once spent 10 minutes telling me about how Cedric Hunter, a third-round pick this year by the Padres, arrived to his "job." Fully dressed in his uniform, Hunter had a reputation for speaking only briefly to those between the parking lot and the dugout, and his business-like demeanor particularly impressed this scout.

--Baseball America, October 2006

How will the seriousness of Hunter gel with the tomfoolery of Odubel Herrera or Aaron Altherr? Will he become the "dean" of their shenanigans? My god; if the Phanatic tussles his hair or something, Hunter will probably report him to HR. The These are things you have to wonder if the Phillies are even considering when they invite a guy to Clearwater.

At 23 years old, Hunter made it into six games with the Padres in 2011. He went 1-for-4 with a single a walk. He was caught stealing once. It is thus far his only major league playing time.

Since then, it's been a series of waiver-plucking, free agency, invites to spring training, and bouncing between AA and AAA levels. He was definitely the MVP of the Gwinnett Braves this past season, logging a team-leading 134 hits (21 2B, 4 3B, 12 HR) in 138 games. At 27, he could very well offer the Phillies some more adequate depth in their growing outfield.