Kingery has looked much better this spring and could earn a bench spot on the Phillies' Opening Day roster, Todd Zolecki of MLB.com reports.
The six-year, $24 million deal Kingery signed prior to his debut in 2018 hasn't gone anywhere close to how either the player or team hoped. In 325 career MLB games, he's hit .229/.280/.387. Over the last three years, he's come to the plate just 143 times at the big-league level and hit an even worse .144/.204/.250. A battle with COVID-19 and persistent shoulder issues (which required surgery in July of 2021) can be blamed for at least some of those struggles, but he's feeling healthy now and is back to his original swing after a failed attempt to increase his launch angle. Kingery's last several seasons make it hard to have much faith in him, but he owns a 1.161 OPS through nine spring games. Kingery isn't on the 40-man roster, but he could still earn a spot as a right-handed backup center fielder behind Brandon Marsh.