Kody Clemens has repeatedly found himself adjacent to chaos the past few months.
Clemens was dealt, along with Gregory Soto, to Philadelphia in the trade that sent Matt Vierling and Nick Maton to Detroit on Jan. 7. He opened Spring Training as a fringe 26-man roster candidate — on the outside looking in, due to the Phillies’ depth at first base.
But that depth quickly evaporated as the season approached and began. Rhys Hoskins tore his ACL on March 23. Darick Hall, the everyday first baseman in Hoskins’ wake, tore a ligament in his thumb on April 5.
It put Clemens, the organization’s next-in-command first baseman, on the roster eight days into the regular season. In just over two weeks, Clemens had gone from Triple-A Lehigh Valley to an early-season platoon role on a team with World Series aspirations.
“It’s been wild,” Clemens told Phillies Nation before Monday’s series opener in Los Angeles of his roller-coaster journey so far in 2023. “I mean, you gotta just keep your head down and grind every day. You never know what’s gonna happen. The injuries are unfortunate and I hate seeing it. All of us do. But at some point, you gotta step up and try and find your way, and come try and help the team win as best as you can. I’m very blessed and fortunate to be in the position I am in, and I love this team.”
That roller coaster added another corkscrew just a couple hours later, when Clemens’ journey from Tiger to IronPig to Phillies starter entered another unforeseen chapter: Phillies relief pitcher. Two nights in a row.
Clemens was the last Phillie out of the (proverbial) bullpen in consecutive drubbings at the hands of the Dodgers on Monday and Tuesday. (“He’s good back-to-back,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson joked, adding that Clemens calls his two pitches the “Bloop Ball” and the “Air Cutter.”) And though Clemens still has some ground to make up on the family innings and strikeouts leaderboard, it was a fitting way to continue a nostalgic road trip.
The two days prior to Clemens’ relief outings, he returned to his hometown of Houston and hit a pair of home runs in front of his parents, fiancée — oh, yeah, he also got engaged in December and is getting married in November — brothers, a brother’s wife and a group of high school friends.
“It felt great,” Clemens said of the home runs in Houston, where an 8-to-11-year-old Kody had watched his father Roger pitch with the Astros from 2004-06, winning his seventh career Cy Young Award in ‘04. “I’ve always wanted to play at Minute Maid, growing up around the stadium and whatnot. So it was pretty cool.”
It was a refreshing mini-breakout series for Clemens. He’d started the season slow, with one hit in his first 16 at bats. But he’s homered thrice (and singled once) in 17 at bats since, while cutting his strikeout rate by more than half.
The recent home run surge — for a Phillies team that has at times lacked power this season — is a bonus of keeping Clemens on the roster when Bryce Harper was activated from the injured list on Tuesday. Even though Thomson said that Clemens’ remaining with the major league club (instead of Jake Cave) was due to his status as the only semi-regular first baseman on the roster other than Alec Bohm, having the additional power threat at first against a righty (or off the bench) is an added benefit.
Clemens can read the room. Hoskins is out for the season, but Hall was scheduled to start playing catch on Wednesday, according to Thomson, and could be back in June. Harper is learning first base in an effort to return to the field sooner, which would give the Phillies the ability to rotate some of their lineup regulars into the DH spot.
Clemens knows his position in the starting lineup, and on the 26-man roster, might be temporary as a result. His job, for now, is to both hold down the fort until reinforcements arrive and give the Phillies’ powers that be something to think about once they do.
“I’m gonna try and do everything I can to stay on the team and produce and help the team win,” Clemens said. “I know my route in the big leagues has been a bench role for the most part, and I haven’t gotten that full opportunity yet to keep going. But I’ve tied a couple good games together and getting really comfortable in the box.
“I’m just gonna keep my head down and keep grinding and see what I can do.”
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