After the lockout comes the fallout, and the Phillies are about to experience it with one of their best pitchers. Ranger Suárez will be a late arrival to spring training because of a delay in obtaining his work visa.
After the lockout comes the fallout, and the Phillies are about to experience it with one of their best pitchers.
Issues related to the timeliness of getting a visa to play in the United States are common for major leaguers who don’t have a green card. But the process was exacerbated this year because players were cut off from communicating with their teams during the owners’ 99-day lockout that ended Thursday night.Teams can often expedite matters by writing letters to consulates, filling out forms, and facilitating appointments to get players to spring training on time.
Suárez’s situation is further complicated because the U.S. suspended consular services in his native Venezuela. Since 2019, Venezuelans who are seeking work visas must go to the U.S. embassy in neighboring Colombia, where Suárez has been staying in an airport hotel since last weekend. Suárez is a key component of the Phillies’ pitching staff after breaking through in 2021. He began the season at the Lehigh Valley alternate site after visa issues delayed his spring training. But after getting called up in early May, he swiftly moved from a long-relief role into a back-end bullpen piece, a closer, and finally a starter for manager Joe Girardi.
Given their other needs — left field, center field, late-inning relief, and bench components — the Phillies didn’t intend to prioritize starting pitching. But their top 40-man roster options at triple A — Hans Crouse, Bailey Falter, and Cristopher Sánchez — have a total of four career major-league starts.
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