Inside ‘Team Blessed,' the Phillies trio always staying ready together originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
QUEENS, N.Y. — While a Phillies game is unfolding a few feet away, Derek Hill and Bryan De La Cruz are often playing one of their own.
They head into the batting cage during the game and turn their work into a competition.
Three innings. Three outs.
They decide whether each ball in play is a single, double or home run. Edmundo Sosa serves as the umpire.
He does not make it easy on them.
“I’m pretty hard on them,” Sosa said through the club’s interpreter Diego D’Aniello. “The game is tough on you, so I try to be as tough as I can on the guys. That way, when we go out there, maybe the game seems easier.”
The game inside the game has become part of how three Phillies reserves stay ready for opportunities that can arrive without much warning.
It has also become part of something they call Team Blessed.
The name began not long after the Phillies acquired Hill from the White Sox on June 11.
When Hill was asked exactly when Team Blessed started, he turned toward outfield coach Paco Figueroa, a clubhouse favorite who happened to be nearby.
Figueroa remembered saying something simple to Hill one day.
“Bless up.”
Hill liked it.
The phrase stuck.
“We’re blessed to be here every single day,” Hill said. “When an opportunity presents itself, it’s a blessing to be able to go out there and perform.”
From there, Team Blessed began to take shape around the club’s main reserves, Hill, De La Cruz and Sosa.
There is faith behind the name, but also perspective.
None of the three is guaranteed to start. They can spend most of a night watching before suddenly being asked to pinch-hit, pinch-run or enter defensively in a spot that could decide a game.
They have to prepare as though the opportunity is coming, even if it never does.
“I think it’s just something fun that people can kind of keep their perspective with,” Hill said. “I think it’s cool to be able to show up every day and attack the day with the same attitude, the same drive.
“No matter if you’re starting that day, not starting that day, if you’re getting put into a high-leverage situation or a blowout game, it doesn’t matter. Just be happy that you’re at the field and realize that it is a gift that you are here.”
Hill has moved between eight different organizations during his career. He knows how quickly a player’s circumstances can change.
“It doesn’t matter if you have 15 years or 15 days,” he said. “It’s a gift to be in the big leagues.”
And since Hill arrived, that group of Phillies reserves has done much more than simply stay ready.
Players entering games off Philadelphia’s bench since June 11 have combined to hit .284, the highest average in baseball over that span. Their .453 slugging percentage ranks third.
Hill, De La Cruz and Sosa have been even better, even when the lights get brighter.
In games they entered off the bench, the trio has combined to hit .394 with four homers and a 1.200 OPS in 34 plate appearances from the eighth inning on.
Hill has hit three of those homers.
Those opportunities have produced some of the Phillies’ more memorable late-game moments during a season that has them days away from potentially securing a fifth consecutive postseason berth, matching the longest streak in franchise history from 2007 through 2011.
The stars will draw most of the attention if they get there.
But postseason games have a way of turning on one swing from somebody who spent the first six or seven innings waiting.
The trio are trying to make sure that wait doesn’t leave them unprepared.
That is where their game in the cage comes in.
Hill and De La Cruz work through their progression while the actual game continues outside. They use a smaller bat, move into side toss and front toss, then compete against each other.
“We do the same routine now,” Sosa said. “We’re trying to keep it as simple as we can and not be too mechanical about it. When you think too much about your mechanics, that’s when things get tougher.”
The competition gives them something to focus on while they wait.
It also gives three players with similar responsibilities a shared routine.
“We’ve been working in a way that we enjoy it,” Sosa said. “We’ve been working to continue to be happy playing the game of baseball and enjoying it.
“We just started calling it Team Blessed one day, and it stuck.”
Sosa said De La Cruz, who was promoted to the Phillies on July 21 from Triple-A, has brought another meaningful element to the group.
“He’s been trying to change his life in such a positive way recently,” Sosa said. “He’s been more of a believer in God. He uses that to motivate us, and his energy is contagious.”
That energy is not limited to whichever member of the trio gets the opportunity that night.
When one enters, the others are invested.
“It doesn’t matter who it is that’s stepping up to the plate or going onto the field,” Sosa said. “We’re just going to support and show our energy to the next man up.
“We want him to do well. Any positive outcome that comes from anyone who goes in, we’re going to celebrate it.”
That support is crucial in roles defined by uncertainty.
A reserve can deliver a game-winning hit one night and never leave the bench the next. Several days can pass between meaningful at-bats. When the call finally comes, there isn’t much room for rust.
Hill believes their shared faith and circumstances have brought the group closer.
“One hundred percent,” he said. “This is a long journey, the baseball season and a baseball career, and you definitely can’t do it [all by] yourself.
“If you try, you’re going to fail, and you’re going to figure out that there’s not only a higher calling, but there’s a lot that you can tap into when you do go through those moments.”
Hill did not need long to feel comfortable after joining the Phillies.
“I’ve been in a lot of clubhouses, and this has been easily the most welcoming,” he said. “Obviously, we have a lot of big personalities and a lot of big talent in this clubhouse, but you wouldn’t know.
“Nobody has any egos in here. It’s just all about winning baseball games.”
Team Blessed grew within that environment.
Other players know about the group. Some have apparently expressed interest in joining.
Hill warned that membership is not automatic.
“It’s a tough application fee,” he said. “A lot of people want to jump on board, but it’s a rigorous process to get into it.”
There is no real application.
There is no official uniform, either, although the group has discussed the possibility of creating Team Blessed merchandise.
For now, the three have their in-game routine, their competition, their handshake.
And their faith, too.
“I think that’s more than enough,” Sosa said.
