The Latest Breaking News from Phillies

PHILADELPHIA — A few minutes before 3 p.m. Friday, Bryce Harper will step onto the grass at Citizens Bank Park. Maybe he’ll wear his neon-green cleats with the googly Phillie Phanatic eyeballs and green fuzz. Maybe he’ll go with a Liberty Bell theme. Or with “JAWN” stitched in block letters…

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — When spring training began last season, the computer models at Baseball Prospectus put Atlanta’s odds of winning the National League East at 20-to-1. Eight months later, the Braves were World Series champions. That’s not a knock on analytics, it’s a nod to unpredictability.

TAMPA, Fla. — After a flurry of offseason activity, the Phillies have one more move to make:

There was only one acceptable answer. Credit the Phillies for realizing it. There are plenty of scenarios that would have offered Dave Dombrowski and John Middleton an opportunity to talk themselves out of including the organization’s top hitting prospect on the opening-day roster. In a lot of those situations, the…

PHILADELPHIA — Number Two pitches with a rosary in his back pocket. Number Three broke his arm as a kid, lost baseball, but found himself. Number Four has a tattoo of praying hands on the outside of his left arm, a sacred memorial.

JUPITER, Fla. — Now that the initial shock of Derek Jeter’s abrupt departure as CEO of the Marlins has subsided, a mixture of both relief and uncertainty has settled in at their south Florida spring training complex.

Michael Kopech gave up a leadoff homer but did not allow another hit against the Reds. He struck out two.

CLEARWATER, Fla. — As Joe Girardi walked through the back corridors of the Phillies’ clubhouse Monday morning, he came upon Kyle Schwarber and Rhys Hoskins, dressed in shorts, T-shirts and flip-flops, pantomiming phantom swings. Two hours later, Schwarber hit his first home run of spring training.

TAMPA, Fla. — Luis Severino is getting ready for April 9, his first start back in the Big Apple.

DUNEDIN, Fla. — Bryson Stott’s a comer. Let’s hope the Phillies learn from their mistakes.

White Sox send pitching prospect McKinley Moore to Philadelphia, designate Blake Rutherford for assignment