Phillies top pick Larry Greene Jr. not reporting to camp

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After three minor league seasons, the Phillies’ 2011 first-round draft pick has apparently called it a career.

Larry Greene Jr., 22, the No. 39 overall pick and the selection the Phillies received as compensation for losing Jayson Werth via free agency, has not reported to minor league camp in Clearwater, Fla. and reportedly has retired.

Phils’ minor league web site PhoulBallz was first to report Greene’s no-show.

However, the Philadelphia Daily News reported the Phillies weren’t ready to close the door on Greene just yet.

“I wouldn’t go on record with the retirement thing,” minor-league development director Joe Jordan told the paper. “Listen, I think a lot of Larry. He’s been with us. I’ve gotten to know him. If there’s anything I can do, I will. This is hard if you’re not 100-percent in. We’ll try to help him if he can and see if he still wants to play. But right now I don’t plan on him being here.”

Greene gave up a full-ride to play linebacker for Alabama in order to join the Phillies’ minor league system for a $1 million signing bonus. Out of Nashville, Ga., Greene impressed the Phillies with his raw power and football players’ physique. He hit .562 with 19 homers as a senior at Berrien County High School in Georgia.

He was rated the best power hitter in the Phillies’ system after the 2011 season by Baseball America, but Greene’s hitting fizzled after he left high school. In 70 games for low-A Williamsport in 2012, Greene hit two homers and batted .272 with 78 strikeouts. Those numbers dipped in 2013, when he hit .213 with four homers and 163 strikeouts in 111 games.

Last season Greene slumped even further, batting just .183 with two homers and 60 strikeouts in 60 games for low-A Lakewood.

Meanwhile, Greene isn’t the Phillies only first-round flameout over the last year. Anthony Hewitt, the team’s first-round pick (No. 24 overall) in 2008, was released after playing just 34 games for Double-A Reading last summer.

The No. 27 overall pick, Jesse Biddle, came to camp this season looking to bounce back after a rough second season at Double-A Reading during which he suffered a concussion and went 3-10 with a 5.05 ERA.

In fact, the Phillies haven’t had a first-round draft pick appear in more than 70 big league games since 2002 when they took a flier on lefty Cole Hamels. The 2002 draft was the last one run by former farm director Mike Arbuckle, who had a run where he selected Gavin Floyd, Chase Utley, Pat Burrell and Brett Myers in successive years.

Under Marti Wolver, the Phillies didn’t have the luxury of picking high in the draft, but the first-round picks from those drafts didn’t pan out for one reason or another. Greg Golson, Kyle Drabek, Adrian Cardenas, Joe Savery and Zach Collier are a sampling of underperforming first-round picks for the Phillies.

However, the team still has high hopes for recent picks like Aaron Nola, J.P. Crawford as well as pitchers Shane Watson and Mitch Gueller. Nola, last summer’s top pick, pitched for Double-A Reading in his first pro season and Crawford, the 2013 top pick, could open the 2015 season in Double-A.

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