Still riding World Baseball Classic high, Nori ready to shine for Phillies

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Dante Nori got back to his regular job on Wednesday at Carpenter Complex.

He played in a Minor League game against Blue Jays prospects on Ashburn Field. There were more prospects than fans in the stands. In the bottom of the ninth, Nori flied out to left-center field to send the potential game-tying run to third base.

A few fans clapped.

A few minutes later, the game ended.

“We were joking about it in the morning,” Nori said following an eye-popping performance for Italy in the World Baseball Classic. “Hey, welcome back, you go from 40,000 [fans] to left field on [Robin] Roberts [Field]. So we were joking about it, but I was excited to see the guys again. I left [for the Classic] right before the majority of them came [to camp]. The high is still there, just coming off that success we had as a team. But it’s ordinary. You remember it. You’re back to the ground level.”

Nori is the Phillies’ No. 7 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline. He hit leadoff in Thursday’s Spring Breakout game against Twins prospects in Fort Myers.

But just a few days ago, Nori played Venezuela in the semifinals in Miami. Italy lost, but Alex Rodriguez said on national TV that everybody should remember Nori’s name.

Nori was the only player without MLB experience to make the All-Tournament team. He hit .400 with two home runs, six RBIs and a 1.185 OPS in the tournament.

“Nothing really sped up on me,” Nori said. “I thought going in, 'Wow, this is going to be really different.' Honestly, as much as people say I’m lying, it felt normal. It really did. I’m one of those people, I found it way more cool. You hear the USA chants, the Mexico chants, the ‘Olé, olé, olé.’ You hear that, like, it was cool to me.

"I was looking around like, 'Dang, this is real. This is sick.' I mean, yeah, there were some plays where it was like, ‘Whoa.’ But other than that, everything really stayed the same, especially in the box. You stepped in, it was like no one was in the stadium.”

Nori is expected to open the season with Double-A Reading, but he could move fast to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. Just the other day, Phillies manager Rob Thomson discussed the team’s fallback options in center field following Johan Rojas’ 80-game suspension for PEDs. If something should happen to presumed starting center fielder Justin Crawford, Brandon Marsh would likely play center.

But behind Marsh?

Thomson mentioned Pedro Leon, who will open in Triple-A, and Nori, who isn’t even on the 40-man roster.

Nori is in that conversation because of how he played in the World Baseball Classic. He homered twice in a victory over Brazil in pool play. It was the first time he homered twice in a game.

Italy players who homered in the Classic took shots of espresso in the dugout.

Nori doesn’t drink coffee. He hates the taste.

He hated the shots, too.

“You see the steam coming off it and you just knew right away it was going to hurt,” Nori said.

He later executed a perfect safety squeeze in a victory over Mexico.

“I got a big rush out of that,” Nori said.

Nori hopes to continue where he left off in the World Baseball Classic. He got to camp the other day with a few mementoes. He has a baseball signed by his Italy teammates. He has the ball he hit for his second homer against Brazil. He has jerseys, including the one he wore against Venezuela in the semifinal. It’s covered in dirt.

“It’s going to be dirty and smelly the rest of my life,” Nori said.

And that A-Rod comment? Nori said it was special to hear something that nice from somebody as accomplished as Rodriguez, although he joked about people giving him a hard time about it. Remember, Rodriguez has an ownership stake in the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves and Nori’s father, Micah Nori, is the head assistant coach for the T-Wolves.

“As soon as I saw it, I was like, ‘Here we go,’” Nori said. “Someone’s typing. So I laughed about it, but it’s still really special to me.”

But it wasn’t just Rodriguez. Bryce Harper on Thursday talked about Nori’s performance in the Classic, too.

“Obviously, he's going to be a guy for this organization,” Harper said. “Don't know when that's going to be. But it could be this year. He's knocking on the door, so -- I don't even know where he played last year, to tell you the truth. I think he's going to be a guy for us. So it'll be a lot of fun to watch.”

Nori’s whirlwind hasn’t stopped. He was back on a bus on Thursday, headed to Fort Myers.

“I haven’t really settled down,” he said. “You’re still on that adrenaline rush, but you sit back and look what happened. You’re like, 'Hey, I can hang with the best in the world.'”

He hopes to do it again. Maybe in the next World Baseball Classic. Maybe in the Olympics.

“They’re working on citizenship right now for me,” he said.