3 Things to Know Heading into Important Phillies Offseason

The Phillies’ season has once again come to an agonizing end, suffering their first-ever series loss in the postseason to the division rival Atlanta Braves.

A poetic tale of tragedy for the Phillies: your first series loss to a rival, outmatched at every turn, and a glimmer of hope by forcing a winner-take-all loss early and never being able to recover.

What this now leaves the Phillies at is one of the most important offseasons in franchise history, with several questions to be answered for what is a rapidly closing World Series contention window.

Here are a few things to think about heading into the offseason:

Looming Lockout

Unlike a typical offseason, this upcoming one has a major variable that affects the entire expectation and strategy: the potential lockout.

The CBA agreement between the MLB Players Association and the MLB Owners expires on Dec. 1 at 11:59 p.m. The duel between the two sides to come to an agreement has been fierce, mainly because of the debate surrounding the potential installation of a salary cap, and it most likely will only get more bitter as the offseason goes along until baseball games are missed or one side caves to the other’s demands.

Now how does that affect the Phillies?

Very simply, it adds a layer as to how the Phillies are going to act through the offseason. The behavior of teams prior to the CBA’s expiration is totally up in the air; teams could be rushing to sign players to egregious contracts just to sign them, totally avoiding free agents until an agreement is reached, low-ball them massively, something unknown. Nobody knows. However, once the lockout begins, teams and players cannot be in contact in any form.

What that causes is a fog of war surrounding the talk of free agency and the winter activities.

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Next Manager’s First Decision

President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski was signed after the 2020 season to help the Phillies get over the hump of not making the postseason and to bring a championship back to the city.

Seven years later, the now 70-year-old has helped get the Phillies back into the postseason, but has not taken the necessary steps to bring a title. He has not pressed the right buttons, and the decisions have seemingly gotten worse as the years go by.

These seem like good reasons to move off of Dombrowski and bring a new leader in. However, the Phillies will reportedly be extending Dombrowski, who is under contract through 2027, in the coming weeks.

One of the decisions made in conjunction with whether Dombrowski stays on as president is who will be the new manager. All signs, especially if Dombrowski stays on, is former Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora taking over the Phillies managerial role, who was nearly the new Phillies manager during the season prior to Don Mattingly taking the helm.

No matter who the new manager taking over for next season is, a major decision they have to make is where the man making $300 million, Trea Turner, plays. Turner was signed and has spent his entire Phillies career at shortstop, even being the lone infielder not moved when Luis Arraez was traded for at this past trade deadline.

However, Turner has been very poor defensively at short, which has damaged games many times. This has led many to suggest Turner be moved to one of the corner outfield spots, a position Dombrowski and the Phillies have struggled to find a solution at. It is bound to happen at some point over Turner’s next seven years. I may have to be now.

Whoever the next manager is will be making a very important decision when he decides where Turner plays next season.

Money on the Horizon

A major factor as to why Dombrowski has struggled the past several off-seasons is that he has limited making big time free agent signings. He signed Trea Turner to an 11-year, $300 million contract, and since then his nine-figure deals have just been extensions handed out.

Now, not that the extensions are inherently a bad idea, they are not the desirable new signee that can bring a new vibe to the Phillies clubhouse, which is something many fans are now desiring.

What could change this fact is two things: this free agency class is very weak in the sense that most of the top players are B-tier players. Yes, arguably the best pitcher in baseball, Tarik Skubal, is available, but outside of him, the top dogs are players like Randy Arozarena, Seiya Suzuki, and Luis Arraez. Those three players are not making much over $20 million annually, if they even get over that mark. So a class that holds several solid talents that can be acquired relatively cheaply.

Two: The Phillies have a massive amount of money coming off their books — Nick Castellanos and Taijuan Walker‘s dead money, Adolis Garcia, Alec Bohm, Edmundo Sosa, and Jose Alvarado. Those six players are not the only ones heading to free agency, but their salaries open up an estimated $60+ million in space.

So, with over $60 million opening up, plus a class where the top talent is really good but fairly cheap, the Phillies can most certainly spend this offseason, and it won’t break their wallets.

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