Philly Front Office

Since the Phillies lost their last game, the Eagles also only lost one game. In those 4 months, it would be completely understandable if you tuned out the baseball hot stove to focus on your favorite football team going on an all-time run and winning the Super Bowl. But now that the confetti has fallen and the shotgunned beers have dried, it is time for that pilgrimage to Florida and the baseball season to once again usher us into warmer weather. If you haven’t paid any attention to the baseball world, FEAR NOT SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS, I have you covered. You are going to hear a lot about how the Phillies didn’t do much. Well, let’s see how much they really did compared to their main competition.

Things You Need to Know (NL East)

• Mets
  • It all starts with Juan Soto. Unfortunately, he’s a Mets. IT sucks, I know. It took the largest contract imaginable, but he will be annoying us from Queens until long after the apocalypse.
  • They weren’t done though, resigning the world’s biggest cornball, first baseman Pete Alonso. I am hoping this standoff between the beloved dufus and the out of touch billionaire damages team and fan morale.
  • When the winter started, it looked like they were going to run roughshod through the free agent cupboard. Thankfully, that didn’t happen. It was fully expected for them to sign someone like Blake Snell or Corbin Burnes with their considerable resources, but they went after Sean Manea and Clay Holmes instead. It would not be crazy to say that the Phillies and Braves have the top 8 starters in the division (depending on Sandy Alcantara’s health).
  • Luis Severino got his bag from the always free spending Sacramento A’s. No one saw that coming.
  • The Mets are going to be aggressive all year in trading for pitching like Dylan Cease and Sandy Alcantara. They will hit, but just don’t have the horses they need in the rotation.
• Braves
  • They didn’t do much, but they did that annoyingly Braves move of signing Jurickson Profar. We have to hope his resurgence last year in San Diego was a fluke. His high contact, high on base bullshit is sure to be perfect in their lineup.
  • The big word in Braves camp is injuries. Ace reliever Joe Jimenez is going to miss the whole season. Ronald Acuna and Spencer Strider missed most of last season, and neither will be ready at the start of the year. Expect each to be back around May to June.
  • Speaking of Strider, he will be necessary to lock down the Braves rotation come playoff time. They have Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez, and Spencer Shwellenbach. That looks a whole lot more formidable with Strider considering Sale is an injury risk, Lopez is a former reliever, and Schwellenbach is only in his first full season.
  • Gone are two former Phillies, Travis D’Arnaud and Charlie Morton. Good riddance, hope you had the time of your life.
  • The Braves simply need good health to be a threat for 90+ wins.
• Nationals
  • Not much Natitude this off season because they are relying on their younger guys. You can say top prospect Dylan Crews and James Wood are their big acquisitions to start the season.
  • They did acquire the steady bat of Nathanial Lowe from the Rangers and promptly wiped the floor with him in arbitration. How did that even go? “We just traded for him but here are all the reasons we didn’t really want him.” Huh?
  • Anyone who listens to the High Hopes podcast has heard of new #5 starter Mike Soroka. For everyone else, he bombed out of the Braves before resurfacing with the White Sox and posted some crazy strike out rates as a reliever. The Nats decided that he was so good at that job, they should convert him back to what he is bad at. Good plan.
  • They also won the draft lottery and will pick first in June.
  • The Nationals will be young and annoying this season before really trying to contend next year.
• Marlins
  • [cricket noises]
  • Well, they did trade Jesus Luzardo to the Phillies! That’s something.
  • They also traded Jake Burger to the Rangers, getting little in return.
  • Sandy Alcantara is on schedule to start Opening Day after missing all of last year with Tommy John Surgery. Eury Perez will follow a few months later. Braxton Garrett just had a similar surgery and will miss the whole season.
  • They did not acquire anyone worth mentioning this off season. However, catcher prospect Augustin Ramirez who was acquired from the Yankees in the Jazz Chisholm trade could make the team out of camp.
  • They exist only to trade. Outside of Alcantara, there is NOTHING worth paying attention to on this roster and even he will only be there until July.
• Phillies
  • Instead of splurging on big name free agents like in previous years, the Phillies signed a few one-year guys looking to redeem their value including cheddar-throwing Jordan Romano, maximum Max Kepler, and no-article-was-written Joe Ross. Fans are not thrilled.
  • Alec Bohm was discussed A LOT, but is still here. I’m sure he’s thrilled.
  • We did seriously upgrade our rotation though. Jesus Luzardo has a chance to be a very high-end rotation piece assuming his injuries are behind him. Do you remember what our 5th starter was like most of last season???
  • We even have a 6th starter! No, I do not mean Taijuan Walker who is still here for reasons. I mean Andrew Painter who should be up mid-season to save his innings.
  • Painter isn’t the only one either. We actually have near MLB level talent who could force a call up with injuries and a hot start. I’m talking about Justin Crawford, Gabriel Rincones, and even Aiden Miller.
  • Gone are Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez. Not going to lie, we need another bullpen piece. I have to think they will be looking to trade for a high-end reliever at some point.
  • The Phillies are a better team this year than their first-place team last year despite everyone wanting to jump off a bridge.

Things You Need to be Aware Of (Rest of NL)

• Dodgers: They signed everybody. They brought in Blake Snell, Roki Sasaki, Tanner Scott, Kirby Yates, and Michael Conforto. It was gross. The great equalizer here is that the Dodgers have absolutely no ability to keep their pitchers from getting hurt. All the money in the world can’t stop a UCL from snapping apparently. Their lineup is fierce, but mostly well into their 30s besides Ohtani. I’m grasping at straws here.
• Giants: They finally found someone to take their money, Willy Adames. I was feeling good about myself after calling this and Soto 1-2 at the start of free agency and eventually getting half right. They also signed Justin Verlander but did not make any of the moves they needed to clear out their middling role players.
• Diamondbacks: These a-holes came out of nowhere to sign Corbin Burnes. I had the number right, but NO ONE saw this coming. They did lose Christian Walker but traded for Drew Naylor. That’s a wash. Joc Pederson, that lovable masher, also took his .908 OPS to Texas.
• Cubs: What the hell??? They traded for Kyle Tucker in what had to be the most puzzling move of the off season. Houston was pretty much only dealing with the Cubs while the big checkbooks that will likely try to sign him next season (Yankees, Phillies, Mets) stayed out. The Cubs went all in despite not really having a World Series roster. I mean, they have a chance since they should win the division, but this is maybe the 6th-8th best team in the NL. They do not seem like the type of team that will try to retain Tucker and his $400m asking price next year.
• Padres: They didn’t trade Dylan Cease yet. They didn’t trade Michael King yet. And they didn’t trade Luis Arraez yet. They did, however, sign Nick Pivetta who it looks like they plan to trade after this season. His deal is 4/$55m, but the first year is only for $1m with a small signing bonus. The Padres have serious issues.

Things You Don’t Need to Know…Yet (AL)

• Yankees: The feeling going into the winter was that if they didn’t resign Soto, they would overcompensate. Well, that happened but not in a bad way. Out goes Soto, Gleybar Torres, and Nestor Cortes, in comes Max Fried, Devin Williams, Cody Bellinger, and Paul Goldschmidt. Are they better? I don’t think so, but they aren’t exactly worse despite the loss of Soto.
• Red Sox: I made a lot of jokes that the Red Sox would almost sign everyone but never go high enough to be a serious bid. I was wrong. After going to $700m for Soto, Boston traded for Garrett Crochet, signed Walker Buhler then PAAAIIIIDDDD Alex Bregman. It’s an astonishing return to form for the recently cheap Red Sox.
• Blue Jays: Last year they lost out on Ohtani, this year they lost out on Sasaki. They made compelling offers, but lost out on both the Japanese aces. That being said, what is this team doing? Yesterday it was announced that negotiations with perennial triple crown threat Vald Guerrero Jr had ended without an extension. He will be a free agent next year. They did give Anthony Santander the strangest contract of the off season though with a ton of deferrals. They also traded for Andres Gimenez. Without Vladdy, what are they building around exactly?
• Orioles: Still a cheap team. They signed all around the borders and didn’t add anything you should care about. They lost Santander and Burnes and replaced them with Tyler O’Neill and Charlie Morton.
• Astros: Houston decided it no longer had use for a generational talent like Kyle Tucker and shipped him to Chicago for Isaac Parades [head explodes]. They also decided that Alex Bregman was too much of a gamble to bring back considering his stats are down and he wanted too much money. I can understand Bregman, but with that savings how do you not try to lock in Tucker? This isn’t Mookie Betts to the Dodgers, but its close. They also bought Christian Walker from the D-Backs.
• Rangers: Despite living in a state without trees, Texas brought in two lumberjacks, Joc Pederson and Jake Burger. They are counting on Jacob DeGrom’s arm to not completely disintegrate this season. Good luck there. At least they are in a division where no one seems to actually be invested in winning, so that’s good.
• Athletics: In a shocking move, the A’s spent some money. Granted it was probably because of pressure from the Union and them playing in Sacramento instead of a real city for the next few years, but they paid Luis Severino $67m over 3 years and extended Kyle Schwarber 2.0 Brent Rooker. They also signed an 18-year-old from Japan who tops out at 95 on the gun and hits for power named Shotaro Morii. The Sacramentos have only known prosperity!

NO ONE ELSE DID ANYTHING WORTH TALKING ABOUT. There are 30 teams in baseball and only 15 had anything to discuss. The Dodgers very clearly won the off season. The Cubs and Red Sox were next. The Mets, Braves, and Phillies all added a player, but all needed at least one more. The Yankees did some serious work but it all might not be enough to offset losing Soto. Is anyone else really improved? Maybe the Diamondbacks, but their offense took a big step back. After the top teams, this off season was mostly about shuffling deck chairs. The Phillies, Braves, and Mets all have a credible path to winning the division and the #2 seed with all 3 making the playoffs with ease.

(Thank you to Fangraphs Roster Resource, a hell of a tool)