Philly Front Office

What do you get the person who needs everything? Straight cash homie. The Phillies, coming out of the dark ages of the post mini-dynasty late 2000s had nothing. With few exceptions, no prospects worked out, no trades worked out, and no free agents worked out. Outside of Rhys Hoskins and Aaron Nola, the cupboard was bare. The good news was that cigarette magnate John Middleton was ready to spend that tobacco money on ball players.

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That first year in came Jean Segura and his 5/$70m contract, JT Realmuto who eventually signed the largest catcher contract in history at 5/$125m, and Bryce Harper who was briefly the highest paid player in the game at 13/$330m. After that wave it was Zack Wheeler for 5/$118m. Then Kyle Schwarber and Nick Castellanos for $20m per year each. The Phillies weren’t even close to done. In 2023 it was Trea Turner for 11/$300m and Taijuan Walker a few days later for 4/$72m. Later still Aaron Nola re-signed a 7/$172m and Zack Wheeler re-upped for 3/$126m. This offseason Kyle Schwarber signed a new contract for 5/$150m.

After all that spending, the Phillies went from around $100m in payroll, then quickly to $200m, before reaching $360m in total spending last year. It’s going to be higher this year. To fans of a certain age, that’s fucking ridiculous. If the first big name Phillie you remember is Jim Thome or anyone after him, you might not know this but this team used to be considered cheap. Hell, future Hall of Famer Scott Rolen got out of Dodge because the team would not commit to spending (among other reasons). This was and is still the losingest franchise in pro sports history for a lot of reasons, but foremost among them was consistently shallow pockets. Not anymore.

The Phillies are in the upper tier of the sport, regularly hanging out with the likes of the Yankees, Dodgers, and Mets in terms of spending. If there is a free agent out there, the Phillies are linked and in realistically play. Maybe that’s just agents trying to drive up the price, but hell it feels good to have that kind of financial might. Each offseason the Phillies are one of the teams the smaller clubs have to watch out for. If we have a hole, we might steal your free agent to fill it. You don’t want to pay someone? The Phillies will. That makes us a destination.

When I was a kid, we could only imagine cheering for a team with deep pockets. We’d get mad at the Yankees and Red Sox for making the game unfair, but it was mostly jealousy. Who doesn’t want their favorite team to spend lavishly? Some of us remember those times with middling rosters and the hopes for loveable losers to do something magical to make the playoffs. It sucked!

Sure, the perfect baseball present is to watch the prospects you saw drafted come up through the farm system to deliver a World Series. We know what that feels like because we remember 2008. Nothing was better. Unfortunately, gift giving in that way hasn’t been so easy since then. Thankfully, there’s always cash!