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!
Phillies Posts
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Joe Posnanski writes a lot of books about loving sports, especially baseball. He loves it for all the nuances and one of my favorites is that his favorite baseball player is Duane Kuiper. There’s nothing particularly interesting about Kuiper other than that he holds the modern record for most At Bats hitting only 1 career…
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Lost in a late West Coast broadcast last night was one of the most surreal managerial experiences you will ever see. Even amidst a season resurgence and 9 game winning streak, had the Phillies fired Don Mattingly following the game (hell, during the game) it wouldn’t have been that shocking, that’s how crazy it was.…
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The 2001 Seattle Mariners may be the most famous forgotten team in MLB history. With 116 wins, how is that possible? The record wins, the roster, and what happened next all add to the legend of the best team that no one remembers. Let’s go back in time 25 years… Monday, August 24 at 9:40p…
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The Phillies are playing the Cardinals and this will forever make me think about Scott Rolen. On July 29, 2002, the Phillies traded Rolen and Doug Nickle to the Cardinals for Placido Polanco, Bud Smith and Mike Timlin. The Phillies had the best 3rd baseman of a generation, AGAIN, and got rid of him. There…
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Updated through games of 8/23 There are 31 games left in the 2026 regular season. With a record of 73-58, the Phillies would be in the playoffs if that carnival started today. It’s close though, very close. Far closer than it has any business being, but here we are. Let’s take a look at what…
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The Twins are a fun franchise and Minneapolis is a great city (at least in the summer time). Baseball started there after moving from Washington in 1961 and was pretty successful, winning two World Series (1987 and 1991) and losing another (1965). There were stars like Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, Bert Blyleven, and Kirby Puckett.…
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Even before I started writing about the Eagles, it was a pleasure to follow the team. Sure, they win a lot, but for those of us who enjoy the transactional part of the game, you can count on them to almost always making the right move, to be prepared, and to do the little things…
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You’ve probably heard the name Curt Flood, but do you know why he is important? He’s the guy who finally punched baseball in the mouth after decades of mistreatment. He didn’t win his fight against the MLB owners, but he made it possible for everyone else who came after him. Considering the coming baseball labor…
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The 2026 Trade Deadline has come and gone with no significant changes to the roster long term other than possibly Caleb Kilian. While there is a chance that baseball is either non-existent next year or at least very different, it’s still fun to look into the future to see some of the upcoming decisions that…
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The day after the deadline is the time to take a deep breath and bear in for a Phillies post season run. Instead of focusing on what moves could have or should have been made to improve the team or second guess decisions, we make the healthy decision to put that in the past. There…
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It’s impossible to please everyone. The nature of the reactionary sports world means you can hear both how awful and how wonderful the same event can be at the same time. Somehow though, Phillies top decision maker Dave Dombrowski managed to make everyone upset with his half assed trade deadline. Let’s see how he managed…
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This was supposed to be something I added to throughout the day. After things started so positively with Luis Arraez and Brooks Raley, I mistakenly expected things to continue to get better. Surely, they would not move around the entire infield and make the defense worse, right? What a fool I was. Let’s just get…
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