Word just came in that former Phillies centerfielder Harrison Bader signed with the San Francisco Giants for 2/$20.5m. Other than it being the Giants, the annoying part is that the Phillies ran breathlessly to the agent for Adolis Garcia to give him a 1/$10m contract about 45 days ago. Bader gets essentially that same contract with an extra year PLUS a $3m buyout from the Phillies. Granted, there is no way the Phillies could have known Bader would get this kind of contract, but they again misread the market on a 1-year deal. This is a running problem for Dave Dombrowski. Let’s take a look at Old Dave and his 1-year deals since beginning his tenure in Philly…
- Archie Bradley (2021) – $6m
- Corey Knebel (2022) – $10m
- Brad Hand (2022) – $6m
- Jeurys Familia (2022) – $6m
- Craig Kimbrel (2023) – $10m
- Spencer Turnbull (2024) – $2m
- Whit Merrifield (2024) – $8m
- Max Kepler (2025) – $10m
- Jordan Romano (2025) – $8.5m
- Joe Ross (2025) – $4m
- Adolis Garcia (2026) – $10m
YIKES! Who is the best out of this bunch? There are only 2 you’d even consider somewhat positive: Craig Kimbrel and Spencer Turnbull. The former is a pariah here and (probably unfairly) blamed for losing the 2023 NLCS. The latter pitched all of 54 innings in 17 appearances for the Phillies. The others? They all basically failed out of the league after disappointing with the Phillies (obviously not Garcia, but it wouldn’t be surprising). That’s $80.5m in 1-year contracts in 6 years, or about $13.5m per year. Total WAR as a Phillie from this group? 3. That’s a routinely poor way to spend your money.
In theory, giving out 1-year contracts, especially to relievers, is probably a good thing. In a position usually rife with volatility, you don’t want to get caught with multiple years of a bad contract. So, it’s not that I am mad with the thought process. The problem is that he is giving out pretty big 1-year deals. A “flyer” is the $2m-$4m contracts for Turnbull and Ross. Guys coming off injury get these types of contracts in hopes of regaining their form. If they don’t work out, that’s fine. You do NOT give these types 8 figures! Well, that’s exactly what Dave is doing. All of the above were coming off injury or severe poor performance. Who in the world was begging to pay them $6m to $10m? This is not a high risk, high reward situation. It is extreme risk, low/med reward and not worth it at all. Dave, you are being a patsy.
Last year was especially bad. Both Jordan Romano and Max Kepler were coming off surgery AND poor performance, but Dave had them both locked up before Christmas. Excuse me??? Harrison Bader was coming off a bad year but was at least known to be a good CF and he got $6m in February. The Phillies traded for Carlos Estevez in 2024 and was very good (outside of 1 highest leverage possible at bat to Francisco Lindor in the playoffs). He signed for 2/$22m with the Royals on Jan. 31 and had another great regular season. We were completely out on both of them right away.
Hindsight is 20/20, I know this. Sure, it’s easy for me to say these deals sucked when they have, in fact, already sucked. Performance isn’t the biggest problem with these deals though.1 Dave is running out and making these deals without letting their markets develop. Had he waited on Kepler and Romano, he could have either signed them for cheaper later or pivoted to Bader and Estevez pretty easily. His argument would be that there is something to be said for cost certainty. I understand the fear that you might be left with nothing when the smoke clears, but that’s still no reason to repeatedly pay at the top of the market for guys without legitimate job prospects. There are always similar arms and bats for cheaper if you wait.
Here we are now in 2026. Dave, again, ran out and signed Adolis Garcia despite still having Nick Castellanos on payroll for $20m. They are essentially the same hitter, though Garcia is much better in the field. Bader and Garcia are essentially the same fielder but with Bader at the harder position. Wouldn’t it have been better to wait and maybe not declare that Castellanos will be traded or released? All the early play for Garcia did was jump the market, alienate Castellanos, and take them out of resigning Bader. All things being equal, why the hell do you do that?
Maybe there is a world where Garcia comes out and hits 30 HRs, plays elite RF defense, and makes us forget all about Harrison Bader. That would be wonderful. There’s a much more likely chance though that Garcia is what he is at the plate: strikes out 175 times, doesn’t walk, and hits .225. Bader could do the same, but he is at least coming off a positive season. Plus, had they waited, Garcia is definitely not getting $10m because no one but Dave Dombrowski would have paid him that!
All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference. All contract info courtesy of Spotrac.
- That’s a total lie. It’s not like I would be bitching about these deals if Kepler put up 35 HRs this year. Barring that type of explosion though, hear me out… ↩︎
Philly Front Office 
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