9:46am: The Phillies and Hand are in agreement on a one-year deal that will guarantee him $6MM, reports ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Hand is represented by Jet Sports Management. It’s a straight one-year deal with no options and no incentives to boost the salary, MLBTR has learned.
9:20am: The Phillies are in talks with free-agent lefty Brad Hand, tweets MLB Network’s Jon Heyman. He’d be the third notable addition to the Phils’ bullpen so far this offseason, joining likely closer Corey Knebel (who signed before the lockout) and righty Jeurys Familia, who agreed to terms on Saturday.
Hand, 32 next week, is a three-time All-Star but is in need of a rebound campaign after struggling through a lackluster showing between the Nationals, Blue Jays and Mets in 2021. Signed by Washington to a one-year, $10.5MM last winter, Hand posted a solid 3.89 ERA with the Nats, albeit with a greatly diminished 23.1% strikeout rate.
Things went awry for Hand following a July trade to the Blue Jays, as the lefty never really found his footing in Toronto. Hand was scored upon in five of his 11 appearances with the Jays, ultimately yielding 10 runs (seven earned) on 13 hits and three walks in just 8 2/3 innings. Hand wound up being designated for assignment in August and claimed by the Mets, where he turned things around to an extent: seven runs (four earned) on a dozen hits and five walks with 14 strikeouts in 13 1/3 innings.
All told, hand’s 2021 season concluded with a respectable 3.90 ERA that was a ways north of the combined 2.70 ERA he logged during a 2016-20 stretch that was punctuated by three All-Star nods. Last year’s 21.9% strikeout rate was far and away his lowest since moving to the bullpen on a full-time basis in 2016, and his 9.4% walk rate was the second worst mark Hand has posted since that conversion to relief work. It wasn’t all bad news for Hand, as his average fastball velocity rebounded to 93.3 mph after dipping to 91.5 mph in 2020; from 2016-19, Hand averaged 93.4 mph on his fastball, so last year’s mark is right in line with Hand’s velocity from his peak performance.
Hand would join the aforementioned Knebel and Familia in occupying a late-inning role in Joe Girardi’s bullpen. He’d also give the Phils a third lefty option alongside fireballing Jose Alvarado and waiver claim Ryan Sherriff. Right-handers Seranthony Dominguez, Sam Coonrod, Connor Brogdon and Nick Nelson are among the options who could round out the relief corps if a deal to bring Hand into the fold ultimately does come to fruition. The Phillies currently project for a payroll around $200MM, and they’re well south of the new $230MM first tier of luxury-tax penalization.
I like it, strong rebound candidate. Make it happen please.
Is it just me or doesn’t Brad Hand seem older?
It’s probably because he made his debut at 21 in 2011 and has been in the league 11 years already. Pretty impressive longevity.
If you look at like Mo Rivera or Hoffman, they didn’t break in until they were 25, so when those guys had 11 years in the league they were already like 36.
Phillies need a lefty and there isn’t much out there so why not? His 2021 numbers don’t bode well though.
he wasnt bad outside of the TOR stint and was a closer as recently as 2020. this could be a great addition.
He’s lost some pretty significant velocity.
Which is always troubling. This actually strikes me as a typical Dumbrowski* bullpen signing: might be getting him too late in his career.
*obviously his Achilles heel as a GM
But I’ve got Hand!
Let’s give the Phillies a Hand…
Phillies took the pitcher I wanted the Astros to sign if Correa takes a paycut.
And the Phillies are gonna need it!
And your gonna need it.
Talk to the Hand.
What? No Phillies! You guys tried this last offseason! it failed, horibbly. Remeber signing guys like Archie Bradley and Jose Advaldo, those signing failed. You need to spend big on the cream of the crop, not on these rebound guys, if you think whatever system your running is gonna fix some of these guys. Your wrong, go sign Andrew Chafin, Kenley Jansen, Collin McHugh, Ryan Tepara! There’s so many better options.
Alvarado was pretty good for the Phillies last year. I agree about signing some of the other names you mentioned though.
How exactly did the signing of Archie Bradley and Jose Alvarado fail?
Bradley injuries? Unpredictable. Still appeared in 53 games,
$6M
Alvarado made 64 appearances and has electric stuff,
He walks too many.
He was 7-1 because of
$1M
He single-HANDedly cost the Blue Jays a playoff spot. No joke.
After reading the Herrera thread and now seeing this, im worried for certain Phillies fans.
Breath, count backwards from 10. Think about being on an ocean, smell the salty sea air, feel yourself moving on the waves.
Probably didn’t work, but I tried
Not the way to fix a bullpen. He could be gasoline on the fire at this stage.
LordD99 That’s literally every reliever. They look great elsewhere and they just die here. Part of it is the horrible defense (which by the way is even worse this year so far) another part is the small stadium. But when you’re a reliever you have to expect some regression when you come to Philly.
Phillies talkin to the Hand, eh?
Assuming he signs, that’s another lefty off the board while the Mets have ZERO lefties in their pen. Gotta hope they’re talking to Chafin.
There’s always the possibility of a trade.
Phillies giving out Hand jobs now.
Thank you for the lol.
Seems like a bad signing but relief pitcher performance is so unpredictable. Sometimes these guys randomly have good seasons again after years of sucking!
This is a good gamble, he’s pitched in multiple relief roles with closing experience. We can’t just depend on Alvarado. Back end of the bullpen is shaping up.
6 mil? Ha!
Edit: After looking at his time in NY last season it seems he rebounded some. So… ha, but not a loud ha!
6 mil doesn’t seem bad for a recent closer. Kneubel is still the Phillies closer. Hand would be in a 7th or 8th inning role.
They gave Hand $6m?
LOL
Hey, I’ll sweep out the clubhouse once a week for $400k a year.
Not worth the gamble at all.
He was a disaster last year so maybe the fact that he’s going into a bullpen that is already a disaster, it will make the opposite happen and he’ll be an elite closer again.
Just here for the plethora of Hand puns….
I’ll toss in mine. You might say the Phillies showed their “Hand” but didn’t “Fuld” with this move
Wow… so the Phillies are trying the same strategy they did last offseason, sign a bunch of rebound guys. Pray that one of them sticks, last season only one of them stuck. The others stunk and cost them playoffs for like the 4th straight year. So now they are trying the same strategy again, you can’t copy the Rays if you don’t have the development part down. Which they don’t.
They’ve missed the playoffs every year since 2011. So it’s a lot more than 4th straight year.
He probably meant that it’s the 4th straight year that the bullpen was the reason. Idk….
My condolences to the Phillies team ERA
6 mil guaranteed is a bit shocking to me.
It pays to be a lefty
I wonder how many whiners and complainers there will be about how many games the winner of the NL East will have to win the division compared to other divisions, just like they did with the Braves. The NL East is going to be one of the strongest & most competitive & evenly balanced divisions, just as it was in 2021.
@ Fred;
LOL
Yes, as in 2021 the NLE will be one of the most competitive divisions.
In no way will be one of the strongest.
When Cleveland readied 2 youngsters to take over the back of the bullpen – Karinchak and Clase – Hand’s days with them were numbered. And when Cleveland lets a pitcher go it’s because he’s no longer worth the salary he’s getting. Hand has bounced around since, pretty much being bad to awful.
These moves the Phillies are forced to make go directly to the kids that Andy MacPhail let do their rebuild, What a mess they left behind.
As for the bullpens – MLB is now all about winning games by attacking the weakness of opponents bullpens. Teams are only as good as their weakest links there.
Alright now lets go get Castellanos!! Need more high avg/power guys!
Mr. Hand: Stop wasting my time. Why do you fans find it necessary to constantly waste my time? Me: I dunno.
Any Fast Times quote gets a thumbs up….
$6 million for a crappy pitcher. Seems about right for this horrible leadership team.
Ugh, I was hoping the Mets would re-sign him…
Was kinda hoping that Detroit signed him. A lefty and major rebound candidate. Options are signing by the hour, Avila!!!
Eesh. $6m to a waiver guy who didn’t really show much improvement.
One of Neris/Hand/Familia will implode regularly.
I guess that’s bad news for Houston then since Neris is no longer a Phillie.
Very bad news indeed.
Imagine if they traded for Kimbrel and dropped everyone down a peg…
Good moves for the Phillies who are, quietly, building up depth in the bullpen and OF.
I expect 2-3 major moves since the CBA is going to be approved and will raise the
spending levels.
Not that I’m especially down on Hand, but signing Familia and Knebel to a bullpen that desperately needs some top of the line arms does not look like a solution. Not a Phillies fan so not my problem. Just seems like small tinkering. Maybe there’s more to come.
Depth has continously been an issue, so I’m ok with this approach.
I wanted the Marlins to at least take a look at him.
Ha ha ha ha
Ha ha ha ha wow