The Phillies and free agent reliever David Robertson are in agreement on a major league contract, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The self-represented Robertson did not sign with a team over the winter but has stayed in shape and has been throwing for interested clubs recently. MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reports that Robertson will be paid a prorated $16MM salary for the remainder of the season. That comes out to just over $6MM through season’s end ($6.021MM — assuming it becomes official tomorrow).
This is Robertson’s second free-agent deal with the Phillies and the third time overall that the Phils have acquired him. He inked a two-year, $23MM deal in the 2018-19 offseason that didn’t wind up paying off for the team, as the typically durable reliever wound up requiring Tommy John surgery and pitching only 6 2/3 total innings during the life of that contract. Philadelphia reacquired the righty in a 2022 trade that sent young righty Ben Brown back to the Cubs, and Robertson was excellent as the Phillies mounted a charge all the way to the World Series.
That Tommy John procedure came during Robertson’s age-34 season, and he didn’t return to a big league mound until the 2021 campaign. He’s emphatically silenced any concerns about his ability to restore his status as a high-end reliever. He’s now pitched 200 games and logged a 2.92 in 213 regular season innings since undergoing surgery. That includes a terrific 2024 season in Texas, where Robertson pitched 72 innings with a 3.00 ERA, a 33.4% strikeout rate, a 9.1% walk rate, two saves and 34 holds as the primary setup option to Kirby Yates.
Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski was candid earlier this month in calling out bullpen help as his primary focus at this year’s trade deadline. Robertson is a potential major addition who helps on multiple levels. He’s obviously a decorated high-leverage arm coming off a strong season, and adding the lone marquee reliever on the free-agent market leaves the Phillies’ farm system intact as they look to pursue other bullpen upgrades. Beyond that, Robertson is a fresh arm who’s no stranger to pitching in the postseason — a key component for a Phillies club who lost lefty Jose Alvarado to an 80-game PED suspension earlier this year that renders him ineligible to pitch in the playoffs.
On the season, Philadelphia relievers rank 23rd with a 4.36 ERA. They’ve been better over the past month (3.89 ERA) but still have a top-heavy unit that’s been anchored by Matt Strahm, Tanner Banks and Orion Kerkering doing a disproportionate level of the heavy lifting. Offseason additions Jordan Romano (7.08 ERA) and Joe Ross (5.31 ERA) haven’t worked out as hoped.
Robertson will likely need a minor league tune-up before he’s ready to join the Phillies’ bullpen. It’s not clear what his precise timeline is, but it stands to reason that both he and Alvarado — eligible to return on Aug. 19 — will both be in the late-inning mix within the next month. The Phillies figure to remain active on the trade market as they look for a second reliever to add to the mix, and they could potentially seek an outfield upgrade as well.
OMG FINALLY SOMEONE SIGNED THE DAMN DUDE AND IT WAS A BIG LEAGUE DEAL, ABOUT TIME
It was tough decision between $16m or prorated and the Stearns offer of a minor league deal followed by an immediate DFA.
OMG, unbelievable. WTF is Cashman doing?????
Yeah, Go Cashman! Monitor the crap out of that market, fella!
Sometimes youre so hard at that monitor you fall asleep…
Cashman is waiting for Manfred to find a team to gift players to the Yankees so they don’t have to give up anything
“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes”.
This is the internet age PTG.
Are the Kansas City A’s or St Louis Browns still around to do this?
Not going to lose my mind over a 40 year old who hasn’t pitched at all this year.
Dudes this guy is 40 years old and hasn’t pitched for awhile. Cashman still has a lot of options on the table for high end relief that will be more of a sure thing than Grandpa Moses here.
I’ll be running bare-assed naked on Broad street tonight.
So a usual Sunday night for you…
Gotta seize the day
Robertson might be running right next to you! Nice payday.
I hope Robertson doesn’t. Don’t want him to fall and hurt himself again celebrating.
With Pete Rose Remains?
Marlins legend.
Back in the day when the marlins were a playoff team
Mets legend.
Meh.
Did they call Dennis Cook or Paul Byrd yet?
No they passed on those two. I heard Ed Vosburg and Eric Junge are coming back
I heard they signed a twofer: Mike AND Mark Mimbs…
I remember when Ed had that giant dragonfly on his hat while he was closing a game. Neither Ed nor the bug moved very much.
Kent “Dale Gribble” Tekulve is pretty well rested as well
Teke’s nickname as he got older was Anteke.
Olerud became Olderdude.
Some names are perfect for a long career.
I’m mildly happy as a Phillies fan because I think he can help. But at $14M (prorated to $6M) they clearly just won a crazy bidding war. Because David Robertson, at best, is a very good seventh-inning guy at this point.
I’d be very happy with a very good seventh-inning guy, but to your point, that’s the best case scenario. You can’t expect much here.
My hope — possibly futile — is that they acquire someone so that Kerkering/Strahm can be the seventh and eight-inning guys.
Alvarado coming back will help too, but I fully expect a closer at the deadline.
Clase please!
He’s probably going to get around 40 innings, maybe only 30. At $6 million that’s $150-200k per inning. Or another way, somewhere around $50-70K per out.
No way he’s getting 40 innings. We have about 60 games to go and it will take him a month to ramp up.
8002, don’t overthink it.
Robertson figures to be a lot better than some of the lesser arms. Hierarchy will work it out. I wonder if the Mets offered him a deal.
He could have been signed for around $10M in the off-season.
Can’t wait to watch this first outing
Smart move for Philly.
Ridiculous. This is not the way you improve the bullpen and that salary is nuts.
$6 million of Middleton’s money.
Who cares?
He’s better than their trash relievers.
Not expecting much from an aging vet who hasn’t pitched against major leaguers all season. But the Phils pen is a mess.
“But the Phil’s pen is a mess”
Who’s isn’t? Other than a few teams here n there, I’ve never seen so many pitcher injuries before in my life. Seems like pitching as a whole right now is a crap shoot.
Von, aren’t these the perfect moves for the Phillies to make? It only costs money to make this move. The issue with “fixing” the bullpen midseason is the real issue is this team’s offense. With their starting pitching, they should be competing for the all time wins record in a season not fumbling the division to the Mets right now.
At least 4 and upwards of 6 spots in this lineup need to be reevaluated for next year. Their OF is bottom 3 in baseball in terms of production and WAR. They need a whole new starting outfield next year as well as long term plans at C, 2B, & 3B. Not all of them can be made from trades & free agency. Moving multiple top prospects that could in some way help this team in 2026 and beyond is crazy when there’s SO many holes in this offense.
The Phillies have a losing record when their opponents score 3 runs or more in a game. That’s insanity, they’re requiring the pitchers to give up 2 runs or fewer every game in order to win. IMO You can’t fix the bullpen this summer and also have the internal pieces to turn over half the lineup next year. I’m fine with riding and dying with the current bullpen and maybe a buy low RP acquisition (like Banks last year). And then tackling the lineup & bullpen in the winter.
Yup. It makes sense to me. I think a deadline acquisition is coming too.
Yeah as long as it doesn’t cost an arm or leg I’m fine with it. I’d rather not close the long term window by throwing all the chips in this year. I wouldn’t put any top 10-12 prospects on the block unless it brings back a bat that’s controllable for multiplie seasons.
Roll Tide!
Phillies add to their bullpen. Others, not so much.
I know he’s 40, but I like this more than most. Who cares what the salary is, it’s still just a 2 month rental, so not really a risk. Dude had a 1.7 WAR and 2.65 FIP just last year. In other words, tomorrow, he’s already in the top 3 of relievers I trust, behind only Kerkering and Strahm.
Foolishness. Wasted money. Not sure what dombrowski is waiting for. Chasing fringe relievers. Still we wait.
It’s only money. DD is not waiting.
I’m a Cub fan and I would have loved for them to sign Robertson. He’s old, but darn effective. I think it’s a great move by the Phillies.
Im a cub fan is all you need say
Wow. So I 100% wish the Braves signed him this offseason. For $16 mil though, that would have been hard to take. For 6 mil for the rest of the year, ehhh. I wouldn’t take the risk since he hasn’t pitched all year
The Braves are going nowhere it would’ve made no sense for them to sign him
Huh? Half the relief pitchers that DID pitch all season haven’t really pitched good. What difference does it make?
Should have stayed with the Rangers.
Cubs sure could have used him.
Not a Phillies fan, but will root for the old coot. Why not?
Why did the Yankees not sign him? Is it cashman preferring his AAA relievers or is Hal Steinbrenner out of money?
Robertson represents himself, which probably already makes him smarter than Cashman. He also had to want to play for the Yankees again, which maybe he didn’t (though we don’t know if any offer was made)
enewspaper.nydailynews.com/infinity/article_share.…
Given the Yankees cap situation, and the salary the Phillies are paying Robertson, my understanding is Robertson would have cost the Yankees more than $12M dollars over the remainder of the season due to their cap tier and tax penalties, etc.
Aside from that being a lot just for Robertson, it’s also $12M that could be used on a better addition. And as far as I know the Yankees have been trying to keep their cap as low as possible this year.
This is it.
Yup. $6 million plus $6.6 million (110%)
In order to beat that…
$7 million plus $7.7 million LTC
OUCH. $14.7 Million of…
It’s not my money.
Thank you DD for all those amazing Tigers teams back when you were the boss. But 2 things I will critique you on is 1) for whatever reason the bullpen was always weak and 2) you never did anything at the deadlineS to improve it. Why is that? Oh well, congratulations Phi.
I tend to like the move. The only *potential* concern is the salary.
And the only reason the salary would concern me is if the Phillies are trying to remain below a certain payroll threshold. I’m uncertain of their current cap situation in regard to what tier they are at and how many consecutive seasons they have over any particular tier.
But as long as the Phillies don’t allow that salary to impede anyone else they may/will pursue at the deadline, this move will hopefully work out (meaning Robertson still has something worthwhile left in the tank).
I think the Phillies will definitely add another bullpen arm. And now it may open up some wiggle room in terms of who and what they’d be willing to mix and match to obtain a good one.
Without this move they’d likely be looking for two bullpen arms. And that could tighten their options with the mixing and matching if two teams wanted the same player(s) and what not.
They could obviously look into any OF bats that might be worthwhile and available. But seems the focus will remain another bullpen arm.
How are there any agents getting paid when Robertson does so well representing himself?
It’s easy to say I want $6 million for 2 months.
Isn’t this his 3rd tour of duty with the Phillies?
Yup. The 1st was terrible and shortened by injury. The 2nd was good and included a clutch World Series performance. The 3rd? TBD.
Did you even read the article?
I wonder if Robertson is already excitedly looking forward to cutting postseason share money for non-player personnel again!
what is the backstory here
enewspaper.nydailynews.com/infinity/article_share.…
Not sure why they would get a share to begin with.
Robertson didn’t work out in Philly in 2019 or 2022. Maybe Dombrowski is the proponent of the “third time is the charm” theory. He better be the proponent of some kind of theory when he has to explain why he bypassed guys like Helsley, Miller, Clase, Bautista, Jansen, and Chapman to sign a 40-year-old who hasn’t pitched since 2024.
Of course, maybe adding Robertson is only the first step to filling in all the current gaps that are preventing the Phils from getting to another world series. But, if memory serves, there were other seasons when Dombrowski’s only additions before the trade deadline were a player or two who everyone thought were just the first step or two toward infusing badly needed talent into the Phils lineup.
What’s regrettable is that the Phils could probably sign Clase and Kwan or Mullins and Bautista and significantly improve the Phils immediately. The Phils have the players and prospects to make such deals, or even deals with even greater hauls.
Unfortunately, Dombrowski’s grand vision of the Phillies’ future is a confusing one. He doesn’t want to trade young talent, and so he overspends to acquire guys like Austin Hays to fill in gaps, only to replace them with overpriced guys like Max Kepler a half-season later.
In defense of Dombrowski, he probably envisions a trip to the world series in the next few years, but not this year. So, as in years past, he will go through the motions and overpay for under-talented players to get through this season, and secretly plan for next year and beyond.
His strategy will probably get him into the playoffs this season, but not very far into the playoffs. This current 2025 Phillies team, even with the addition of a marginally improved closer and outfielder, are not of world series caliber. They never were.
In all honesty, and with the realization that I may be the only one on this entire planet who would suggest such a thing, I would trade Kyle Schwarber before the trade deadline while he still has maximum trade value. There are those who would argue that trading Schwarber now, while he is at the top of his game, would squash any hopes the Phils might have of winning a world championship this season – and such fears would be justified.
However, trading Schwarber just might allow the Phils to acquire an outfielder and closer who together might be able to help the Phils more down the stretch this season than Schwarber would be capable of doing alone. The Phils have plenty of guys who could take turns DHing, but they don’t have the kind of quality closer and outfielder they might be able to obtain by trading a current asset who could help a current contender get to the world series.
It is indisputable the Schwarber is having a career year. It is also indisputable that his performance will probably allow Schwarber to command a new 4-year contract in excess of $100 million at the end of the season – a contract the Phils will unlikely be willing or able to match.
So, if the Phils can’t add a lights-out closer and slugging outfielder before the trade deadline, and if that’s what’s needed to get to the world series, and if Schwarber is gone after this season regardless of where the Phils finish, and if Dombrowski has already written off the 2025 season for the Phils, then why wouldn’t you trade Schwarber now?
A lot has been made of Schwarber hitting three home runs off a batting practice pitcher in the all-star game. Not much has been said of his 0 for 2 performance during the game.
Pete Alonso was on deck to hit if Schwarber didn’t hit the requisite number of homers to win the game. Alonso would have unquestionably hit a homer or two and won the game if Schwarber didn’t.
The difference between the two players is Schwarber was 0 for 2 in the actual all-star game while hitting against major league pitching, while Alonso hit a 3-run homer in the game. Understanding the difference between the two players is the reason you trade Schwarber now and plan the team’s future around someone like Alonso who could probably help you more.
Helsley, Miller, and Chapman are apparently not going to be available. Robertson only costs money (though I hope not enough to change the Phillies’ other plans) and will almost certainly be better than Ross and likely better than Romano. Harper is back, and Bohm’s injury allows Kemp to play third while they (hopefully) upgrade LF. With the starting rotation and a decent trade deadline pickup or two this team has as good a chance to win a title as anyone.
Cap, The word is Helsley, Miller, and Chapman are available for the right price. If you truly believe “With the starting rotation and a decent trade deadline pickup or two this team has as good a chance to win a title as anyone,” you are a true optimist. The Phils could win a championship if there was a total and unprecedented meltdown of every AL and NL contender. Just from the number of series the Phils have lost this year, you should be able to see how they match up against other teams that are in contention.
It has nothing to do with meltdowns. It all has to do with who gets hot at the end of September. And the umps don’t mess up a team’s players with strike zones all over the place.
Every likely playoff team has its flaws. If Nola returns well, Suarez may be in the bullpen where he has been icewater and gold in the postseason. I don’t think any potential trade chips in the minors will get called up until after the deadline so as to not undermine their value if they struggle. If the Phillies still have Abel, Crawford, or Painter (bullpen only) you may see them in Philly after August first. I am happy to be guilty of optimism.
You wasted a load of words to say nonsense.
I don’t know why they even signed him. Robertson is finished. Their bullpen needs almost as much work as the Mets. I don’t get the infatuation with signing guys over the age of 37. Good for Robertson but this is just a bad signing
He was very good last year at age 39.
@VonPurpleHayes Robertson is 40, and hasn’t pitched all year. He is not going to be any good
You said “over the age of 37.” I was simply pointing out he was very good at age 39. Phils are taking a flier for 6mil. Worth a shot. Not expecting much. Mets were likely bidding for him too.
He’d be better than literally everyone in the Mets pen except Diaz
Ah, Jamie Moyer was 45 when he pitched for the Phillies in the 2008 World Series. He did pretty good for being another 5 years older than Robertson is now.
ayeah, With guys like Howard, Rollins, Utley, Burrell, Ruiz, Victorino, and Werth in the lineup, you could have probably won a few games pitching for the Phillies in 2008.
LFG, Citizens Bank Park should be renamed AARP Stadium.
The 1983 Wheeze Kids say hello.
What difference does their age make if they get someone out?
i dont agree with the overall age as many relievers especially closers can be good late in age (hoffman was number 2 in cy young at 38 which for a reliever to be considered for cy young is amazing). In this case age makes a difference i think as i dont know if he has been keeping in game shape. He is 40 with no spring training and going to try and ramp up quick. At 40 the body dont spring back like say a mid 20 or even early to mid 30’s.
So even with a quicker ramp up unless he has been keeping in game shape and doing baseball routines i cant really see him being useful until end of august at earliest or maybe even september callups. Im conflicted as i like robertson and hope he comes out firing like last season, but as a mets fan i hope the phillies crash and burn 🙂
If he’s at or close to last few seasons that’s a solid move by DD for sure
What’s your local jurisdiction? I think a wellness check should be considered here?
Pretty pathetic
Montgomery redux ?
Seranthony is next
Yep. He’s another one of those top prospect players (that fans said was definitely not on the trade table) I commented about on another mlbtraderumor.com article. How is he working out as a top closer for the Orioles? Top prospects are just that, prospects, nothing more until they get to the majors and can prove themselves.
Not really crazy about this move. 3+ weeks before we even see him back with the Phil’s. I hope this doesn’t negate other deadline pitching help
Of course it doesn’t.
17 blown saves and let’s hope as Phillies fans dombrowski doesn’t believe Robertson is his max Kepler. How about some right handed pop and a closer who can go 1 2 3.
Both sound good. Robertson precludes neither.
Move doesn’t cost them any prospects, only money so not a bad gamble.