- The Phillies have officially announced that they’ve parted ways with hitting coach Steve Henderson, as CSNPhilly.com’s Jim Salisbury tweeted yesterday. They will retain all their other big-league coaches. Henderson had been the Phillies’ hitting coach for the last four seasons, having previously served as hitting coach for the Astros and Rays. The Phillies struggled offensively in 2016, batting just .240/.301/.385 as a team and getting especially poor seasons from Cody Asche, Tyler Goeddel, Aaron Altherr, Ryan Howard and Jimmy Paredes.
Phillies Rumors
Jeremy Hellickson “Would Love” To Re-Sign With Phillies
Soon-to-be free agent right-hander Jeremy Hellickson said Thursday that he’d like his next deal to be a multiyear pact, but he also told Todd Zolecki of MLB.com that he’s not ruling out accepting a qualifying offer from the Phillies. In tendering Hellickson a QO after the season, the Phillies would either bring him back next year for $16.7MM or lose him to another team and land a first-round pick as compensation.
“I mean, I definitely could see it,” Hellickson said of taking a qualifying offer.
If he were to accept a QO, Hellickson would join a growing list of players who have gone that route since last offseason, when Orioles catcher Matt Wieters, Astros outfielder Colby Rasmus and Dodgers left-hander Brett Anderson all took one-year, $15.8MM deals to remain where they were. Hellickson certainly has a case for multiyear contract, though, considering both his strong 2016 and the paucity of quality starters scheduled to hit the open market over the winter. Fellow impending free agents Rich Hill and Bartolo Colon are superior pitchers to Hellickson, but they’re both significantly older than the 29-year-old (30 in April). Hellickson, therefore, might offer the best combination of relative youth and track record among those who are primed to hit the market.
Hellickson, who made $7MM this year, boosted his future earning power with his first above-average season since 2012, posting a 3.71 ERA, 7.33 K/9, 2.14 BB/9 and 14.3 percent infield fly rate across a career-high 189 innings. The former top prospect was even stingier at preventing runs as a Ray during his first three seasons, but the 2011 American League Rookie of the Year struggled with both Tampa Bay and Arizona from 2013-15. The rebuilding Phillies acquired Hellickson from the Diamondbacks in a salary dump last November, and the move paid dividends for Philadelphia this year. It could continue serving them well in the future if he re-signs or heads elsewhere and nets the team a draft choice.
“I would love to be back next year,” Hellickson said of Philadelphia.
However, the Phillies won’t look to spend significant money during the offseason, as FanRag Sports’ Jon Heyman and FOX Sports’ Ken Rosenthal have reported this week. That makes it likely Hellickson’s stint with the club will go down as a one-off, per Zolecki.
Phillies Likely To Avoid Long-Term Deals So They Can Avoid Blocking Prospects
- The Phillies have plenty of financial flexibility next season, but (as has been reported elsewhere) they aren’t likely to sign players to long-term deals this winter. The reason, Rosenthal says, is that don’t want to block any of their better prospects. For a rebuilding team, acquiring veterans in the wrong sorts of situations can have opportunity costs, as Rosenthal points out. He notes, for example, that the Phillies (whose GM, Matt Klentak, previously worked in the Angels organization) could have pursued former Angel Howie Kendrick last offseason. But doing so would have prevented the team from giving playing time to Cesar Hernandez, a younger player who has had a solid season for the Phillies in 2016.
Pete Mackanin, Phillies Front Office Discuss Offseason
- Manager Pete Mackanin met with various members of the Phillies’ front office Friday to discuss the team’s plans for the offseason, Todd Zolecki of MLB.com writes. Afterwards, Mackanin reiterated his desire for the organization to acquire a veteran bat or two, although he sounded realistic about how far the rebuilding Phils might be willing to go to find additional hitting talent. “I would like to get a good solid proven hitter somewhere on the field,” Mackanin said. “Where that is right now will be determined by who is available and what kind of a deal, if any, they could make. And if not we’ll try to find something from within that we think can help us or somebody could make a great impression in the spring. There’s so many ways to do that.” As Zolecki points out, the Phillies are likely more than one or two players away from being contenders, and so, as previous reporting has indicated, the Phillies might not want to spend heavily on moves designed to improve the 2017 team.
Phillies Notes: Free Agency, Hellickson
- Though his season ended with an early exit due to a sprained knee, Jeremy Hellickson provided the Phillies with solid output all year — he’ll wrap things up with a 3.71 ERA in 189 innings — and will hit the open market having significantly boosted his stock. He said after tonight’s game that he’s looking for multiple years on his next contract, as Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets. It seems rather likely he’ll find that elsewhere, with the big question being whether the Phils will make him a qualifying offer on his way out. That kind of cash could prove tempting, but it seems that Hellickson is hoping for some long-term security, and he ought to do quite well even if he’s tagged with draft compensation given the lack of other options.
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- While the Phillies are said to be interested in adding to their lineup and rotation, Heyman writes that the club isn’t quite prepared for a major spending spree. Philadelphia’s brass believes that the team is at least a year away from competing in earnest, so it would be somewhat premature to go all-out on this winter’s market. That being said, it does still seem reasonable to think that the team will make some targeted additions as it seeks to ramp back up, with Heyman suggesting a left-handed hitter to spend time at both first base and the corner outfield.
- Though his season ended with an early exit due to a sprained knee, Jeremy Hellickson provided the Phillies with solid output all year — he’ll wrap things up with a 3.71 ERA in 189 innings — and will hit the open market having significantly boosted his stock. He said after tonight’s game that he’s looking for multiple years on his next contract, as Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets. It seems rather likely he’ll find that elsewhere, with the big question being whether the Phils will make him a qualifying offer on his way out. That kind of cash could prove tempting, but it seems that Hellickson is hoping for some long-term security, and he ought to do quite well even if he’s tagged with draft compensation given the lack of other options.
Jeremy Hellickson Departs Final Start Of 2016 With Knee Sprain
8:12pm: Hellickson has a right knee sprain, the club announced (via Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com, on Twitter). That’s certainly good news for the Phils and for Hellickson, assuming that there’s no further damage.
7:30pm: Phillies right-hander Jeremy Hellickson left the mound tonight with an apparent injury, calling for the trainer in the middle of the fourth inning. This was his final scheduled start of the season, with free agency beckoning at year’s end.
At present, there is no indication of just what went wrong. Certainly, it isn’t clear whether Hellickson suffered any significant injury, let alone one that would impact his upcoming entry onto the open market.
Any uncertainty could have a major impact on a pitcher who’ll be one of the best available through free agency this winter. Philadelphia has been expected to issue a qualifying offer to Hellickson, who’ll presumably decline it in hopes of securing a multi-year pact.
Hellickson, 29, has provided Philadelphia with 185 2/3 innings of 3.78 ERA pitching entering tonight’s contest, with 7.3 K/9 against 2.2 BB/9 and a 40.5% groundball rate. ERA estimators weren’t quite as high on him as the results would suggest, but still valued him — as they have in years past — as a low-4.00 ERA arm.
That’s actually quite a valuable profile, especially in a market that lacks anything close to the firepower we’ve seen in recent years. Hellickson has an argument as the hurler with the most earning potential this winter, with his top competitors likely being the aging-but-suddenly-unhittable Rich Hill and a re-emergent Ivan Nova.
Phillies Likely To Pursue Veteran Arm In Offseason
While much has been made of the Phillies’ desire to add a veteran bat this winter — two, if manager Pete Mackanin gets his wish — Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com writes that adding a veteran starter to provide some stable innings in the rotation “seems to be as big a priority” for GM Matt Klentak as adding to his lineup.
“I don’t think we will ever have the luxury of ignoring starting pitching,” said Klentak. “Starting pitching is the name of the game. We saw it for the first month or two of the year. Every night we were pitching. Our starters were performing. … We were competitive almost every night. At times, throughout the rest of the season, we’ve sputtered along. … But if you can dictate the pace of the game on the mound, you always have a chance to win. We’re never going to ignore that.”
Right-hander Jeremy Hellickson, acquired with little fanfare this offseason, proved to be that stabilizing force for the Phillies in 2016, but Salisbury writes that he’ll likely go elsewhere (likely after rejecting a qualifying offer, from my own vantage point) and cautions not to expect any type of spending spree on the free agent market this winter. As such, a low-cost free-agent starter — Charlie Morton, Doug Fister and Jorge De La Rosa come to mind as possibilities — or swinging a similar deal to last year’s Hellickson swap could make some sense for the Phils.
Hellickson amounted to a rental for Philadelphia at the time of the deal, as he’d disappointed in his lone season with the D-backs and cost the team a low-level prospect and the willingness to pay Hellickon’s arbitration salary. There may not be a direct comparable to Hellickson’s situation, but the Twins’ Hector Santiago has disappointed in his few months with the team (and has a connection to Klentak from the duo’s Angels days), and left-hander Wade Miley has floundered in Baltimore but still has $9.25MM coming his way through next season. The Phils could also look to acquire a pitcher with a 2017 option that is of borderline value (e.g. Jaime Garcia or Derek Holland) and hope that he experiences better results in 2017.
While some Phillies fans might bemoan the idea of adding a veteran starter when the team has so many enticing young arms, there’s a great deal of uncertainty in Philadelphia’s contingent of young horses. Vince Velasquez has long had durability questions and missed a month on the DL this season, while Aaron Nola had to be shut down for the season due to a UCL/flexor sprain and Zach Eflin underwent surgery on each of his knees. With Hellickson departing, there’s certainly plenty of logic to adding not only a source of potentially quality innings but someone to help mentor the team’s young starters through the ups and downs of a full season at the big league level.
Salisbury also writes that in addition to adding a source of innings to the rotation, the Phillies also figure to look into some veteran relievers. However, Klentak stressed to Salisbury that the Phillies aren’t interested in removing too many opportunities for the team’s younger players to establish themselves. “We want to do everything we can to field the most competitive team on the field that we possibly can,” the GM explained. “We also want to make sure we continue to provide opportunities to our young players to develop. That’s the fine line that we’ll have to tiptoe all offseason.”
Cafardo: Phillies, Hellickson Interested In New Deal
- The Phillies and Jeremy Hellickson have mutual interest in keeping the right-hander in Philadelphia, but he might first explore the open market before making a commitment, per Cafardo. With so few capable starters primed to hit free agency in the coming months, it won’t be surprising if Hellickson does listen to other teams’ offers. Hellickson, who will turn 30 in April, has rebounded from three straight subpar seasons to post a 3.78 ERA, 7.27 K/9, 2.18 BB/9 and 14.4 percent infield pop-up rate across 185 2/3 innings this season.
Phillies Seeing Signs Of Promise In Joely Rodriguez
- Phillies reliever Joely Rodriguez looks to be a keeper, as Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer writes. Acquired in the Antonio Bastardo trade, the 24-year-old southpaw has developed upper-nineties heat in a relief capacity. He has allowed just a single hit in his first 5 1/3 major league innings, with four strikeouts and two walks also on his ledger.
Phillies Could Have Interest In Re-Signing Ellis
- Ryan Lawrence of PhillyVoice.com looks back at the Phillies’ 2016 season and highlights some positive takeaways, focusing on improvements from Jerad Eickhoff, Vince Velasquez, Odubel Herrera, Freddy Galvis and Cesar Hernandez. Lawrence also writes that A.J. Ellis has been such a positive influence in terms of not only his receiving but his skills as a teacher/mentor for the youthful roster that the Phils could have interest in re-signing him. As a follow-up, he wonders if the Phillies might, then, be willing to trade from their catching depth — the team has Cameron Rupp starting with Jorge Alfaro and Andrew Knapp on the way — to acquire help for another area on the roster. Lawrence briefly speculates on the possibility of re-signing Ellis then dealing Rupp this offseason.
