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Phillies Sign Archie Bradley

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Jan. 18: Bradley has passed his physical, and the contract has been formally announced by the Phillies.

Jan. 14: The Phillies are signing free-agent reliever Archie Bradley, Ben Nicholson-Smith of Sportsnet tweets. It’s a one-year, $6MM pact for the right-hander, according to Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Alden Gonzalez and Jeff Passan of ESPN.com were first to report that Bradley was nearing a deal with a team. Bradley is a client of BBI Sports Group.

Archie Bradley |Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Bradley has been on the open market since the Reds non-tendered him Dec. 2 in lieu of paying him a projected $4.3MM to $5.7MM in arbitration. The move was particularly surprising when combining Bradley’s solid track record with the fact that the Reds acquired him from the Diamondbacks for two players – utilityman Josh VanMeter and young outfielder Stuart Fairchild – at last August’s trade deadline.

The Bradley trade did pay off initially for Cincinnati, as he gave the playoff-bound club 7 2/3 innings of one-earned run ball with six strikeouts, no walks and four hits allowed during the regular season. Bradley didn’t fare as well in his lone playoff appearance, though, surrendering the only run in a 13-inning defeat to the Braves in Game 1 of a wild-card round that Cincy went on to lose.

The seventh overall pick of the Diamondbacks in 2011, Bradley was regarded as a premium prospect over the ensuing few years, But he couldn’t put it together as a big league starter in Arizona from 2015-16. The proverbial light bulb went on the next season when the Diamondbacks shifted Bradley to their bullpen. Bradley enjoyed a serious increase in velocity that year (from 92 mph-plus to upward of 96) and pitched to a 1.73 ERA across 73 innings. Although Bradley’s results weren’t as dominant from 2018-19, he continued to keep runs off the board at a good clip while eating innings (over 70 in both seasons) and throwing better than 95.

Bradley’s average fastball velo dipped to around 94 last year, but it was still one of his most effective seasons yet. The 28-year-old notched a 2.95 ERA/3.44 SIERA and recorded a 24.7 percent strikeout rate with a personal-best 4.1 percent walk rate in 18 1/3 innings. Bradley’s 9.4 percent swinging-strike rate was a bit above his career average of 8.7, while the .274 weighted on-base average he allowed wasn’t too far from his .297 expected wOBA.

Now with the Phillies, his third organization, Bradley should provide some much-needed help to a bullpen that helped cost the team a playoff berth in 2020. The Phillies’ relief corps finished last in the majors in ERA (7.06), and the tandem of new president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and general manager Sam Fuld have tried to improve the group with the acquisitions of Bradley, Jose Alvarado, Sam Coonrod and Ian Hamilton this winter.

Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.

Latest On J.T. Realmuto, George Springer

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The Phillies have made a five-year offer worth “slightly” more than $100MM to free-agent catcher J.T. Realmuto, according to Jayson Stark of The Athletic. It’s the second such offer the team has made to Realmuto since last spring, per USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, who adds that there’s “a groundswell of optimism” that Philadelphia will re-sign the two-time All-Star.

The 29-year-old Realmuto spent the previous two seasons in Philadelphia, where the ex-Marlin continued his run as the majors’ premier catcher. Realmuto made it known during those two years that he wanted to remain a Phillie for the long haul, so it’s unsurprising that the team is putting forth a serious effort to keep him. The Phillies have “begun to position themselves as the favorite” in the Realmuto derby, Stark writes, in part because other potential suitors seem to be fading away.

The Mets, who looked like one of the front-runners to get Realmuto when the offseason started, signed James McCann instead. The Yankees probably aren’t in the mix after agreeing to re-sign second baseman DJ LeMahieu for $90MM and retaining catcher Gary Sanchez. The Angels may not be involved after agreeing to sign veteran backstop Kurt Suzuki on Friday, while Stark notes that the Rangers “seem unlikely” to dole out a nine-figure contract at this juncture. The Astros look like a fit for Realmuto, but as a qualifying offer recipient, signing Realmuto would require giving up draft picks, and they’re reportedly hesitant to do that. The Nationals have shown interest in Realmuto, though it’s unknown whether they’re willing to hand out $100MM-plus in this case.

The Realmuto sweepstakes may ultimately come down to the Phillies and the Blue Jays, who have been in on seemingly every star player this winter. However, per Stark and Jon Heyman of MLB Network, Toronto’s main focus appears to be free-agent outfielder George Springer. The Jays regard center field as a bigger need than catcher, which is why they’re making a greater push for Springer.

Players Avoiding Arbitration: 1/15/21

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The deadline to exchange arbitration figures is today at 1pm ET. As of this morning, there were 125 arbitration-eligible players who’d yet to agree to terms on their contract for the upcoming 2021 season. Arbitration is muddier than ever before thanks to the shortened 2020 schedule, which most believe will lead to record number of arb hearings this winter. Be that as it may, it’s still reasonable to expect dozens of contractual agreements to filter in over the next couple of hours.

We’ll highlight some of the more high-profile cases in separate posts with more in-depth breakdowns, but the majority of today’s dealings will be smaller-scale increases that don’t radically alter a team’s payroll or a player’s trade candidacy. As such, we’ll just run through most of today’s agreements in this post.

I’ve embedded MLBTR’s 2021 Arbitration Tracker in the post (those in the mobile app or viewing on mobile web will want to turn their phones sideways). Our tracker can be sorted by team, by service time and/or by Super Two status, allowing users to check the status on whichever groups of players they like. You can also check out Matt Swartz’s projected arbitration salaries for this year’s class, and we’ll do a quick sentence on each player’s agreement at the bottom of this post as well, with the most recent agreements sitting atop the list.

Today’s Agreements (chronologically, newest to oldest)

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Phillies Interested In Freddy Galvis

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Former Phillies infielder Freddy Galvis is among the free-agent options the team is “eyeing” at shortstop, according to Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Galvis was a Phillie from 2012-17, during which he blended below-average offense with defense that typically received solid grades at both short and second base. The switch-hitting Galvis closed his Phillies tenure as a .245/.287/.372 batter in 2,440 plate appearances, though that production has gotten better since they dealt him to the Padres for right-hander Enyel De Los Santos prior to the 2018 season.

Since the Phillies parted with him, Galvis has combined for a more powerful .250/.299/.408 line among the Pads, Blue Jays and Reds over 1,404 PA. In 2020, despite an abnormally low .231 batting average on balls in play, the 31-year-old managed a career-best walk percentage (8.2), ISO (.184) and wRC+ (91) with the Reds.

While Galvis would be a reasonably priced and passable shortstop option for the Phillies or any other team, he’s hardly the most exciting shortstop available in free agency. Didi Gregorius, who spent last season with the Phillies and performed well, is at or near the top of the class. The Phillies haven’t closed the door on a reunion with Gregorius, who’s joined by Marcus Semien (whom the club is also interested in) and Andrelton Simmons. Galvis can’t match those players’ track records, but if the Phillies lose out on the bigger fish at the position, he may be their best choice.

Latest On Marcus Semien

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Over two months into free agency, shortstop Marcus Semien remains without a team. It’s not for lack of interest, however, as Jim Bowden of The Athletic tweets that the Athletics, Phillies, Reds and Red Sox have all been part of negotiations with Semien “to some extent.” It’s isn’t known how serious any of those discussions have gotten, however.

Semien, 30, spent the previous six years in Oakland, where he was regularly an average or better starter. He reached a new level in 2019, an MVP-caliber season in which he didn’t miss a game and posted 7.6 fWAR with a .285/.369/.522 line and 33 home runs, but wasn’t able to replicate those otherworldly stats last year. Semien bounced back to a major degree as the year progressed, however, evidenced by a 64 wRC+ in the first half and a 126 mark in the second.

Even though the A’s made it known on multiple occasions during and after the season that they wanted Semien back, they did not give him an $18.9MM qualifying offer. Now, considering he could price himself out of the team’s range in free agency, it seems doubtful low-budget Oakland will win the bidding for Semien. Thanks in part to the pandemic, the A’s don’t seem as if they’ll spend much this winter.

Philadelphia and Cincinnati appear to be more realistic fits for Semien, who would certainly address their gaping holes at shortstop. The Phillies could plug him in to replace Didi Gregorius, another notable veteran shortstop who’s currently a free agent. Freddy Galvis is a free agent for the Reds, meanwhile, leaving Jose Garcia as at least the temporary front-runner to start for them next season. Garcia doesn’t appear ready for that role, though: He never played above High-A ball before last year, when he reached the majors and batted .194/.206/.194 with no home runs, 26 strikeouts and one walk in 68 plate appearances.

Unlike Oakland, Philadelphia and Cincinnati, Boston is targeting Semien as a second baseman, per Bowden. That isn’t surprising, as it was reported last month that teams have shown interest in Semien as an option at the keystone this offseason. Boston already has a set left side of the infield with shortstop Xander Bogaerts and third baseman Rafael Devers, but it still has to sort out second – a position that isn’t foreign to Semien. He played 77 games there as a minor leaguer and another 29 in the bigs with the White Sox from 2013-14.

Along with where he’ll go, an obvious question centering on Semien is how much it will take to sign him. When the offseason began, MLBTR predicted Semien would reel in a one-year, $14MM contract, but as Steve Adams wrote in November, others have been far more bullish in regards to his forthcoming deal. If teams are confident Semien is more the player he was in 2019 and in the second half of 2020, he could indeed collect a substantial payday over multiple years.

Latest On Phillies’ Free Agent Targets

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The hiring of Dave Dombrowski as the Phillies’ new president of baseball operations brought renewed hope that the team could re-sign J.T. Realmuto, though the Phils still hadn’t made an official offer to Realmuto as of late December.  “The Phillies continue to be engaged” in discussions with Realmuto and his representatives, NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury writes, but the team is also doing the same with another of its high-profile free agents — shortstop Didi Gregorius.

There hasn’t been much in the way of news about Gregorius this offseason, despite a solid 2020 season that saw him hit .284/.339/.488 with 10 homers over 237 PA for Philadelphia.  After accepting a one-year contract with the Phillies last winter in order to rebuild his value after an injury-shortened 2019 campaign, Gregorius’ seemingly successful plan ran into a pair of roadblocks — the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on teams’ spending habits, and a very deep shortstop market.  Not only are such names as Marcus Semien and Andrelton Simmons still available on the open market, a number of prominent shortstops have been rumored to be trade chips, with two such players (Francisco Lindor to the Mets, Jose Iglesias to the Angels) addressing the shortstop needs of two would-be suitors for Gregorius and company.

The door therefore still seems open for a reunion between Gregorius and the Phillies, though it still remains to be seen how much the club is willing to spend this offseason.  Salisbury raises the possibility that both Realmuto and Gregorius could be re-signed, which would run counter to the early-offseason narrative that the Phillies would be hampered by revenue losses, but it’s probably safe to assume that Dombrowski wouldn’t have taken the job without some assurance that he would be allowed to make some higher-tier additions.

It could be that Philadelphia is first waiting to see what happens with Realmuto before turning to Gregorius as a possible backup plan.  The Phillies are technically set around the infield already, with Jean Segura slated to move back to his old shortstop position, Alec Bohm slated for third base and Scott Kingery tapped for regular second base duty.  Signing Gregorius would allow for more roster flexibility, perhaps with Kingery moving back into a super-utility role, and it would better bolster the Phillies’ hitting depth if the DH is again part of National League lineups.

Beyond the everyday lineup, the Phillies are also still looking for more bullpen help in the wake of a disastrous performance from the 2020 relief corps.  To this end, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand (via Twitter) reports that the Phillies and Padres are interested in closer Alex Colome, joining such previously-known suitors as the Twins and Red Sox.  The Astros and Nationals were also linked to Colome earlier this winter, but the White Sox are now likely out of the running after signing Liam Hendriks.

Colome would be yet another big offseason addition for the aggressive Padres, who look to be challengers for the NL pennant but are still lacking some help at the back of the bullpen with Trevor Rosenthal and Kirby Yates both in free agency.  A proven closer like Colome would only further strengthen an already solid San Diego bullpen, but the Phillies clearly have the more glaring need for relief help.

Thus far in the offseason, the Phillies have already added Jose Alvarado, Sam Coonrod, Ian Hamilton, and (on minors deals) Neftali Feliz and Michael Ynoa as they try to figure out the state of their 2021 relief picture.  Colome would surely take over as the regular closer, moving Hector Neris and Alvarado into setup roles and reinforcing the late-game mix.

Phillies Finalize Coaching Staff

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The Philadelphia Phillies announced their finalized coaching staff for the 2021 season today. Just a couple of changes have been made to manager Joe Girardi’s staff that had not been previously announced.

Dave Lundquist will take over as the bullpen coach after previously serving as an assistant pitching coach the past couple seasons. Mike Calitri gets promoted to the Major League coaching staff as the quality assurance coach. Calitri joined the Phillies in December of 2017 as an advance scouting manager after eight years working in the Indians’ organization. Bobby Meacham will also return for a second season as a coaching assistant, adds Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Caleb Cotham is the only newcomer from another organization. He joined the Phillies earlier this winter as the new pitching coach, presumably bringing with him a new-school approach after serving as an assistant pitching coach with the Reds. The other staff members include Greg Brodzinski and Bob Stumpo as bullpen catchers/catching coaches, Juan Castro as the infield coach, Joe Dillon as hitting coach, Paco Figueroa as the first base coach, Pedro Guerrero as assistant hitting coach, Dusty Wathan as the third base coach, and Rob Thomson will return as Girardi’s bench coach.

Phillies Interested In Aníbal Sánchez

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The Phillies are exploring the idea of adding Aníbal Sánchez to the pitching staff, per MLB Insider Jon Morosi (video link). As Morosi notes, Sanchez began his MLB career in 2006 with the Marlins playing for current Phillies manager Joe Girardi. Sanchez also has experience dealing with President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski: Sanchez inked a five-year, $80MM deal just before Christmas in 2012 when Dombrowski was the Tigers’ GM.

Sánchez won’t be signing quite such a lucrative deal this time around as he enters his age-37 season. The Nationals chose a $2MM opt-out after he struggled to a 6.62 ERA/5.46 FIP across 53 innings in 2020. Sánchez has been counted out before, of course. After three subpar seasons in Detroit, Sanchez revitalized his career with back-to-back 2.5 fWAR seasons with the Braves in 2018 and the Nationals in 2019.

In the latter, he started with a 5.27 ERA over his first eight starts, but after a 10-day stint on the injured list for a left hamstring strain, Sánchez returned to post a 3.42 ERA over 123 2/3 innings the rest of the way. He was crucial in the Nats’ World Series run, which included coming within four outs of throwing a no-hitter in game one of the NLCS. These days, Sánchez looks to throw strikes, control pace, and change speeds, the latter of which is helped by his famed butterfly change, La Mariposa, which clocks in a tick under 70 mph.

The Phillies could slot Sánchez into the rotation behind Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, and Zach Eflin. Bringing in a veteran of his ilk would allow the Phillies patience in the development of Spencer Howard, who will compete for a rotation spot in 2021.

Phillies Acquire Sam Coonrod From Giants

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The Phillies have acquired right-hander Sam Coonrod from the Giants in exchange for pitching prospect Carson Ragsdale, according to ESPN.com’s Kiley McDaniel and Jeff Passan (Twitter link).

Originally a fifth-round pick in the 2014 draft, Coonrod debuted in the big leagues by posting a 3.58 ERA over 27 2/3 innings for the Giants in 2019, though advanced metrics weren’t impressed by his work.  That fortune turned in 2020, as while Coonrod’s advanced numbers improved, his ERA ballooned to 9.82 in 14 2/3 frames.  Overall, Coonrod has a 5.74 ERA, 18.9 K%, 7 K-BB%, and 5.05 SIERA over his brief Major League career.

Coonrod missed much of the 2018 season due to Tommy John surgery but he returned from that long rehab with plenty of heat on his fastball, averaging 97.1 mph in the bigs.  He was a regular starting pitcher in the minors prior to his surgery, but Coonrod could best be positioned to remain a relief pitcher for the foreseeable future.

While he may have been expendable for the Giants, the Phillies will surely take a live arm as they try to rebuild a bullpen that posted dreadful numbers in 2020.  Newly-hired Phils pitching coach Caleb Cotham and bullpen coach Jim Gott will now be tasked with seeing if they can turn Coonrod’s velocity and excellent curveball spin into consistent results for the 28-year-old.

Ragsdale was Philadelphia’s fourth-round selection in the 2020 draft, so he has yet to begin his pro career.  A product of the University Of South Florida, Ragsdale’s college career was interrupted by Tommy John surgery but he still posted a 3.75 ERA and a very impressive 33.6 K% over 50 1/3 NCAA innings, albeit with some control problems.  MLB Pipeline ranked him as the 30th-best prospect in the Phillies’ farm system, citing his promising fastball and curve but also noting that there is still a lot of uncertainty over Ragsdale’s potential as a starter due to the lack of games in the abbreviated 2020 NCAA season.

Latest On Phillies, J.T. Realmuto

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Jan. 1: NBC Sports Philadelphia’s Jim Salisbury takes a fresh look at Realmuto’s market, running through several speculative matches for him in free agency. While the Phils have yet to make an offer, Salisbury writes that given Realmuto’s “fondness” for Philadelphia, it’s likely he’d circle back and give them a chance to match or top any offers received elsewhere.

Dec. 29: The market for J.T. Realmuto has moved at a glacial pace. The lone major development came in the form of a four-year deal between Realmuto’s top alternative, James McCann, and one of his top suitors, the Mets. Beyond the Mets, Realmuto has been linked to the Blue Jays, Nationals and Angels — to varying extents.

The incumbent Phillies, of course, remain a fit. MLB Network’s Jon Heyman tweeted last night that Realmuto remains “the priority” for the Phils under new president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski and GM Sam Fuld. However, NBC Sports Philadelphia’s John Clark reports this morning that while the Phillies have had plenty of conversations with Realmuto’s camp, a formal offer has never been put forth. That differs from reporting by Heyman and others who’ve suggested that the Phillies have a standing offer on the table.

It’s certainly possible there are some semantics at play. The Phils can make their comfort level known and indicate their breaking point without presenting an actual offer. Similarly, Realmuto’s agents at CAA can set general expectations without giving a firm number they need the Phillies (or another club) to meet. That said, it still registers as something of a surprise that, after nearly a year of conversations dating back to Spring Training, the Phils have apparently yet to give Realmuto the opportunity to put pen to paper.

While the trade market for star-caliber pitchers has been ramping up and we’re simultaneously seeing high-profile international players reach the end of their posting windows, the market for top-level MLB free agents seems no closer to a crescendo than it was this time last month. Some form of resolution in the Yankees’ pursuit of DJ LeMahieu or the Mets’ pursuit of George Springer could have a cascade effect that lends clarity to Realmuto’s market, but there’s no indication that such a sequence will happen anytime soon.

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