Philadelphia Phillies Rank High In Free Agency Spending
In this story:
How crazy has this offseason of free agency been so far? The Philadelphia Phillies have signed one free agent to a guaranteed deal and they have spent the second-most money in free agency, according to MLB Trade Rumors.
The site maintains a contract tracker of all free agency activity. For the purposes of tracking free agency spending, these rankings include only players that signed MLB deals after the Nov. 6 cut-off to start free agency negotiations with other teams. The site is also not including trades and extensions in these rankings.
The Phillies have made just one MLB free agency move, and that was to re-sign their own free agent, pitcher Aaron Nola, to a seven-year, $172 million deal.
That puts the Phillies second, ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks, who have spent $122 million on two players — pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez ($80 million over four years) and outfielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. ($42 million over three years).
The only club to outspend the Phillies is, naturally, the Los Angeles Dodgers. They’ve spent $1 billion in free agency on Shohei Ohtani ($700 million over 10 years) and pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million over 12 years).
The Dodgers have also signed outfielder Jason Heyward to a one-year, $9 million deal, pitcher Joe Kelly to a one-year, $8 million deal and pitcher Ricky Vanasco to a one-year $900,000 deal.
The Phillies did meet with Yamamoto, but their pursuit proved fruitless. Afterward, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said the team would “work around the edges” for the rest of free agency and make signing pitcher Zack Wheeler to an extension their top priority. Wheeler is in the final year of a five-year, $118 million contract.
One could argue the Phillies accomplished their primary goal in free agency in retaining Nola.
In 2023 Nola went 12-9 with a 4.46 ERA with 202 strikeouts and 45 walks. He has least 200 strikeouts in each of his last five full seasons. The Phillies may want him back, but a pitcher with a 90-71 record and a 3.73 career ERA will have plenty of suitors.
He’s also made one All-Star Game appearance, one World Series appearance and finished in the Top 10 of Cy Young voting three times.
