The Phillies may need already made their greatest strikes of the offseason. On Friday, the workforce introduced the signing of outfielder Max Kepler to a one-year, $10MM deal. Kepler’s is the second main league contract Philadelphia has given out this winter; they signed right-handed reliever Jordan Romano to a one-year, $8.5MM assure earlier this month. At a current press convention, president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski prompt these two signings are doubtless his main offseason additions.
The manager spoke favorably of Kepler, praising his selectivity and bat-to-ball abilities. Based on Baseball Savant, the Phillies ranked among the many backside half of groups in touch and chase charge in 2024. Evidently, Dombrowski is hoping Kepler will assist to repair that downside. His chase charge was under common this previous 12 months however usually ranks among the many high 25% of the league. In the meantime, his contact charge has been above common in each season of his profession.
Kepler will slot into the lineup as the first left fielder. Though he has by no means performed the place on the MLB stage, Dombrowski has no issues about his capability to rapidly choose it up. He has graded out as a superb defensive proper fielder all through his profession. Of extra concern than Kepler’s capability to play left discipline is his capability to hit left-handed pitching. The lefty batter had reverse platoon splits in 2024 however has usually struggled towards southpaws in his profession. Dombrowski makes it clear that Kepler gained’t simply be the sturdy facet of a platoon in Philadelphia. Nevertheless, the POBO identifies the righty-batting Weston Wilson as somebody who might sometimes cowl for Kepler with a troublesome lefty on the mound. Johan Rojas is one other righty-batting outfielder on the roster, however he’ll most definitely be busy protecting for middle fielder Brandon Marsh, one other lefty-batting outfielder with poor platoon splits.
Whereas Dombrowski spoke extremely of Kepler, he acknowledged that his new signing is coming off a down 12 months. It’s debatable how true that’s; Kepler’s .682 OPS and 94 wRC+ in 2024 have been a giant step down from his .816 OPS and 123 wRC+ in 2023, however proper consistent with his .694 OPS and 95 wRC+ from 2021-22. The model of Kepler on show in 2024 is likely to be nearer to his true skills than the model we noticed in 2023. Regardless, Dombrowski provided some perception into why the outfielder took a step again in 2024 and why the Phillies are optimistic he’ll enhance in 2025. Kepler was taking part in via a core muscle harm for a lot of the 2024 season. Nevertheless, he had surgical procedure to restore the difficulty this offseason and has already recovered. Phillies hitting coach Kevin Lengthy watched him swing earlier, and Dombrowski suggests Lengthy was happy with what he noticed.
Whereas Kepler and Romano are each trying to bounce again from accidents in 2025, Dombrowski wouldn’t characterize both signing as cut price bin procuring. He emphasised that Kepler and Romano are merely two gamers the workforce needed – certainly, he says they’ve preferred Kepler for fairly some time – and it was the gamers themselves who sought one-year offers. Plainly each are hoping to spice up their worth and re-enter the free agent market subsequent offseason.
On an analogous observe, Dombrowski additionally denied that he’s working below strict payroll constraints. That mentioned, he did make it fairly clear that he nearly definitely isn’t trying to signal any extra impression free brokers. If that proves to be true, this could be the primary offseason in Dombrowski’s tenure with the Phillies that he didn’t signal a free agent to a nine-figure contract. Nevertheless, Philadelphia’s payroll remains to be projected to extend by greater than $30MM to a franchise-record $280MM in 2025 (per RosterResource). That’s largely as a result of the three-year, $126MM extension Zack Wheeler signed this previous March will start subsequent 12 months. In different phrases, one might argue that Dombrowski did signal a nine-figure deal this offseason – he simply did it a number of months early.
As for smaller additions to enhance the workforce alongside the margins, Dombrowski identifies two wants: yet another place participant for the bench and a swingman for the pitching workers. At present, the Phillies have three bench gamers who appear to be locks for the Opening Day roster: utility infielder Edmundo Sosa, fourth outfielder Rojas, and backup catcher Garrett Stubbs. They may use yet another possibility who can play each the infield and the outfield. Whereas Dombrowski doesn’t get rid of the opportunity of in search of an exterior improve, he suggests the Phillies usually tend to follow their inner candidates. He names Wilson, Kody Clemens, and Buddy Kennedy as three gamers who might fill that function from with out the group.
Wilson has essentially the most MLB success of the trio, albeit in a small pattern measurement, and Dombrowski talked about his identify a number of instances throughout the presser. The one factor working towards his probabilities of making the Opening Day roster proper now could be the truth that he nonetheless has one possibility 12 months remaining. Clemens and Kennedy are out of choices, which suggests the Phillies would threat shedding them via waivers in the event that they don’t put them on the energetic roster. However, Clemens is at a drawback as one other lefty bat, whereas Kennedy has very restricted skilled expertise taking part in the outfield.
Turning to the pitching workers, Dombrowski is extra prone to look outdoors the group for an improve. Ideally, he’d like an arm that would doubtlessly take the fifth spot within the rotation however might additionally pitch out of the bullpen if Taijuan Walker wins the fifth starter job out of camp. That appears to explain somebody like Spencer Turnbull, who the Phillies signed for one 12 months and $2MM final offseason. Turnbull made seven begins and 10 reduction appearances for Philadelphia earlier than struggling a season-ending harm. Jakob Junis could possibly be an intriguing choice to fill that function in 2025. The 32-year-old righty has made 27 begins and 60 reduction appearances over the previous three years, pitching to a 3.80 ERA and three.62 SIERA.
The Phillies at present have six locks for the Opening Day bullpen. Dombrowski describes Romano, Matt Strahm, José Alvarado, and Orion Kerkering as back-end arms, and he identifies Tanner Banks and José Ruiz as middle-inning relievers the workforce likes. That leaves two bullpen spots open. One spot would presumably go to the aforementioned swingman. The opposite will most definitely stay up for grabs coming into spring coaching. Dombrowski talked about Max Lazar as one risk to win the job. The righty struggled in a handful of massive league appearances this previous 12 months however excelled within the minors.
One closing focal point from Dombrowski’s press convention was his transient dialogue of NPB phenom Roki Sasaki. The manager made it clear the Phillies would love to have interaction in additional discussions with Sasaki and his workforce, however right now, Philadelphia has not been invited to take action. That’s not completely shocking – the Phillies by no means appeared like a frontrunner within the Sasaki sweepstakes – nevertheless it’s nonetheless a disappointing replace.
