2015-16 Philadelphia Phillies

I was fortunate enough to be asked to participate in Mets360’s MLB General Manager Project this year and I had a blast doing it. I was assigned to be the GM of the Phillies, which caused me less internal conflict than it may have in years past. Additionally, the Phillies were probably one of the easier teams to be in control over for this task considering their current situation. Specifically, the team is in full rebuilding mode and just replaced Ruben Amaro Jr. with Matt Klentak at the GM position.

With that in mind, I surveyed the current roster to determine which players to keep, which to cut loose, and which positions I could (and should) try to fill with any potential free agents that made sense. The Phillies made this a bit easier on me by purging their roster of most of the dead weight shortly after their season ended. This left me with only three arbitration eligible players: INF Andres Blanco, SS Freddy Galvis, and RHP Jeanmar Gomez. I offered arbitration to all three.

Next, I considered whether or not there were any prospects within the Phillies’ system that 1) could be impact players and 2) arrive in the short term. There were only really two or three that stood out, and only two that seemed a sure bet to help in 2016 or 2017. They were shortstop J.P. Crawford, starting pitcher Aaron Nola, and outfielder Nick Williams, whom the Phillies got from Texas in the Cole Hamels trade. Crawford and Nola seem like more sure things, though none of the three will face any real competition at the major league level at their positions when they’re ready.

Second baseman Cesar Hernandez is worth taking another shot on and Maikel Franco seems legit. The Darin Ruf/Ryan Howard combination at first base was going to be set going into next year (and I’ll speak a bit more on Howard later), so that position was settled at least for now. Carlos Ruiz, who only has one more year on his contract, and Cameron Rupp would be behind the plate with no clear upgrades available. Plus, there are a couple of catching prospects in the Phillies system with some potential future value.

Anyway, long story short is that I saw a potential opportunity to upgrade in the outfield and in the rotation. Because the Phillies are super limited in valuable resources (prospects willing to give up), those upgrades would need happen via the free agent route rather than through trades.

Surveying the outfield landscape, one clear option appeared: Jason Heyward. Now, Heyward is going to get more money than he’s worth. That’s how free agency works. However, in him I saw a great, young player that the Phillies could build around. There isn’t a player on the team right now you could say that about, except perhaps Nola. I outbid other teams (by a surprising amount, in some cases) and signed Heyward for $22.5 million for 2016. Though we only technically signed one year deals in this exercise, the implication here is that I signed him for an extended period. The signing of Heyward slid Aaron Altherr to left field, “solidifying” the outfield with Odubel Herrera in center. The other remaining holdover position players have been relegated to the bench and I did not sign another one.

The rotation was in shambles with the expiring veteran contracts and my buyout of Cliff Lee’s last year. The three sure bets were Nola, Jerad Eickoff, and Adam Morgan. I plugged in potential-yet-unfulfilled-and-perpetually-hurt Matt Harrison in there as well since, theoretically, he should be ready for next season. I signed Mike Leake with a $16 million salary in 2016 and again an implied longer-term contract to fill the rotation out with a young starter with some success and maybe a bit more potential. I hedged my bets with some decent depth in the minors.

The bullpen is a crap shoot, right? With Gomez returning, Ken Giles as the closer, and a few other young holdovers from last year, I signed Jim Johnson for $2 million and filled the rest of it out with some additional non-roster invitees as competition.

That brought my actual 2016 payroll to $117,028,167, well below my max budget of $157,171,944. Remember, the team is rebuilding so getting costs down in general is a goal. The contracts of Howard, Lee, Ruiz, and Cuban bust Miguel Gonzalez will be off the books in 2017, reducing the team’s payroll by about $40 million that year even with my additions and Howard’s $10,000,000 buyout.

Now, coming back to Howard and the topic of trades. I went into this not expecting to make a single trade. To my surprise, I had one team reach out to me to gauge how much of Howard’s contract I would eat in a potential trade. I told them I would eat a “very significant” amount in the right deal, and in reality I would have eaten pretty much all of it in the right deal. The team’s GM asked me what I was looking for so I sent an initial offer. In very much Amaro-esque fashion, I asked for too much on the first one. I expected to get some kind of counter offer, but instead got silence. Whoops. However, there were many trades happening all over the place that seemed counter to reality both in the players involved and the sheer amount of them. Still, I probably should have opened a little lower in my request. Oh well.

I feel as though the Phillies are in a decent position to get back to competitive baseball in a relatively short term what with a few nice prospects and an owner still willing to spend money. I feel as though my moves in this exercise may have been a tad aggressive in some areas and maybe not enough in others, but I had a good time with it.

I thank Brian for including me and the other “GMs” for a fun project. I know it was a lot of work for him to put this together and keep track of the madness and it is appreciated.

Phillies Roster