Tommy Pham stands as one of the better outfielders still on the open market. With Spring Training a couple weeks away, the 10-year MLB veteran is fielding interest from a handful of teams.
Juan Toribio of MLB.com tweets that eight-plus clubs remain in contact with Pham’s camp. Jon Heyman of the New York Post indicates the Red Sox have some degree of interest. Boston chief baseball officer Craig Breslow said last month the team was open to adding a right-handed hitting outfielder, making that a natural fit.
Pham is headed into his age-36 campaign. He’s coming off a productive year split between the Mets and eventual NL champion Diamondbacks. Pham hit 16 homers with a combined .256/.328/.446 batting line through 481 plate appearances in the regular season. He stole 22 bases in 25 attempts with slightly better than average walk and strikeout rates (9.8% and 22%, respectively). He made hard contact — an exit velocity of 95 MPH or better — on nearly half his batted balls.
As Arizona made their surprising run to the Fall Classic, Pham chipped in a .279/.297/.475 line with a trio of homers across 16 postseason games. It was a solid finish to his most productive season since 2019. He paired that well-rounded showing at the plate with league average defensive marks in a bit more than 500 innings of left field work.
That performance should at least secure Pham another decent salary on a one-year contract, although it might not be enough for a multi-year deal at his age. He has signed one-year deals in each of the last two offseasons. He inked a $7.5MM guarantee with the Reds going into 2022 and a $6MM contract with the Mets last winter. His camp should look to beat those numbers off a superior platform showing than he had in either of the previous two free agent trips.
Pham finished the ’22 campaign in Boston, as Cincinnati dealt him to the Red Sox at the deadline. While the Sox have since changed front office leaders, manager Alex Cora and much of the roster is familiar with Pham from that previous stint. Boston has swapped in Tyler O’Neill for Alex Verdugo this offseason. O’Neill joins Masataka Yoshida, Jarren Duran, Rob Refsnyder and young players Wilyer Abreu and Ceddanne Rafaela in the outfield mix.
Ask him not to join fantasy football leagues and you should be fine.
Hope the Pirates sign him.
Want them to sing, “We are Pham-ily”
Manny you should be ashamed of yourself. LOL
I think that is not only a good idea.
It’s a Phamtastic idea!!
Or frequent gentleman’s clubs. This guy is full of drama.
Vegas – The ability to survive knife attacks makes him a perfect fit for the White Sox.
How about his ability to prompt knife attacks?
Good season for Pham in 2023
HRS 16
RBI 68
HITS 109 (slaps not included)
Cardinals did an amazing job turning the trade of Tommy Pham into absolutely nothing.
Common theme with them, eh?
That was also after years of jerking him around in AAA until he finally got to play his first full MLB season at age 28. They used to be a well run organization, pretty much running the NL Central for the better part of 2 decades, but over the last several years they’ve made dumber and dumber decisions.
Actually not jerking him around in the minors the Cards suppprted him while he was having issues with eyesight and stabilizing them. He was also injured a lot. He’s spoke highly of the team because most teams would have let him go. Nice try hater. Facts are facts
asdfgh – If you really want to talk about jerking around, look no further than McGuire.
To come into a random threads to take shots at random RS players is a little weak.
I’ll allow it. Reese did it to himself (ba dum tiss).
Joe – Get a hold of yourself, nobody was hit with any shots.
Well they got the oddity of seeing Roel Ramirez put up an 81.00 era in 2 consecutive years which was neat. But his 62 fip suggests he was better.
I don’t think he hits quite enough to end up on a contender…
As a backup, sure, but I doubt he’ll settle.
Texas lost Garver. They have more info on their 2024 payroll situation and he’d be a cheaper 1 year get.
So a good fit then for the Red Sox.
We were told a million times that the priority was starting pitching and a power right-handed bat. We abandoned need 1, and we are now down to settling for Pham? Why even bother spending the money? Just let prospects play for league minimum with roughly the same results. If the prospect fails all together at least they get some experience, and we were coming in last anyway.
Note to Red Sox. You are unwilling to spend the money for true elite players. You’re better off doing nothing and playing your farm system than spending millions here and there bringing mediocre after mediocre players in to make zero difference. You are a last place team, you know it, and we know it. Just say it, be done with it, play the prospects, and collect your high draft pick the next couple of years.
Padres need to get him back.
He would like the chance to get back to Pacers!
Haha! Isn’t that the strip joint where he was stabbed in the parking lot at 3am? Not a guy I’d bring back.
Back to? More like back at!!! Nobody lets Tommy Pham get stabbed in a parking lot fool!
If Pads sign him, they should also bring back Luke Voit as Tommy’s personal hitting coach
Him and the dbacks are a match made in heaven
Not with Joc there now!
He’s already had been on the losing side of a knife attack here in SD, Been here, done that.
I wish my jays signed him for 2 and 15 not IKF, he’ll even 2/20 or 22 would be fine. They need a RHH OF to platoon for LHP, that’s all phams value is now. Then insurance for injuries as well
POINT OF CONFUSION – Why does Anthony Franco keep suggesting the outfield is going to be Yoshida, Duran and Refsnyder?
Tony, may I call you Tony, did you see Rafaela and Abreu play last year? Yoshida can’t field and since Devers isn’t going to his rightful position at DH it has to be Yoshida at DH not left field. Devers and Yoshida are by far the worst fielders on the team except for Cora, he sucks at that too.
Lets not do any stories until a REAL acquisition happens. Lets do one poll tomorrow and have it be everyone guessing the date of the next all-star acquisition by the Boston Red Sox.
That will get lots of feedback and be a heck of a lot more fun than hearing about guys that suck like Tommy Pham!!!
TF – Ha! I always call him Tony, every Anthony I’ve ever known is called Tony.
I really think Ref should be on a short leash, if he’s no better than last year then cut him loose by the All-Star break.
What amazes me is Ref came up a second baseman and last year they didn’t even put him there against a lefty. Turner was there and he wasn’t. Ref is a good 25th man on a contender but on the Sox in 24, he’s taking a job of a kid that needs to learn.
dewey – He’s played a grand total of 17 games at 2B, back in 2015-2017. I’m guessing he sucked at the position.
I don’t think they want to eat his $2M contract, not yet anyway.
I don’t get what any fascination is with Ref every season.
33 years old. Will have received +8 mil after next year in total earnings.
Over 1,000 mlb plate appearances over 8 years, seldom plays any baseball. Between Mlb and Minors, averages around 200 plate appearances a year.
I do think Ref has value. But how he is “pencilled” in as a starter every year, (or 4th OF) is beyond insane.
There must be a better upside play.
And there usually is. He must super impress.
cad – The fascination, in the year prior to last season, was a 1.005 OPS against LHP and a respectable .792 OPS against RHP.
And he was under team control through this year.
Absolutely nobody questioned him being on the team in 2022.
But I am puzzled as to why they gave him the $2M extension last June when he was still under team control this year, unless the 2025 club option meant that much to Bloom. Obviously it turned out to be yet another Bloom Blunder.
Fever – You get 4 outfielders on your 26 man roster and several more on your 40 man roster. Ref belongs on the 40 but not the 26 man roster.
1 – Rafaela
2 – Duran
3 – Abreu
4 – O’Neill since we are stuck with him.
Anthony when he proves himself to start the 2024 season will be up pushing one of the four back to AAA.
Duvall and Ref are not as good as Rafaela, Duran and Abreu and depending on O’Neill neither might not be better than him either.
Duvall is Dalbec 10 years from now. We have the younger version who has had great segments to his career just like Duvall. He also has had great segments where he sucked just like Duvall. Duvall is wasted money but if the team isn’t going to compete, it really doesn’t matter. He’s not building the future so he’s hurting the present in my eyes.
Tommy Pham slashed to a 200-stitch WAR while with the Friars.
He then took a stab at a ring with a couple of other clubs (Mets, Reds, Pacers Int’l). His turn as a gadabout gay blade ended when he couldn’t hack it.
He may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but plays ball with a razor’s edge and is never dull.
Either way you slice it, TP may play in 2024, may get cut, but the point is he can be counted upon to put up a real sword fight.
serge = Cut it out!!! Sorry all the sword analogies made me do it.
Pham can help teams depending on what they need. Boston doesn’t need him at all. Teams that are weak at the 4th outfield position might need him. He’s about as inconsistent as any fourth outfielder can be, much like Duvall, so you have to hope to need him when he’s hot otherwise he’ll bury you.
Pierce not my heart.
You were pointing at my frustration earlier, and you hit the target on that post. I would rather know nothing than hear stupidity. Half the “Sox are interested in” are completely useless players that would provide nothing of substance, and the rest were pipe dreams that never even received any formal offers.
If we are resetting the franchise either STFU, or just say so. Don’t tell me we are building a sustainable consistent winner after 3 last place finishes.in the last 4 years since you made that decree. This team is not competitive. All that good will was burned. People were running away from the GM job. Some MLB players are not even entertaining offers. The league wide impression of management is that it is inconsistent. Has no plan. There is no loyalty, and that the team will always look to lowball. A couple of the leaked offers this off season were not just laughable, they were insulting. This crap is what defines the team now. Like I said, this was a team that only a decade ago people would line up to play for and work for. I cannot think of a more efficient way of completely undermining themselves then what they pulled off at this speed. Truly impressive.
@William, I get what you are saying. I’ve said similar forever about other teams.
How often have you heard the current CEO of any organization give reality? Never.
The most is maybe from an owner, that says, yes we have made mistakes. But let us not dwell on it, because Now it is changing.
The job is not to provide reality or to educate fans.
They often earn millions, specifically NOT to drop perception in any way. To drop sales, stocks.
I get it, you feel like you should be valued better, and especially not taken as a token idiot.
My unfortunate take is, there are new suckers always that buy into the hype. This site and comments are an example of fan interaction and care.
It would be nice to hear reality. But not gonna happen. You still feel the way you feel.
cada – There are plenty of exceptions.
Kennedy did indeed say the payroll would probably be lower this year, gotta give him credit for honesty there even though it obviously wasn’t fans wanted to hear.
Publicly owned companies are required to provide truthful guidance at least quarterly. Elon Musk recently said several negative things about Tesla’s immediate future.
@William bottom line, pun intended, is they have killed the golden goose.
William – Decade ago? The Red Sox were a team players wanted to be on as recently as 5 years ago. It all went downhill in late 2019.
The speed with which Henry has destroyed this franchise is remarkable.
As for all the “Sox are interested in” articles, I would love to know if anyone has been keeping count.
Am I misremembering or have the Red Sox really signed just one free agent (Gio) that’s a guaranteed MLB player, and traded for maybe two (O’Neill & Grissom)?
Considering how bad the team was the past two seasons, this is the most pitiful offseason in my lifetime anyway.
I would love to see Pham back with the cardinals!!!!
Pham can hit a little bit and is not overmatched by elite pitching. That being said, his habit of running his mouth and trashing ex teams will probably lessen his market by a couple teams.
Pham would be a nice fit for my Phillies. However, I doubt he’s looking to sign where’s he’s the short side of a platoon. That’s what he’d initially be in Philly right now: Platooning with Marsh in LF.
However, Johan Rojas nailing down the everyday gig in CF is far from a slam dunk. Thus, in Philly, Pham could emerge as a regular. I like the guy a lot. Plays hard.
Average aging big league player with baggage. I just don’t know if the risk of temper tantrums are worth investing in him at this point. I guess it depends on how bad the team’s need is and how cheap they can get them for.
He’s calmed down a bit
Joc Pederson on line 1.
He has most certainly not calmed down any bits.
The current salary is about 180k or actually closer to 175K. Why bother with an aging 36 year old OF ? Soler is not going to cost 20-25K, but probably 15-17k a year and he is a slugger you need in the middle of that lineup, so the younger guys get better pitches. Why haven’t we signed Montgomery? 5-110K in that ballpark?? That would fill the team to actually being competitive if the youngsters perform. Salary cap is not an issue? what are we doing? rebuilding and don’t want to say it? They have been in on most free agents, and then backaway? why???
looking at what Boston has done, and they have 2 pieces that fit perfectly for the lineup and pitching, if they pass on them (Soler & Montgomery),then I am convinced they are going into a rebuild, but dont’ want to come out and say it. They are hoping the young talent will all live up to its hype. Breslow, convince me that is not the case!!!
Ownership has more mony then probably 30 of the teams, so the payroll, being around 180K, if that is not the issue.
I think Breslow has a handshake deal with MLBTR that has 2 provisions: 1) Any time any unsigned free agent is mentioned, indicate the Red Sox have interest, and 2) If you’re having a slow news day, just concoct a feature story about how BOS is hot on his trail and why he makes sense for them. Of course nothing will ever come of these articles, but BOS stays in the fan psyche without having to actually spend any money.
Pham to return to San Diego to replace Juan Soto in Left Field, and bat leadoff for us again?
Tommy Pham is too angry for San Diego. There simply isn’t room.
Kevin Mitchell – while well-diminished physically – still controls San Diego’s scary-angry market. Pretty much, ask anyone with whom he is in direct contact.
Lets open it up for the Phillie Phamatics.
Philly is the perfect fit for him. He can split time in left field with Brandon Marsh while Johan Rojas and marsh split center and left. It would give Marsh about 120 games, Rojas about 120 games, and Pham about 80 games plus a great right handed bat off the bench. Dombrowski has to wake up.
Marc – DD is far beyond you in baseball smarts. I thought your idea was dumb from the on set. Pham sucks. No consistency. Philly would be smart to stay away from him. Teams like the Yankees and Mets deserve him!!
You really do think your God‘s gift. You must be fun at the Thanksgiving table. You do realize this is supposed to be fun. We don’t make the decisions. It’s just about throwing stuff out there. So why don’t you take your happy pill, and just chill the F out
Redsox Nation is already in BOYCOTT mode…Pham would only justify an already justifiable BOYCOTT more so…
Pham is a joke. Duvall is a joke. Almost everyone rumored to be on their way to Boston by this crack set of reporters are a joke. Heck, O’Neill, Giolito and Grissom for $17MM are jokes.
Boston’s needs are obvious. To not fill them when you could is irresponsible. We are talking about 5 easy fixes. That’s it and they can win 95ish games. The money is there but the decision making abilities are gone. FIX THE PROBLEM. Find a GM who can execute his job and then do the 5 simple moves to turn things around.
1 – Fire Cora
2 – Move Devers to DH and trade Yoshida
3 – Acquire a SP1 and SP2
4 – Acquire a 3B
5 – Acquire two late inning left handed relievers.
SO SIMPLE YET SO DAUNTING FOR THE INEPT RED SOX FRONT OFFICE.
Can’t understand why, under any circumstances Boston would want Pham! Give his at bats to Refsnyder.