The Phillies head into the offseason with a star-studded roster and substantial payroll obligation, though owner John Middleton has already expressed confidence that the 2025 payroll will increase. President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski has at multiple points hinted at potential trades rather than free agent pursuits, speaking of a need to be “open-minded” as he looks to augment a roster that’s been a perennial playoff club but fallen shy of a World Series win (or even a World Series appearance). The Athletic’s Matt Gelb reports that the Phils have signaled a desire to add an outfielder and at least one right-handed reliever.
As laid out in our Phillies Offseason Outlook, adding in the outfield is one of the most logical pursuits for a Phillies club that has established contributors at catcher (J.T. Realmuto), first base (Bryce Harper), second base (Bryson Stott), shortstop (Trea Turner), third base (Alec Bohm), right field (Nick Castellanos) and designated hitter (Kyle Schwarber). Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas offer options in the remaining two outfield spots, but the Phils aren’t likely to simply roll the same lineup back out in 2024 after another shorter-than-hoped season. Marsh and Rojas could form a platoon, as Marsh bats left-handed to the more defensively gifted Rojas’ right-handed bat. That’d open a path for one incoming outfielder, but Dombrowski’s repeated chorus of “open-minded” approaches to reshaping his offense have prompted natural speculation about trades.
From that standpoint, it’s hard to imagine deals involving Realmuto, Harper, Turner and Schwarber. All have been viewed as core pieces in Philadelphia. The Phillies would probably love to move on from the final two years and $40MM on Castellanos’ contract, but Castellanos is a poor defender who hasn’t hit nearly as well in Philadelphia as he did in his free-agent platform season with the Reds. The Phils would need to pay down a good portion of that contract and/or include a prospect to find a taker.
Bohm, Marsh, Stott and to a lesser extent Rojas are the big league position players who could more plausibly be flipped elsewhere as the Phillies try to reshape their identity. Gelb also lists lefty starter Ranger Suarez as a possibility. Their contractual statuses are as follows:
- Suarez: Controlled through 2025 via arbitration, projected to earn $8.9MM in 2025 (via MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz)
- Bohm: Controlled through 2026 via arbitration, projected to earn $8.1MM in 2025 (via Swartz)
- Marsh: Controlled through 2027 via arbitration, projected to earn $3MM in 2025 (via Swartz)
- Stott: Controlled through 2027 via arbitration, projected to earn $3.5MM in 2025 (via Swartz)
- Rojas: Controlled through 2029, pre-arbitration in 2025
Obviously, the valuation on each player will vary. Suarez would be a one-year rental for a club and would require the Phils — already in need of a starter and likely hoping to dump the remaining two years and $36MM on Taijuan Walker’s contract this offseason — to replace him. He posted a 3.46 ERA with strong strikeout (23.2%) and walk (6.5%) rates in 150 2/3 innings this season but also missed a month with a back injury and struggled from July through September. Plenty of teams would still love to plug him into their rotation.
Bohm is the most consistently productive but has the highest salary and lowest amount of club control remaining of the position players. He also cooled off considerably after a blistering start to the season. He was one of the game’s most productive hitters through early March (.360/.430/.576 in 142 plate appearances) before reverting to his usual brand of roughly average offense for the remainder of the season (.256/.302/.410 over his next 464 plate appearances). Bohm improved his glovework this year and hit righties better than usual but was still notably more productive against left-handed pitching.
Marsh can handle all three outfield spots but is best suited for left field. He’s never hit lefties well but is well above-average versus righties. He runs well and could probably pop 20 homers with a full season of at-bats, though that’d mean lesser rate stats and more plate appearances versus lefties. He’s hit 28 homers in 948 plate appearances across the past two seasons. Marsh is a useful part-time player, but his 31% strikeout rate since 2023 (and 32.8% career mark) is rather concerning, especially since he’s been platooned so often.
Stott is a plus defender and strong baserunner with 15-homer pop. He makes plenty of contact but has really only had one average season at the plate (2023), in addition to a pair of below-average campaigns during which he’s still been a solid overall contributor because of his glove and speed. If a team with budget problems and no concrete option at shortstop would view him as an outside-the-box candidate at short, his market could expand. Stott hasn’t graded as well there in 770 big league innings but has more than 2000 professional innings at short.
Rojas is an even more extreme case of the speed-and-defense skill set. He’s a plus center fielder with excellent speed but turned in just a .243/.279/.322 slash in 2024 (68 wRC+) and is a career .261/.298/.355 hitter (81 wRC+) in 527 big league plate appearances.
Dombrowski has publicly suggested that he needs to be open to trading “good players” in order to get talent in return. Speculatively speaking, Bohm feels like the most plausible fit, as he’s set to earn the most money, has the least club control remaining and plays a position (third base) where the free-agent market is quite thin this offseason. There could be paths to flipping Bohm for a bullpen arm, a back-of-the-rotation starter or an outfielder, and shedding his payroll could also free the Phillies to pursue other options at the hot corner or give them more money to address needs elsewhere on the roster.
Former Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. and longtime Phils beat writers Todd Zolecki and Jim Salisbury took a deep dive into the possibilities on the latest episode of their podcast. All three acknowledged that Dombrowski’s repeated phrases this offseason have not-so-quietly signaled a trade is likely. In addition to repeating the “open-minded” line on several occasions, Dombrowski has at least twice suggested the Phillies have enough star players on the roster. At his end-of-season press conference, Dombrowski said his club has “as many star players as about anybody in baseball” before adding that sometimes “the supporting cast” is where the biggest need sits.
Gelb notes in the previously referenced piece that Dombrowski doubled down on that thinking at this week’s GM Meetings. Asked if the Phils would be “big-game hunting” this winter, the Phils’ president replied: “Our ownership allows us to do a lot of things. But sometimes that’s not what you want. We have a lot of good star players on our team. So, read that as you would.”
The problem for the Phillies if they trade Bohm is that they really don’t have a replacement. Sosa isn’t an every day player. Aidan Miller, one of their top prospects, has barely been to AA & isn’t ready to take over in Philadelphia. It is easy to say trade Bohm, but trading him would also leave a big hole in the lineup.
I’m not sure that a lot of change is needed, just adding a corner outfielder and a couple relievers.
Theoretically, this team’s issue is execution. They, usually, are good enough to get it done, but it’s those short lapses for a few games that sink them in the end. Adding some more talent to reinforce the core should go a long way. Another corner OF, bringing back one of Hoffman or Estevez and adding one more reliable middle reliever. It all adds up.
The “another corner outfielder” is Soto. To paraphrase the James Bond theme song, Nobody does it Better. 655/13 to open. Miller, Painter, and Crawford will eventually lower the payroll.
Taylor Ward for Bohm? Taylor Ward for Marsh + lottery ticket?
Sign Soto….trade Bohm….. sign one of Tanner Scott, Hoffman, Estevez, See if Bregman wants to come here….Realmuto and Schwarber come off the books next year (2026). Miller Crawford and Painter should all be on the team in 2026 at low cost……Middleton willing to spend for 2025 but will then need payroll to go down which should. Keep Castellanos one more year…that will also lessen payroll in 2026. Walker – no idea what to do there..might as well keep him for another year and fingers crossed he gets better… Marchan needs to be the back up catcher next year.
Don’t know if Phillies would do a bad contract swap. Phillies send nick costellanos to Cincinnati for jeimer candelario and Emilio pagan. Money for 2025 is about the same. Phillies save 5 million in 2026 with pagans contract off the books. Reds get outfielder. Phillies get a possible 3rd basement if they want to trade Bohm and a right hand reliever. If Castellanos can’t handle outfield he can DH for Cincy
D D already said he isn’t trading Castallanos.Contrary to the author of this piece, Castallanos is an average or even slightly above average defensive right fielder. He improved quite a bit in the last two years in the field. Castallanos is a streaky hitter and does strike out a lot, but he is still a good rbi man, and a dangerous middle of the order hitter.
Castallanos is a bum. A albatross around the Phillies neck with his odorous contract, his golf course swing and his pathetic attempts in right field. Other than wheeler and Sanchez the Phillies starting pitching was putrid after the all-star break. The hitting was a disgrace and fundamentals were a joke. No surprise they were eliminated without a whimper.
First paragraph mentions the Phillies lack of World Series wins/appearances, but they made it in 2022. Pretty sure everyone outside of Houston (and maybe Queens?) was cheering for them as well.
Bohm, Marsh, Stott and to a lesser extent Rojas are the big league position players who could more plausibly be flipped elsewhere
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And who replaces them? And how much do you get back? Bohm has one year left, and you’d be selling low, maybe very low, on Stott. And it is difficult to be in a position where you are looking to add an outfielder AND also trading one.
You absolutely cannot go into the FA market with Castellanos & Rojas as your only two outfielders. They need an OF, two RPs (one a closer) and probably a low-end #5 to bridge to Painter. TBH, depending on Painter’s health, they might be better off sticking with Walker for 1-2 months and waiting on Painter.