After winning the NL East for the first time in 13 years, the Phillies had their quietest offseason since Dave Dombrowski took over as president of baseball operations. Some will say the Phillies didn’t need to make any major moves, considering that almost all of their key contributors are returning for another year. Others will argue they are playing a dangerous game by largely running it back, allowing the Mets and Braves to gain precious ground. Is this team moving in the right direction heading into 2025?
Major League Signings
- Max Kepler, OF: One year, $10MM
- Jordan Romano, RP: One year, $8.5MM
- Joe Ross, SP/RP: One year, $4MM
2025 spending: $22.5MM
Total spending: $22.5MM
Trades & Claims
- Traded INF Scott Kingery to Angels for cash considerations
- Claimed RP John McMillon off waivers from Marlins
- Acquired RP Devin Sweet from Tigers for cash considerations
- Traded Rule 5 pick SP Mike Vasil to Rays for cash considerations or player to be named later
- Acquired SP Jesús Luzardo and minor league C Paul McIntosh from Marlins for minor league SS Starlyn Caba and minor league OF Emaarion Boyd
- Traded RP Tyler Gilbert to White Sox for minor league RP Aaron Combs
- Acquired minor league OF Dylan Campbell from Dodgers for international signing bonus space
Option Decisions
- None
Notable Minor League Signings
- Koyo Aoyagi, Christian Arroyo, Nabil Crismatt, Payton Henry, Joel Kuhnel, Rafael Lantigua, Óscar Mercado, Nicholas Padilla, Austin Schulfer, Nick Vespi, Guillo Zuñiga
Notable Losses
- Jeff Hoffman, Carlos Estévez, Spencer Turnbull, Austin Hays (non-tendered), Yunior Marte, Kolby Allard, Luis F. Ortiz, Kingery, Gilbert, Caba, Boyd
The Phillies have enjoyed continued success under manager Rob Thomson, so it came as no shock when they began their offseason by extending the skipper through 2026. The team was also quick to confirm that Thomson’s full coaching staff would return in 2025, although they later lost assistant pitching coach/director of pitching Brian Kaplan to the Diamondbacks. Philadelphia’s pitching staff was arguably the best in baseball during Kaplan’s tenure working under Caleb Cotham (2022-24). The Phillies will hope that Cotham’s new second-in-command, Mark Lowy, has just as much success. In an additional personnel move, the Phillies promoted assistant GM Preston Mattingly to vice president and general manager. Those roles were previously held by Sam Fuld, who will remain with the organization in a new role on the business side of operations.
At the same press conference in which Dombrowski announced Thomson’s extension, the POBO spoke the words that became the defining refrain of the Phillies’ offseason: “We just have to be open-minded to exploring what’s out there for us, talk to some clubs and see what ends up happening. That process hasn’t started. Sometimes you trade good players for good players” (per MLB.com's Todd Zolecki).
Needless to say, that quotation led to much speculation about the Phillies making a major trade to shake things up. In particular, Alec Bohm was the subject of several trade rumors. The Royals, Mariners, Angels, and Athletics were all reported to have some degree of interest in the third baseman at one time or another. Coming off an All-Star campaign, Bohm’s value hasn’t been higher since he finished runner-up for the 2020 NL Rookie of the Year. However, there seemed to be a disconnect between how highly the Phillies valued Bohm and how badly any potential suitors were hankering after his services. For instance, the Phillies reportedly asked for Mason Miller from the A’s in exchange for Bohm, which quickly shut down any negotiations between the two teams (per The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal).
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No big moves and MLB has them ranked #2. I’m surprised.
“No big moves”…The Phillies have done more than their share of “big moves” the last 3-6 years. If you do “big moves” every single year, they are not “big” anymore, they become the norm. Nowadays even the biggest spending MLB teams are criticized for not spending “big” every single year.
Sigh…. It was not a criticism and by no big moves I meant this off-season as so many were clamoring for.
I have been a Phillies fan since before Dick (called Richie by Philly sports writers and he hated it) Allen was RoY.
I was surprised at #2 (I expected somewhere in the top 7) mainly because of last years 2nd half play. We were 62-34 at the AS break and 33-33 after. In case you forgot it was a topic of conversation.
I hope with all my heart this is the year (I’m old and want one more title before I go), I just didn’t expect #2
I’m thinking the top three reasons are:
1) starting pitching,
2) starting pitching, and
3) starting pitching.
@BHJ – All fans tend to get jaded over time. I have run a small Phillies / baseball forum for about fifteen years now, and heard it all.
Yes – this offseason there has the typical whining about the lack of big moves, despite the record payroll. Showing that they have a top rated pitching staff (#2) and everyday lineup (ranked #4) doesn’t matter to some, and why didn’t we get Soto? ; )
The funny thing is that my Phils forum is a good, albeit vanishingly small group (as we are dying out) at this point. No trolls (cleared them out years ago) and pretty much all long-time fans that are sane baseball folks and it does not suffer from the prolific idiocy that I see on here that one has to sift through to get to the good stuff. And yet we still have our share of whining about one of the best Phils teams that we have ever seen.
I think that it is just the way folks are; what have you done for me this week…I already forgot the spiffy new BMW from last week.
I am really looking forward to this season for sure – terrific front office / coaching and development crew; maybe the best starting rotation that we have seen if healthy; great lineup that I think will be really good this year and a solid to top notch pen.
NOT jaded in the least….see reply to MLB Fan
CarverAndrews;
Have always enjoyed your your posts. Didn’t know you have a forum.
I loved what DD did his first year. He was impatient with Gerardi; had the coaching staff square away the bullpen; made strides with the poor defense; and got the team to the WS. What made all this happen was that under his leadership the Phillies made the players that had under contract better (and he had no problem letting name players go that weren’t getting better).
I’ll still watch them on MLB.TV as they may well have the best (and most enjoyable) TV broadcast. BUT….
From a distance it appears that the momentum has slowed. Some of the veterans appear to be slowly moving past their peak, and the youngsters they’ve brought up the past season-and-a-half seem to play in spurts until the league adjusts to them.
I follow/watch 8-9 teams during the season, and don’t determine most of them until I see them play some games against teams I’m watching. Those that I see play strong fundamental team baseball make up the 8-9 teams – they ultimately become contenders. I don’t have a good feeling about the Phillies this year. They were a bit sloppy and lazy in 2024. The Braves are a solid organization and David Stearns is a sensational FO head that’s doing a lot more than spending Mr. Cohen’s money. Fact is: Stearns Mets and AA’s Braves DO make many their players under contract better as the year goes on. Phillies need to step it up.
The Phillies biggest weakness last year was their 5th starter spot. They now have Luzardo in that spot.
You could argue it’s not a big move, but it certainly is more than an adequate upgrade. They also have Painter coming late in the season to add depth as well.
I’m hoping.
I guess I could have phrased my post better. I was not complaining or criticizing. I was surprised we were #2 after a fall off from an incredible start.
I have been a die-hard since 1962 and desperately want one more title before I leave this earth.
Three solid organizations/front offices now in the Phillies, Braves, and Mets with owners that fully back/support them.
The NL East looks like a three-headed clash between the titans for the foreseeable future.
It’ll be interesting to see if the Phillies can figure out to move on from Realmuto and Schwarber.
They’re stuck with the decline phases (or the cost of them, anyway) of Harper and Turner and Nola, long into the dim mists of the far off future. It’s difficult enough to thrive with three post-30 players whose peaks are in the rearview (all three are 32 in 2025), making $80 million a year, but if you’re not going to get younger when you have the opportunity, then you’re lost, (And Wheeler’s fantastic, but isn’t the warranty on TJ ligaments about seven-eight years, as Jacob deGrom and so many others discovered?)
Add in Castellanos at $20m and Taijuan at $18m in each of 2025 and 2026 and you’ve got a top heavy, old roster. Already.
The Phillies have done very well in FA and with extensions, but there’s a limit. Bringing back Nola for seven years pushed that limit a long way. Casual fans scream that the Phillies have to—HAVE TO—bring back Realmuto and Schwarber, and they can do that, of course, but they’d be fools. Those two will be 35 and 33 as FA in 2026, so it’s pretty simple: You can be sentimental, or you can try to win during the late middle ages of their core before dotage sets in.
According to Baseball Reference, Michael Conforto with 17.6 WAR, is currently ahead of Schwarber’s 15.3 accrued.
They were the top two bats of their draft class. Conforto had a few really nice years with the Mets, but I was definitely surprised to see him ahead of Schwarber so far.
Here’s hoping the Phillies farm system/player development can provide a little ray of sunshine for you. Fingers crossed.