The biggest news on Friday, from Phillies’ perspective, was the offer they made to JT Realmuto for over $ 100 million, but it was an action-packed day around baseball.
In addition to the 184 players qualified for refereeing who closed deals with their teams and in addition to the numerous international signings made when the period started on Friday, some renowned free agents left the board.
The Yankees agreed with DJ LeMahieu on a six-year contract worth $ 90 million. They also brought in Corey Kluber, a two-time Cy Young winner, for a $ 11 million one-year deal.
On Thursday, the Phillies signed Archie Bradley, just days after the White Sox signed the appeaser Liam Hendriks with a contract worth more than $ 50 million. Alex Wood went to the Giants and Pedro Baez went to the Astros.
Brad Hand, the best remaining reliever on the market, could be close to signing with Mets, which would create a formidable combination of Hand, Edwin Diaz, Dellin Betances and Jeurys Familia at the back of that bullpen and could make Mets the team for win at NL East.
The Yankees’ move to retain LeMahieu, one of their most important players, means that a reunion of Didi Gregorius in the Bronx will almost certainly not occur. The Yankees have LeMahieu on second base, Gleyber Torres on the chart and Gio Urshela on third. If they were unable to keep LeMahieu, bringing Gregorius back to play on the shortstop and transferring Torres to second base was seen as a realistic option.
Dave Dombrowski told NBC Sports Philadelphia earlier this week that the Phillies are interested in rehiring Gregorius. Why wouldn’t they be? He and Alec Bohm were his most clutch hitters in 2020. Gregorius’s left-handed stick fit perfectly into the 5-hole. He was also consistent. His OPS was over 0.800 in 85% of the season and his batting average was 0.270 or more in 90% of the season.
In the last off-season, Gregorius signed a one-year, $ 14 million contract with the Phillies. He had missed half the 2019 season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. In Philadelphia, Gregorius restored his value, but during an abbreviated season, when a global pandemic drastically impacted team finances and curbed spending across the league.
Another one-year deal probably doesn’t make a lot of sense from Gregorius’ perspective. This has been repeated frequently, but the next free agent class next season is full of great stops: potentially everything from Trevor Story, Francisco Lindor, Corey Seager, Carlos Correa and Javier Baez. Gregorius would be after those five. In this year’s class, he and Marcus Semien are shortstops 1A and 1B, with Andrelton Simmons also out there.
Could the Phillies and Gregorius close a two-year deal in the $ 20-30 million range? A two-year deal would allow him to reach the free agency again at age 32, at which point he could still get another two-year contract if his attack and defense didn’t slip.
There were not many contracts in this off-season that stood out as compensation for Gregorius, although he certainly should be looking for more than the $ 17.5 million over two years that the Royals paid first baseman Carlos Santana, or the $ 10 million that nationals gave Kyle Schwarber for a year. He is a better player overall and in 2020 he was the best hitter of the three.
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