If you feel you are short you make a move in July. If everyone is healthy you have to move someone from starters to the pen anyway when it matters. Plus they drafted a ton of college arms last year that could factor in.
The five I listed are a good bullpen. Look around.
Find a way to acquire someone to replace Castellanos- great! That should be an upgrade. Trade Marsh for Ward either directly or indirectly? At best it is rearranging deck chairs, at worst it’s a probable downgrade.
There were 8 qualified LHSP in the NL last year. 2 were Phillies.
Here all all MLB 3B in 2025 from May 1 ranked by wRC+. Bohm had a terrible first month, and certainly might be traded, but one of you really put in writing that he might be non-tendered? He would celebrate being non tendered.
Assuming he is worth the contract $ being floated (I have no idea), to me he is a Schwarber alternative, allowing Harper to do some DHing. Phils have to keep meeting with these guys to try and break through, but Seattle has a 1B and 3B job open, just saying.
Personally I would go hard at Tucker, I like FAs in their 20s. There is $ to sign Tucker (or Bellinger who should be cheaper) and a DH (Schwarber, Alonso, Naylor, Suarez) and then they have to decide if declining JT is worth his market. $70m in 2026 salary puts them back at last year’s start.
There are reasons to move Bohm - he is very unlikely to receive a QO in a year so if you keep him he will probably leave for “free”.
Dumping your 4th/5th best hitter to get a new 4th/5th best hitter is less effective than just replacing your 8th best hitter with a new 4th and sliding the rest down
Alex Bregman (entering his age 32 season) is expected to be expensive in terms of $ and years. He has had a good career. After May 1, 2025 he would have been a “massive” downgrade from Bohm, who only requires a less expensive 1 yr deal. Want to close the window? Sign more declining mid-30s guys.
The 13th guy on this list (MLB OF ranked by wRC+ since 5/1/25) will sign for around $35m/yr. RAJ just said on your pod he might threaten to non-tender #12. Marsh would celebrate if the Phillies non-tendered him.
Last one - from 4/11-5/27 Schwarber hit 4th. He was great there! Here is Harper during that time and for the full season. Made zero difference (actually slightly better without Kyle behind him if we are being honest).
They don’t have bat speed from 2021, so can’t see that here, but he is down from 2023 to 2025. The rest of the bars tell the story. Not saying he’s “bad”, but he’s declining and has become more extreme (imo) in his approach to compensate for what he is losing due to injury and age.
At one time, he could be aggressive early in the count and even if he fell behind he could do damage. Now if he doesn’t get a cookie early, he is reduced to hoping for a walk.
Why is he swinging more often? Because if he doesn’t hit the first pitch he has not been a very good hitter since the injury.
Once he got a first pitch strike this year he was bad. He did a ton of damage on 0-0 and 1-0 counts. “After 0-1” he became Johan Rojas. This wasn’t always the case.
In 2024 it was mostly Bohm and while he isn’t a typical 4 hole hitter, he was basically “fine”. He was actually much better than this in 2025 starting May 1.
Here is everyone that had at least 20 PAs as the cleanup hitter in 2025 and how they did hitting there. Bohm’s were almost all in the first month when he was bad.
Maybe baseball ref is wrong, but according to them he isn’t a FA until 2027. So “Fact” #1 is probably not factual.
If he is arb eligible it would be crazy not to have him in ST. Personally I would only bring back JT 1 or 2yr deal if there is leftover $ late in FA. I’d be ok w/ Marchan/Stubbs ‘26
Stop worrying about LH/RH, sign the best available OF and I guess Schwarber or a replacement (Alonzo, Naylor, etc) and try to make sure you are 4 deep at the top. They have about $70m to spend on 2026 salaries to stay at the same level. They have the $ and the attractive team to lure FAs.
I haven’t listened yet, so just a guess - you want a RHH in the middle of the lineup, because LHSP is potentially a problem. Did you know, there were EIGHT qualified LHSP in the NL this year. If I drop it to 100 ip there are 19.
Who were the top 3 NL LHSP by Fangraphs WAR you ask?
