The Phillies Continue To Throw Around Money In Free Agency
What a week for John Middleton’s balance sheet. Wait, it’s only Wednesday? What a COUPLE OF DAYS for John Middleton’s balance sheet. Maybe reading this, you own your own business, or deal with the finances of a company. Could you imagine incurring $372 million in costs in just about 36 hours’ worth of time? Ok, let’s pause for all of the CFOs that just passed out. Well, the Phillies did that earlier this week with the signings of Trea Turner (11 years, $300 mil) and Taijuan Walker (4 years, $72 mil). That’s a pretty penny, but the Phillies aren’t your average company. They’re not even your average MLB team, and John Middleton isn’t your average MLB owner. You’ll recall, of course, his quote about spending stupid money from back in November of 2018. Well, as we sit here about 4 years later, Middleton has kept his word. The best part? The only place the money is stupid is in the sheer amount. The way they’re going about their business has been nothing short of brilliant.
We all know how good the Trea Turner deal is, coming in below the estimated $30 mil AAV and locking him up for basically his entire career. The Taijuan Walker move is another stroke of genius from the Phillies front office. Just look at his deal compared to the one that Zach Eflin got from the Tampa Bay Rays last week. If you missed it, Eflin signed a 3 year, $40 mil deal with Tampa, the biggest free agent contract in that organization’s history. That’s an AAV of $13.3 mil, compared to Walker’s $18 mil. Walker is a career 3.89 ERA guy, while Eflin is at 4.49. Walker has a 1.226 WHIP; Eflin holds a 1.295. He’s a slightly better pitcher than Eflin talent-wise on a consistent basis, and he’s healthier than Eflin as well. You’re getting that guy for less than $5 mil more? I definitely don’t hate that. There’s another huge upside to getting Walker as well: you’re stealing him from the division rival Mets, who could certainly use some youth in their rotation to offset Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.
It’s an absolute win of a move, and whether or not it’s an overpay by some people’s standards of what Walker is worth, it’s not too big of one based on the SP market that has already been set this offseason. Listen, we were promised stupid money. Baseball has no salary cap; no limitations on spending, besides a luxury tax that the Phillies were comfortable incurring last year and still haven’t touched to this point for the 2023 season. It shouldn’t matter to the fan base the value of the players the Phillies are signing; we are not the CFO, the team’s accountant, or John Middleton (unless Mr. Middleton is reading this in which case if I could hold a million or two that would be great). All that should matter to us is that the Phillies are going out and getting players that can help them win a World Series Championship. Over the past couple days, regardless of the cost, the Philadelphia Phillies have done just that. Stupid money spent on smart personnel moves create championships. That seems to be the equation on Dave Dombrowski’s white board, and if last season is any indication, it looks like it’s the right formula.
