The Phillies signed utilityman Whit Merrifield to a 1-year deal worth $8 million on Friday. According to Jeff Passan, the deal includes a club option for $8 million and a $1 million buyout. The contract does include bonuses as well which makes the maximum amount he can make in 2 seasons at $16.6 million.
Merrifield was named an All-Star last season for the 3rd time in his career. He has led the American League in hits twice and stolen bases three times. He just turned 35 years old, so we’ll see if the speed numbers hold up with him being a bit up there in age this upcoming season.
Merrifield could be used all over the field for the Phillies. They were looking for a way to upgrade their bench and I would say Merrifield absolutely does that. With Brandon Marsh recovering from a knee surgery and the uncertainty around Johan Rojas’ offense, Merrifield could help this team immediately possibly on Opening Day. The Phillies do expect to have Marsh ready by Opening Day, but having Merrifield as an option for the outfield certainly could allow the Phillies to ease Marsh back in a bit.
Phillies manager Rob Thomson did use a right-handed bat over Bryson Stott or Brandon Marsh a lot of last season when the Phillies faced a left-handed pitcher. This move could be more insurance for those situations, although both Stott and Marsh have proven they can hit left-handed pitching. Merrifield does have some experience playing the corner infield positions, so if they need to give Bryce Harper a day off, they could move Alec Bohm to first base and play Merrifield at third.
The question now becomes who do the Phillies leave off the roster on Opening Day? Their bench today would look like Garrett Stubbs, Edmundo Sosa, Cristian Pache, Jake Cave, Whit Merrifield. Both Cave and Pache are out of minor league options so they must be removed from the 40-man roster if they don’t make the roster out of Spring Training. I would say it is more likely they keep Pache because of his defense and speed, and even though they gave Cave a lot of action last season, he wasn’t very productive. Pache took big strides at the plate early in the season before getting hurt, and still played very good defense and his speed on the basepaths was highly noticeable.
As of right now, the Phillies payroll is at $246 million, which is slightly higher than last year’s. If the Phillies were to go over the 3rd tier of the Competitive Balance Tax, which would be around $277 million, they would have their 2025 1st round draft pick moved back 10 spots. This is actually happening to 3 different teams this season: the Mets, the Padres, and the Yankees. This is because they all exceeded the 2nd surcharge threshold of the CBT by more than $40 million.
I think Merrifield will play left and second base. He’s only played 6 games combined between 3rd and short and I don’t love him center. I also want them to keep Pache but they don’t need another right handed bat now and they don’t need his defense or speed with Rojas and marsh covering 2/3rds. No more Schwarber out there.
Great work, loved reading this. Very informative and detailed. Can’t wait for baseball this weekend!
Thanks for the compliments!