DALLAS — Here are the Philadelphia Phillies, with two months until spring training opens, faced with solving an outfield puzzle that currently has Brandon Marsh in left field and Johan Rojas in center field. It feels … familiar.
“I think it’s very similar to the way it was last year,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “I really do.”
Thomson is choosing to view that as a positive. “I really like our club,” he said. “We’re still a good club.” The Phillies know the easiest path toward improving is by acquiring another outfielder. They continue to engage free agents — some bigger names, some marginal ones — and it remains unclear where the whole thing is headed.
According to a league source, the Phillies touched base with Teoscar Hernández’s camp. Hernández is said to prefer a reunion with the Los Angeles Dodgers. The industry expectation is that this will happen. Anthony Santander could command a deal close to $100 million. As the free-agent market spiked this week, trade talks simmered. Maybe the Phillies can find a trade match once some of the bigger free-agent pieces settle.
The best path remains left field.
“The center-field market is not a robust market at this point,” Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said. “I don’t think there’s a lot of alternatives. So when I say upgrade, I’ve always said left field or center field because we could play Marsh in center field. Or Rojas. I can’t say that we’ll end up doing that. I do not know at this point.
“To just do something for the sake of doing it — I don’t think it’s a center fielder that’s going to be that. But, again, you don’t know if something changes. There’s very few center fielders out there, and that’s why people are calling us about our center fielders.”
The Phillies still have the second-highest payroll in Major League Baseball. They are near $290 million. They face even higher tax rates and draft-pick penalties by going past $301 million.
They are willing.
“Any penalty is significant, and that’s a significant penalty,” Dombrowski said. “But I can’t tell you that it’s a deterrent from anything we’re doing. You never like that penalty. It’s not something we want to do. But it’s also not going to stop us from making moves at this point.”
The Bohm situation
As the Phillies continue to explore a potential trade for Alec Bohm, Thomson called his third baseman this week. Bohm is training in Houston.
“He’s in good shape,” Thomson said. “He’s working hard lifting, and he’s actually hitting. I just wanted to let him know we’re not — this guy is a really good player. We’re not shopping him. But because he’s a good player, there’s a whole lot of interest in him from other teams. Obviously, you have to do your homework and talk to people and listen.”
Maybe it’s a matter of semantics; the Phillies had made it clear to clubs at the onset of the offseason that Bohm was available in a trade. They do not have to trade Bohm and won’t if they do not think they can land a decent return. They have just thought Bohm was their best chance at obtaining meaningful value in an attempt to “shake up” the roster.
That might require some patience.
“This is probably the first time he’s gone through something like this, so I just want to ease his mind,” Thomson said. “It’s part of the business that you’ve got to get through. Because it’s the first time, I thought it was important to reach out.”
Romano’s confidence
If there was a doubt in Jordan Romano’s mind that he was not on a healthier path for 2025, he might have been open to a contract that included a team or player option for 2026. But Romano, who signed with the Phillies for $8.5 million, wanted a one-year deal.
He is confident he can recapture his prior form and re-enter free agency next offseason in line for a bigger payday.
“Obviously, last year was a really disappointing and frustrating season for me,” Romano said. “The past, those performances are more characteristic of what I expect from myself. So this year I really want to get back on track to more of that. I’m feeling healthy and good now. So I just wanted the one year to get back out there and prove my work.”
Romano said he threw a bullpen session last week and reached the mid-90s with his fastball.
“I was really, really excited about that,” Romano said. “Everything felt great. So that was the box I checked.”
Pitching refresh
The Phillies have restructured their pitching department after Brian Kaplan’s departure to become the Arizona Diamondbacks’ pitching coach. They hired Casey Weathers as director of pitching; he’ll oversee the organization’s minor-league pitchers. Weathers, a first-round pick, had been an instructor in the Cincinnati Reds organization. He was an early adopter of Driveline Baseball’s modern pitching tactics.
David Howell, an assistant pitching coach in the majors with the Toronto Blue Jays last season, will take a role with the Phillies to help run their pitching lab in Florida. Howell also has a Driveline background. Mark Lowy, who had served as an analyst for the Phillies, was promoted last month to assistant pitching coach to fill Kaplan’s role.
The Phillies have summoned many of their pitching people, including pitching coach Caleb Cotham, to Texas for all-day meetings Thursday to align the organization’s vision. They will also discuss and finalize a plan for Andrew Painter, whose innings will be managed in 2025.
This and that
• The Phillies are at 39 on the 40-man roster, and Dombrowski said they might make a selection in Wednesday’s Rule 5 draft. They’d pick 29th.
• Even likelier: The Phillies could lose a pitcher in the Rule 5 draft. Griff McGarry had gained buzz across the industry as a potential pick — even at No. 1 to the Chicago White Sox. Lefty Tristan Garnett and righty Christian McGowan, both relievers, are on clubs’ short lists as well.
The Phillies were willing to risk McGarry being selected; they did not view him as big-league-ready in 2025 and believed it could be a challenge for another club to carry him on its active roster for an entire season. His stuff grades well on models, which will sway certain teams, but McGarry’s strike-throwing ability remains a significant impediment.
• The Phillies are prepared to make a presentation for Roki Sasaki, Dombrowski said, if Sasaki’s camp chooses them as a team of interest. Joel Wolfe, Sasaki’s agent at Wasserman Sports, said they will make a short list of clubs to land meetings.
“We hope we’re in that group,” Dombrowski said, “but we don’t know.”
Sasaki can only sign a minor-league contract with a signing bonus that comes from a club’s international pool money. The Phillies have never signed a player directly from Japan. They have never had a Japanese pitcher.
They’d like a chance to pitch their ideas.
“We’re just like everybody else,” Dombrowski said. “We’re very interested.”
(Top photo of Alec Bohm: Luke Hales / Getty Images)
