Earlier this winter a member of the Philadelphia Phillies’ hierarchy told a friend the team would try to sign Bryce Harper or Manny Machado and might even try to sign both superstar free agents. The idea of signing both players sounded preposterous for the Phillies, who until a year ago were relatively inactive in the free agent market. But as spring training began last week, Harper and Machado remained open to bidding and a Philadelphia official acknowledged both players remained desirable targets.
Signing one of those free agents would provide the Phillies with a formidable asset. Signing both would be mind-boggling, not to mention expensive since Harper and Machado were both reportedly seeking deals worth more than $300 million.
But just jumping into contention for both, combined with their other aggressive moves, loudly shows how serious the Phillies are about reversing their recent fortunes.
The Phillies last played a post-season baseball game in 2011. The last out of their last post-season game was memorable and also foreboding.
Ryan Howard, their star slugger, had yet to begin his stunning 5-year, $125 million contract when he went to the plate with two out in the ninth inning and St. Louis leading the decisive fifth game 1-0. Howard rapped a grounder to second base and, knowing he had to beat out the grounder to keep the game going, bolted out of the batter’s box, ran about a third of the way to first and fell to the ground. Having ruptured his left Achilles tendon, Howard needed help to leave the field. The Phillies have needed help ever since.
These have been their records in the seven seasons since Howard tumbled to the ground:
These teams were reminiscent, with few exceptions, of the Phillies of the ‘20s, ‘30s, ‘40s, ‘50s and ‘60s. The Phillies of 2019, however, have undergone a transformation that could take them back to the playoffs.
The ownership of the team is the same as it has been, but the operating regime – President Andy MacPhail and General Manager Matt Klentak — is in its fourth year and has designed a plan that seems to be working.
The National League East seems to be wide open and available for the taking, and through a series of trades and free-agent signings, the Phillies have put themselves in position to take it.
Under a new manager, Gabe Kapler, the Phillies won 14 more games last year than the year before, jumped two spots in the standings and finished 21 games closer to first place.
For the coming season, they have added catcher J. T. Realmuto, shortstop Jean Segura, left fielder Andrew McCutchen and relief pitcher David Robertson. They signed McCutchen and Robinson as free agents and acquired Realmuto and Segura in trades.
Adding still more front-line players — Harper and/or Machado – would be more than frustrated Phillies fans could hope for.
“We’ve been very active this off-season,’’ Klentak, 38, said in a telephone interview last week. “Last year ended badly. We were in first place in mid-August.”
After games of Aug. 7 last season, the Phillies led the Braves by a game and a half and the Nationals by 6 games. And then the Phillies collapsed, finishing the rest of the season with a 16-33 record while Atlanta finished 29-23 and Washington 24-25.
Obviously, the Phillies were intent on avoiding that kind of collapse and felt the best way to do it was by bolstering themselves from the start of the season. That plan made Klentak a busy boy during the off-season.
As of Sunday, his work wasn’t finished. Harper and Machado were still free agents, still unsigned as spring training began. If the date seemed to be late for free-agent signings, recall that Boston signed J.D. Martinez last Feb. 26 and the Phillies signed Jake Arrieta even later, March 12.
“There has been no shortage of brain power devoted to trying to size up players that are available to us and what they bring,” MacPhail said last week on opening day of spring training when asked about Harper and Machado. “Just generally speaking, we are uniquely poised right now. There are some great talents out there and any one of those talents could go to any club and make a significant difference. You can make the case they bring different things, but I think they are both beneficial to your club.”
The longer Harper and Machado remain unsigned, it seems, the sillier the coverage of their status becomes. Here is an excerpt of the recent coverage of Harper by MLB.com.
How close is Harper to making his choice?
Feb. 16: Make of this what you will, but a report started circulating and gaining some steam Friday afternoon that Bryce Harper just might be on the verge of finding a new home.
Maybe.
In a conversation with radio station 94WIP in Philadelphia about the superstar free agent’s situation, Chris Russell of 106.7 The Fan, a radio station in Washington, D.C., speculated Friday that Harper could be making up his mind very, very soon.
“Maybe I took a little bit of a leap of faith here based on some indications I got from a real good source,” said Russell, who has heard that Harper and his agent, Scott Boras, as well as his wife have been meeting since Monday in his hometown of Las Vegas. “But I’m led to believe by the people that I’ve talked to that are close to the situation — and I have, again, a real good source that has helped me through this process, let’s just leave it at that — that Bryce was in a mood to celebrate yesterday. Now, the source said, ‘I believe it’s done.’
“I don’t have concrete, 100 percent proof for you guys,” Russell continued. “I wish I did, otherwise I would have it and I would be running around with it. … But that’s what I was led to believe, that this thing is now decided.”
To a certain extent, that meshes with information coming from former big league general manager Jim Bowden of CBS Sports HQ and The Athletic, who says the Phillies are viewed as the clear favorite for Harper, followed by the Nationals.
“I keep hearing there’s a lot of momentum and traction here on [Harper] going and signing with the Philadelphia Phillies,” Bowden said. “He could be rounding third and heading home shortly.”
There is much more to the coverage and an equal amount of coverage of Machado’s free agency. It’s what sells newspapers, I guess, but there aren’t any newspapers being sold anymore.