Grading Philadelphia Phillies and Ruben Amaro Jr. on 2013 MLB Winter Meetings

The Philadelphia Phillies and their general manager, Ruben Amaro Jr., conducted themselves at the 2013 Major League Baseball winter meetings like a deadbeat dad at Christmas.

Maybe they had great intentions. Maybe they had big plans.

But due to a lack of funds (lost long ago on bad investments) and a dearth of ingenuity, the present that Phillies fans got from their team from this December boondoggle was the equivalent of a convenience store bag of pork rinds bought at 10 p.m. on Christmas Eve.

Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com had the news first:

Per Steve Adams of mlbtraderumors.com, “Hernandez will receive a $4.5 million guarantee, and his contract contains another $1.5 million worth of incentives.”

Adams then recited the very *whatever* statistics Hernandez posted as a Tampa Bay Ray in 2013: “The 33-year-old Hernandez pitched to a 4.89 ERA with 6.7 K/9, 2.3 BB/9 and a healthy 53.2 percent ground-ball rate in 151 innings, marking his first full season since 2011.”

Wow, Dad, thanks for the fifth starter! Or probably the fourth starter given the present state of the Phillies rotation.

This news has to come as an enormous letdown to Phillies fans who heard all sorts of wild speculation this week about big pieces that could be coming or going.

Per Todd Zolecki of MLB.com, Amaro Jr. spent as much time “dismissing or downplaying rumors involving Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee, Domonic Brown and Jonathan Papelbon” as he did saying anything substantive.

When word surfaced about Amaro Jr. shopping Hamels and Lee, hardballtalk.nbcsports.com’s Craig Calcaterra said it best: “If someone — anyone — has a clue what the Phillies’ grand plan is, I’d love to hear it. I’m sure anyone would.”

Never mind, though, because Hamels, Lee, Brown, Papelbon and everyone else who began this week as Phillies property remains Phillies property.

So, to paraphrase Rick Pitino, Matt Kemp is not walking through that door. David Price is not walking through that door. Not even Ervin Santana is walking through that door.

Comedian Sarah Silverman said it best on her Twitter feed the other day. “It’s the thought that counts,” Silverman tweeted, “unless that thought is ‘(screw) it—it’s the thought that counts.'”

That is exactly how Phillies fans will feel after the team leaves Lake Buena Vista, Fla. with one inexpensive, low-impact free-agent signing and without consummating a blockbuster deal.

The grade for the Phillies and Amaro Jr. is “D” as in “deadbeat” and “dad.”

Enjoy your pork rinds, Phillies fans.

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Roy Halladay’s Good Overwhelmed His Bad and Ugly as a Philadelphia Phillie

As ESPN reported on December 9, Roy Halladay retired as a Toronto Blue Jay, but for most Phillies fans and many baseball fans, the truly indelible masterpieces he created came in Phillies’ colors.

Of course, so did some of his most disappointing moments in professional baseball.

On balance, though, Halladay’s highest highs will be treasured long after the ugly images of his lowest Phillies lows are airbrushed out of memory.

Some Phillies fans will point to Halladay’s May 29, 2010, perfect game against the Florida Marlins as the apex of his Phillies career. After all, how can you do better than 27 up, 27 down?

That the perfect game came during Halladay’s Cy Young 2010 season only adds to its luster.

But perfect games, rare as they are, happen far more often than what Halladay did in the 2010 postseason.

On October 6, 2010, Halladay threw a no-hitter in Game One of the Phillies’ National League Division Series against the Cincinnati Reds, the second playoff no-hitter in baseball history.

As recounted by Todd Zolecki in his game story for MLB.com, the no-no dented the record books on numerous levels:

Halladay is just the fifth pitcher to throw two no-hitters in the same season, but the first to throw one in his first postseason start. Halladay is also the first pitcher to throw a no-hitter and a perfect game in the same season.

The moment Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz threw Brandon Phillips out to complete the feat, Phillies fans surely thought it could never get better.

They were right.

As set forth by Michael Baumann of Grantland, “That moment was the high point. Halladay split a pair of decisions with Tim Lincecum in the NLCS the next week, then a year later, allowed the first batter he faced to score in the deciding game of the NLDS against St. Louis.”

Baumann‘s coda on that paragraph—”We didn’t know it at the time, but Halladay would never be Halladay again”—stings the Phillies fan in both its accuracy and finality.

After all the good, Phillies fans probably had to expect and accept some bad and even some ugly, which is more or less all Halladay had to give in 2013.

It was bad when Halladay threw a pitch behind reserve Washington Nationals outfielder Tyler Moore in an early 2013 spring training game.

It was ugly when Halladay gave up nine earned runs after getting only seven outs against an offensively challenged Miami Marlins lineup.

And little could be uglier than the realization that the Phillies paid Halladay $20 million in 2013 to go 4-5 with an earned run average just under seven in 13 starts.

Then again, maybe Halladay’s inability to deliver value on the last year of his contract was a really well-disguised blessing because, ultimately, Roy Halladay did something harder than throwing a perfect game or a postseason no-hitter: He walked away before he was told to go home.

As a result, Phillies fans (and Blue Jays fans too) will be spared the sort of disappointment that denial-afflicted greats like Steve Carlton inflicted on their legacies by hanging on too long.

“To go out there and know it’s not going to feel good and I wasn’t going to do it the way I wanted was frustrating,” Halladay said at his retirement press conference. “I tried to give everything I can but something was holding me back. I felt I couldn’t give them what I wanted to.”

Even in admitting the end, then, Halladay approached the perfection for which he was known.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Early Winners and Losers from Offseason Shake-Ups

The Philadelphia Phillies were among the earliest teams to warm their hands at Major League Baseball’s hot stove.

Marlon Byrd and Carlos Ruiz received multiyear, long-dollars deals from the Phillies, who doubled down on experienced (old?) right-handed hitters to complement their experienced (old?) left-handed hitters.

Since the Ruiz signing was announced, the Phillies have gone more or less radio silent. Unless, that is, you think Reid Brignac is going to put pressure on Jimmy Rollins at shortstop.

As such, the winners and losers on the Phillies roster are for the most part fairly obvious.

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Philadelphia Phillies’ Best Fallback Pitching Options Following Recent Signings

Barring something unforeseen, the Philadelphia Phillies have settled on their everyday eight in the field for 2014.

Third baseman Cody Asche will join the veteran trio of Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins in the infield. Carlos Ruiz and his three-year contract extension will be behind the plate.

Free-agent signing Marlon Byrd will set up shop in the Phillies outfield along with Ben Revere and Domonic Brown.

If you are holding out hope that the Phillies have a blockbuster trade in them, don’t. “We may look to try to improve our lineup somehow or tweak our lineup somehow,” said Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. in the wake of the Ruiz signing.

That does not sound like a man sitting on a bombshell. What you see on the roster is pretty much what you will get, as far as hitters and fielders are concerned.

So the likely adds to the Phillies roster, if any are forthcoming, will be made to the pitching staff.

MLB.com beat writer Todd Zolecki’s recent conversation with Amaro Jr. suggested as much, with Amaro Jr. saying this: 

If we can still improve the rotation and our bullpen, we will try to do that. We had a lot of six-year free agents pitching in the rotation, so we’re going to try and create some depth on the pitching side.

Which pitchers make sense for the Phillies?

Ryan Lawrence’s recent Philadelphia Daily News article named all of the usual suspects. They fall into two categories.

Veteran pitchers who would command short-term, short-money contracts (and come with lower expectations, naturally) include Bronson Arroyo, A.J. Burnett and Ryan Vogelsong.

Phillies fans would probably far prefer a younger, more expensive option who could realistically win 15 games in 2014 if everything breaks right. Names who fit that description are Ubaldo Jimenez, Matt Garza and Ervin Santana.

In a lot of ways, Jimenez, Garza and Santana are very similar. All three are power arms who have had extended periods of dominance pockmarked by significant stretches where they were injured and/or could not get anyone out.

Given Amaro Jr.’s commitment to winning in 2014—misguided as it may be—cheaping out on pitching help now would be penny wise and pound foolish.

David Schoenfeld of ESPN.com posted recently to his SweetSpot blog why the Washington Nationals should sign Jimenez over Garza or Santana:

Jimenez is the one who can provide the most upside and probably comes in a little less expensive. Plus he has a rubber arm, having made more than 30 starts six seasons in a row, one of just 13 starters to have done that. Garza has battled some injuries, and Santana has been inconsistent and homer-prone despite playing in pitcher-friendly parks.

Accepting that logic on its face, it is as applicable to the Phillies as it is to the Nationals. Perhaps more so.

The Phillies resisted long-term contracts for pitchers for years due to fear of injury, making Garza an unattractive gamble. And Citizens Bank Park is a bandbox, which suggests that Santana might struggle there.

So Jimenez may well be the right choice. Whether the Phillies can afford him is up to Amaro Jr.

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Philadelphia Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. Terrifies Fans in Effort to Calm Them

Philadelphia Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. recently spent half an hour talking to Mike Missanelli on 97.5 The Fanatic. The presumptive goal of Amaro Jr.’s participation in the interview was to placate Phillies fans.

Unfortunately, nothing Amaro Jr. said much advanced his cause. If anything, Amaro Jr. came off as a man stuck in the vast gulf between desperation and deep denial.

Addressing the recent signing of Carlos Ruiz to a three-year, $26 million deal, Amaro Jr. said, “Did we have to step up and do an extra year to bring him here? Yes. Did I want to do a third year on him? No. Do I want the player? Yes.”

Credit Amaro Jr. for admitting that even he recognized the difficulty inherent in guaranteeing Ruiz a third year when he will be 37 years old. But debit him for not holding the line on two years.

Having Ruiz at catcher in 2014, as opposed to a cheaper or younger alternative, will not put the Phillies in the playoffs by itself.

As to the aging nature of the roster, Amaro Jr. had this exchange:

Q: Isn’t it kind of a pipe dream to think that these older players can continue to play better?

A: Well, we analyze this stuff as you can imagine as well. It’s not necessarily that they need to play better but we need to just keep them on the field because if they’re on the field and they’re playing, they’ll play effectively.

Missanelli followed up by saying that it is similarly unrealistic to think that the old core players (Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins and others) can stay healthy. Amaro Jr.’s answer? “We have people to basically step in and be able to help.”

Then Amaro Jr. named Cesar Hernandez and Freddy Galvis as the people who could help.

In other words, the plan for 2014 is the exact same plan as 2013, which was to hope the aging, expensive players could stay on the field long enough to limp into contention.

That plan worked to the tune of 73 wins in 2013.

Asked whether he ever considered a rebuilding phase, Amaro Jr. was truthful. And the truth hurts:

A: Well I don’t know that in this marketplace that we can look the fanbase in the eye and say ‘okay, we are going to completely blow up this team’ based on where we are as far as our commitments and what we think is our talent base and expect to just turn things around…I don’t think that’s fair to the fanbase, I don’t think that’s fair to the people who have been so loyal to us.

This was a soft-peddle way of saying that the Phillies, having committed over $140 million to 10 players in 2014, cannot afford the thousands of repetitively empty blue seats at Citizens Bank Park that a rebuild would bring.

Amaro Jr. underscored the extent to which he is chained to players like Utley and Rollins by speaking of them in terms normally reserved for all-stars in their primes and up-and-coming studs, rather than the declining players they are.

Amaro referring to Utley as “the backbone of our club, he’s a guy that I believe that will…propel this club and help us continue to make the transition” should produce shivers in the spines of Phillies fans. In 2011-12, Utley played little more than one season’s worth of games.

On the basis of a bounce-back 2013, Utley is now “the backbone of our club”? Oh boy.

As for Rollins, Amaro Jr. said this:

A: Jimmy’s our shortstop. I fully expect him to be there Opening Day and to play out the rest of his career with us. Again, Jimmy and Chase in my mind are lifers here with the Phillies and hopefully we can bring another championship to the city with those guys in the middle.

Well, there you have it. Utley and Rollins will be in the middle of the Phillies infield until they do not want to play baseball any more.

Reviews of Amaro Jr.’s performance were, um, not encouraging:

Once upon a time, the great writer David Foster Wallace once referred to applause at a lopsided tennis match as being “so small and sad and tattered-sounding that it’d almost be better if people didn’t clap at all.”

Ruben Amaro Jr. should read some David Foster Wallace the next time he considers going on the air to address the ruins his Phillies have become.

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Playing Fact or Fiction with the Latest Philadelphia Phillies Rumors

Ordinarily the opening paragraph to a piece like this would have some pithy, breezy prose commenting on the quality and quantity of the rumors swirling around the Philadelphia Phillies this offseason.

You are going to have to do without that, though. Within hours of this writing, Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer posted this tidbit to his Twitter feed:

It is officially white flag time for Phillies fans.

Read the comments under my posts on this page and the raging undercurrent is some version of “you’re too negative.”

But how, exactly, am I supposed to react when the first two major Phillies signings of this offseason are Marlon Byrd and Carlos Ruiz? Are these really causes for optimism?

Here is how Matt Snyder of CBSSports.com recapped Byrd’s 2012 season: 

Byrd started 3 for 43 (.070) for the Cubs before being traded to the Red Sox. He was released by the Red Sox June 12 and later had to serve a 50-game suspension for violating the league’s Joint Drug Agreement.

At the end of the 2012 season, Byrd’s career looked to be all but over. Did he have a good season in 2013? Definitely—.291/.336/.511 with 35 doubles, 24 homers, 88 RBI and 75 runs is no joke. 

Byrd’s 2013 season was also a grotesque outlier for a player with a slugging percentage of .425 and 106 home runs in a 12-year career.

Byrd made $700,000 as a 36-year-old journeyman outfielder in 2013. He will get $8 million in 2014 from the Phillies, and will do so again in 2015.

ESPN.com’s Keith Law put the absurdity of the Byrd deal best:

The Phillies are paying (Byrd) more than part-time money and seem to think he’s an everyday player who’ll stay healthy for two years and whose history of PED usage isn’t relevant…paying him as if he’ll be more than a .270/.315/.450 guy…assumes his legs will stay healthy enough for him to get to 20-odd homers each year.

You know what the worst part of the Byrd contract is? As of now, it is the second-stupidest of the two Phillies signings in the past week.

According to Gelb‘s report, the Phillies will pay Ruiz “$8.5 million per season from 2014-16″ despite the fact that Ruiz “has required a trip to the disabled list in each of the last five seasons and averaged 97 games started over the last three seasons.”

Law, again: “(G)iving Carlos Ruiz, a 34-year-old catcher with platoon problems who’s coming off a PED suspension a three-year deal is absolute lunacy.”

Law, continued: “Right-handed pitchers blew him up in 2013 (.257/.301/.335 line against), and he didn’t hit any kind of velocity as his bat had clearly started to slow.”

So much negativity. Why can’t anyone write anything upbeat about the Phillies?

Could it be that the starting nine on Opening Day 2014 could look like this (including the ages they will be on Opening Day)?

• Cliff Lee, 35
• Carlos Ruiz, 35
• Ryan Howard, 33
• Chase Utley, 35
• Jimmy Rollins, 35
• Cody Asche, 23
• Domonic Brown, 26
• Ben Revere, 25
• Marlon Byrd, 36

Five of those players are closer to 40 than 30. Howard moves like he’s 50. Asche, Revere and Brown will need to steer clear of the Geritol-spiked Muscle Milk in the Phillies clubhouse for the foreseeable future.

Right, I am supposed to talk about the latest Phillies rumors now. That’s actually crazy easy after the Byrd and Ruiz signings.

The Phillies’ reported interest in the following players is now most likely FICTION: Carlos Beltran, Nelson Cruz, Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Brian McCann. Having paid Byrd and Ruiz everyday money, the Phillies quite literally cannot afford to bring in higher-priced options at those positions.

Almost certainly the Phillies’ reported willingness to give a quality setup reliever a three-year contract is a FACT. Whether that arm ends up being Edward Mujica, Joaquin Benoit, Joe Smith or someone else is basically immaterial, since any of these pitchers would be an upgrade over what the Phillies have in the bullpen.

Also residing in the FICTION file is the idea that the Phillies can now afford to spend the outsized dollars a marquee player like Jacoby Ellsbury might command.

And it is not money that will keep the Phillies from prying David Price away from the Tampa Bay Rays—it is the dearth of quality prospects in the Phillies minor league system.

Mark Zuckerman of natsinsider.com speculated that the Washington Nationals would need to give up their two best prospects (Anthony Rendon and Lucas Giolito) plus two more good ones to get Price out of Tampa.

The Phillies do not have four prospects of that quality in their system, much less four they can afford to trade for one player.

So the FACT is that the Phillies might have one more big signing left in them this offseason.

From what we have seen so far, though, “big” and “good” are not necessarily the same thing.

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Big Moves the Philadelphia Phillies Could Actually Pull Off This Offseason

The Philadelphia Phillies are a team in need of a significant overhaul. Running back the old, oft-injured core of an 89-loss team is rarely a sound game plan, but the Phillies seem committed to doing just that.

Assuming none of these players is moved, the Phillies are going to pay the following six players the following amounts of money in 2014:

• Ryan Howard, $25 million
• Cliff Lee, $25 million
• Cole Hamels, $22.5 million
• Chase Utley, $15 million
• Jonathan Papelbon, $13 million
• Jimmy Rollins, $11 million

Howard will be the Big Platoon Piece at first base—assuming he stays healthy. Rollins just posted one of the worst offensive seasons of his career, and regrettably, it looks like he will be a Phillie for two more seasons at those wages.

Hamels was a darling of the peripheral-numbers crowd in 2013, but the bottom line on his 2013 season is that halfway through it, Hamels was 2-11 with an earned run average over 4.50 and a 1.30 WHIP. By the time he put things (sort of) right, it was too late to do his team much good.

Papelbon is a good but not elite closer who had decent ratios (2.92 earned run average, 1.14 WHIP) but still managed to blow seven saves. That was the highest number of blown saves for any National League closer who kept his job for the entire 2013 season.

Utley bounced back nicely in 2013. It should be no surprise—if you have read me for the past year, you know how I predicted that last October. Now the question is whether he will stay productive or go back to being an 80-game-a-year player now that the ink is dry on his contract extension.

Only Lee, then, is virtually certain to provide a good return on the investment the Phillies made in him.

Even in a sport like baseball that rewards frequent failure (three out of 10 gets you to Cooperstown, etc.), one probable success story out of six enormous contracts should be enough to get a general manager dismissed.

Instead, the Phillies look like they are about to double down yet again on veteran help in an attempt to prop up the rotting foundation of the franchise.

Jim Salisbury of CSN Philly has done an accurate but dispiriting job of laying out the paths the Phillies seem likely to consider meandering down this offseason

After admitting that Giancarlo Stanton is a “pie-in-the-sky target,” Salisbury spills a lot of bytes on the likes of Carlos Beltran (36 years of age), Nelson Cruz (33), Ervin Santana (31 on December 12) and Matt Garza (30 on November 26).

Then Justin McGuire of The Sporting News tosses out there how the Phillies are “among teams eyeing Bronson Arroyo.” Arroyo is 36 years old with a lifetime earned run average over 4.00, so he fits the profile.

If these are the types of moves the Phillies are going to make this offseason, they are likely to improve the team enough to get back to .500, but they will come nowhere close to getting back to the playoffs.

The big moves the Phillies could actually pull off this offseason are moves that Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. is not going to make because of the phenomenon Grantland’s Jonah Keri identified in 2002 when he was writing for Baseball Prospectus: dissonance between the Phillies’ needs and his own.

The Phillies could trade Cliff Lee for either relief from his contract or a haul of prospects, but probably not both. Either way, parting with Lee would be a big move toward a younger, less expensive future.

Similarly, eating the vast majority of Howard’s contract to trade him and thereby dissipate the black cloud over the franchise he now represents would signal a real change in the club’s direction.

But nothing that has happened in the Phillies’ recent past suggests that the club has any intent on a full gut and rebuild.

Instead, expect more painting, caulking and nailing in plywood over cracks that will continue to worsen until the Phillies finally bottom out and finish behind the Miami Marlins in the National League East.

Which could happen as soon as 2014, when you really think about it.

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The Definitive Blueprint for a Successful Philadelphia Phillies Offseason

From my vantage point, the Philadelphia Phillies have a franchise blueprint that reminds me of an old joke.

The joke tells of a man on the stoop of his house as flood waters approach. A woman in a rowboat drifts by and tells him to get in. He says, “No, I’ll wait for God to save me.”

The flood waters keep rising and the man heads to the second floor of the house. A man in a motorboat comes by and tells him to get in. Again, the true believer says he will hold out for God to save him.

Soon enough the flood waters have filled the house and the man ends up on his roof. A helicopter then comes by and the pilot lowers a rope and tells the man to climb up to safety. A third time the man says that he will wait for God to rescue him.

After the man finally drowns, he confronts God in heaven and asks God why He had let him die.

God was exasperated. “What the hell is wrong with you? I sent you two boats and a helicopter!”

After the 2011 season ended in a crumpled heap near home plate, the Phillies had their first sign that their reliance on old, expensive players had a short shelf life and a worrisome success rate.

After the 2012 season ended with the Phillies missing the playoffs for the first time in five years—and barely reaching .500—the Phillies had their second sign that their methods were failing.

Then the Phillies crash-landed in 2013 with 89 losses despite the third-highest payroll in baseball.

You do not need to have supersonic hearing to sense that the helicopter blades are pulling away from the Philadelphia Phillies. They are not apt to receive any more glaring warnings of their impending doom.

Which is why pieces like Dan Szymborski‘s for ESPN.com (subscription required), though hopeful in tone, do more harm than good for both the team and its fans.

Szymborski maintains that the Phillies “have the ability to vault themselves back into contention with a strong winter,” fueled in no small part by the possibility of a “new TV contract that could increase their TV revenue by a factor of six.”

The plan as he sees it is to sign Carlos Beltran and Matt Garza and/or trade for David Price. Szymborski had previously suggested that the Phillies offer four prospects (including Jesse Biddle and Roman Quinn) for Price.

In other words, more outlandish spending on players headed over the hill, and more strip-mining of the farm system.

No, no, no. Please.

A truly successful Phillies offseason can only come if the Phillies are willing to remain out of contention for a playoff berth for one more season.

Barring a renegotiation with Comcast, the television money is not coming until 2016 anyway.

After 2014, Jimmy Rollins’ contract might be off the books. The disastrous deals handed out to Ryan Howard and Jonathan Papelbon will both be one more year closer to being done, perhaps making those players more tradeable commodities.

Meanwhile, Cliff Lee could be shopped this winter for major league-ready prospects. With a full rebuild in play, Lee might willingly waive his no-trade clause to leave for a contender.

Then, after the Phillies compile high first-round picks in 2014 and 2015, the TV money comes in and the Phillies make runs at a free-agent crop that (by default) will have better options than Garza, Beltran, Nelson Cruz and Shin-Soo Choo.

The definitive blueprint for a successful Phillies offseason, then, is to undermine the 2014 Phillies with the intent to make the 2015 and 2016 Phillies formidable.

I know this is never going to happen—Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. has neither the patience nor the acumen to make it work.

But I wish it would. 

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Philadelphia Phillies’ 5 Most Tradeable Assets for the 2013-14 Offseason

Philadelphia Phillies fans who watched the Boston Red Sox, American League Eastern Division laughingstocks in 2012, win the 2013 World Series cannot help but think, “Hey, that could be us next year!”

David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News doesn’t think so:

The Phillies situation is less promising than the Red Sox: First, the guys they are counting on to improve are in their mid-30’s while the guys the Red Sox were counting on were in their late-20’s. Second, they need to make wise choices in free agency, something that has not been their forte as of late.

What a wet blanket, right? What do you think Red Sox fans were saying in 2012, anyway? I’ll tell you: They were saying that the Sox were finished.

Andrew Cohen’s April 22, 2012 piece in The Atlantic declared last rites over the Red Sox: “Brothers and sisters of Red Sox Nation, it is time. And someone’s got to say it. So I come before you today to bury a particularly notable version of our beloved team.”

Cohen was right about 2012, but a year later the Red Sox had won another title.

So the Phillies can mope around and curse others’ luck, or they can get put a proper plan together and do something about the franchise’s fortunes.

Here are five pieces the Phillies could move to turn the team’s momentum forward again.

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5 Ways Philadelphia Phillies Should Spend the Coming TV Contract Windfall

The fast-approaching end to the Philadelphia Phillies‘ television rights contract with Comcast is the team’s best hope for a quick reversal of fortune.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports analyzed the unique position the Phillies can exploit given Comcast’s desire to keep them and Fox Sports 1’s perceived need to add another East Coast team since the New York Mets and Boston Red Sox are out of play.

Then just recently, Ryan Lawrence of the Philadelphia Daily News put round numbers to the heretofore rank speculation of just what this deal might mean to the Phillies.

According to data from sportsbusinessjournal.com, the Phillies’ current deal yielded them an average annual rights fee from Comcast of $35 million. It’s not out of the realm of possibility that a new deal could be six times as large.

And it’s highly probable that a deal would be in the neighborhood north of $150 million annually.

In the immortal words of Phil Rizzuto, “Holy cow.”

That sort of money could buy the Phillies out of a lot of problems. Here is how they should spend at least some of it.

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