Philadelphia Phillies: Three reactions to Jean Segura trade

Moving Santana kills two birds with one stone

When the Phillies inked Santana to a 3-year, $60 million contract last winter, many questioned why the Phillies would add a first baseman when they already had Rhys Hoskins in the fold. It appeared the Phillies were willing to sacrifice some defense for offense by moving Hoskins to left field, allowing Santana to play first.

Having Hoskins in the outfield severely hurt the Phillies defense and Santana’s offensive production was not enough to make up for that. Santana hit .229 on the season, which just isn’t enough to warrant keeping him around.

Santana did fit Gabe Kapler‘s plate discipline approach, but this move shows that the Phillies need more guys who can hit for average. Segura also does not strike out a ton, so Kapler gets a guy who is disciplined and can get hits in Segura.

Moving Santana will allow Hoskins to move back to his natural position of first base. Going back to first should help Hoskins both offensively and defensively, only making the Phillies better.

This move also gets the final two years and roughly $40 million of Santana’s contract off the books and gives the Phillies more spending money. It was expected the Phillies would look to move Santana’s contract this offseason, and they were able to while also getting a key piece in return.

Giving Santana the money the Phillies gave him seemed unprecedented, and Santana’s production at the plate was not enough to warrant what the Phillies were paying him. There was no point to pay Santana that much money and block Hoskins from first base.