Philadelphia Phillies: So, what was the point of signing Didi Gregorius?
By David Esser
The Philadelphia Phillies handling of Didi Gregorius’ FA status makes minimal sense.
When the Philadelphia Phillies announced that they were hiring Joe Girardi as their next manager, people were quick to connect the dots towards the team signing Didi Gregorius. Girardi and Gregorius had a wonderful relationship in New York, the Phillies had a hole to fill at shortstop, and Gregorius was in search of an everyday starting gig to reset his market value.
Needless to say, it was a fairly perfect fit. Gregorius slotted into the lineup beautifully, providing the Phillies with another legitimate lefty power-bat alongside Bryce Harper. The fans also quickly fell in love with Gregorius and his infectious personality. Even in a shortened 60-game season, Didi established himself as a favorite in the city of Philadelphia.
Gregorius had a fantastic 2020 season, leading the Phillies roster in total RBIs while seeing his personal OPS jump up to .827; the second highest mark of his career.
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The Phillies got themselves a season’s worth of borderline elite shortstop play, and Gregorius got to reset his value as he now searches for a multi-year extension. A win-win scenario, the perfect one-year deal when it comes to baseball.
The problem, however, is how the Philadelphia Phillies have now gone about handling Gregorius’ impending free agent status. Not only did the team assumably not attempt to re-sign the veteran SS during the regular season, but they also failed to extend him a qualifying offer.
If you’re unfamiliar with how the qualifying offer works; it is a one-year contract set by the MLB each and every year. Teams are allowed to offer it to any impending free agent, and if the player declines (they usually do), the team is awarded a compensatory draft pick. It’s a fairly easy way to recoup assets if a team is expecting to lose a big name in free agency, and most teams utilize it on their key FAs.
This year’s qualifying offer was set at $18.9 million, just $4.9 million more than what Gregorius was initially signed to prior to the 2020 season. A fairly small raise considering the fact that Didi increased his OPS by an outstanding .109 points between 2019 and 2020.
Either the Phillies didn’t think that production was worthy of an extra $4.9 million, or they were just too cheap to shell out the money. I’m fairly confident in saying it was the latter option…
The Phillies aren’t offering Didi a qualifying offer because they’re terrified he’d accept a one-year $18.9 million deal.
— Jack Fritz (@JackFritzWIP) November 1, 2020
This offseason is going to suck.
Regardless, the Phillies stinginess will now not only likely cost them their starting shortstop, but they’ll also get nothing back in return. Gregorius was a picture perfect one-year deal, and yet the Philadelphia Phillies still found a way to screw it up.
Next. The Philadelphia Phillies are completely blowing up their bullpen. dark
If the Phils never had any intentions of re-signing Gregorius or offering him a qualifying offer, it begs the question; why did they even sign him in the first place? They’ll likely cite COVID-19 and revenue loss as a factor, but that’s a fairly drawn out excuse at this point in time. The Phils nailed it with their initial Gregorius signing last offseason, and now they have nothing to show for it. Not exactly how functional MLB front offices normally do business.