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Philadelphia Phillies offseason grades for their 5 biggest additions

By Tim Boyle

Mar 23, 2022; Clearwater, Florida, USA; Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski gives outfielder Nick Castellanos (8) his new jersey before the start of the game against the Toronto Blue Jays during spring training at BayCare Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 23, 2022; Clearwater, Florida, USA; Philadelphia Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski gives outfielder Nick Castellanos (8) his new jersey before the start of the game against the Toronto Blue Jays during spring training at BayCare Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Jonathan Dyer-USA TODAY Sports /
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Philadelphia Phillies
Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports /

The Philadelphia Phillies are done making offseason moves; at least major ones. They’ll head into the 2022 season with a lot of the same guys from last season but also a bullpen with some notable veterans and a lineup with some boppers.

This winter wasn’t like the one prior to the 2019 campaign when they turned the switch up a couple of levels. The team has a lot of pieces leftover. They didn’t have to do a complete overhaul to come back with a competitive team.

While it wasn’t the greatest offseason of all, they did make five notable moves this winter. What grades do they deserve?

Philadelphia Phillies sign Corey Knebel to a one-year, $10 million deal: D+

The only notable move made before the lockout began was the one-year deal with relief pitcher Corey Knebel. A $10 million contract to potentially become the team’s closer in 2022 never seemed ideal to me. It’s a lot of money to pay a guy who pitched only 25.2 big league innings last year, missed all of 2019 due to injury, and has only one full season as a closer under his belt.

That one full season, however, was fantastic. Knebel was the man in the ninth inning for the 2017 Milwaukee Brewers. He pitched to a 1.78 ERA and successfully saved 39 games.

His career took a turn in the seasons that followed and he found himself with the Los Angeles Dodgers last year on a short redemption tour. Knebel ended up with a 4-0 record and 2.45 ERA in those 25.2 innings of work.

The Phillies did end up making some other additions to the bullpen (more on them in a bit) which gives a little more insight into the Knebel deal. It now looks like a panic move by the front office to make sure they added at least one potential closer to the roster. It’s a lot of money to pay a guy who might not even be your closer.

This move can get a D+ with an asterisk. Because of who else they brought in, it does look a little bit better. Let’s leave them open for some extra credit to move the D+ up to something closer to a C.

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