Phillies spent big in offseason but didn't improve
The Philadelphia Phillies spent $403 million this past offseason on free agents, the most in Major League Baseball.
No team spent more and no team got less of a return.
That level of investment, roughly 25 percent more than any other team spent in free agency last offseason, got the Phillies one more win than they had in 2018. Philadelphia finished the year with an 81-81 record, just a single win more than they had in 2018.
That isn’t a great return on investment for the Phillies. In fact, it is really poor and traces back to questionable offseason decisions, according to David Samson, former president of the Miami Marlins.
“The Phillies approach [to] last offseason ultimately led to their lack of success. The signing of Bryce Harper was meant to jumpstart the franchise from a revenue and winning standpoint,” Samson told FOX Business.
“However, they neglected to understand or believe that they were more than one piece away from winning. They also succumbed to [agent Scott] Boras’ pitch that Harper would be the difference, but this offseason, [J.D.] Martinez is the difference, and next offseason, it will be another Boras player. Owners must stop buying what he is selling.”
Samson said that manager Gabe Kapler, who has been disappointing for two years on the Phillies bench, was “ill-fated from the start.” Kapler's heavy reliance on analytics and data has been criticized during his two seasons with the organization
“Hiring Joe Maddon would be a good start though,” Samson said of the former World Series winner, who was fired by the Chicago Cubs this week.
The Phillies finished 16 games back in the National League East, good (or bad enough) for fourth place in the five-team division. After spending big to bring in players like Harper, this wasn’t quite the great leap forward that had been envisioned.
The free-spending Phillies stand polar opposite to the success of two teams that face off in the Wild Card round on Wednesday night. The Tampa Bay Rays had the lowest payroll in baseball and they play the Oakland Athletics, who were sixth from the bottom in spending.
“As for the correlation between payroll and winning: that used to be much more firm, but this year has proven that this is no longer the case. The Rays and A’s were able to be successful with far fewer, if any, high-profile signings,” Samson said.
“They are forced to build a team differently because of revenue issues and therefore they move players one year too early instead of one year too late. That is the most important part of winning. Being smart is one thing, but forced to be smart is another more important concept. Impatient owners tend to create more problems for a team than they solve.”
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