Stark: This Is A Winter Of Incredible Opportunity For Phillies
As the Major League Baseball Offseason is heating up, the Phillies are already zeroing in on potential Free Agents and with a plethora of money to spend they are not shying away from going after the big names. There have been reports over the last few weeks that the Phillies will be the highest bidder for Bryce Harper, reports saying the Phillies have interest in acquiring Paul Goldschmidt, and on Tuesday All-Star Starting Pitcher Patrick Corbin was in Philadelphia visiting with the Phillies.
The Athletic Senior Baseball Writer Jayson Stark joined The Sports Bash on Tuesday discussing the Phillies financial flexibility in their pursuit of the top MLB Free Agents this offseason:
“(Phillies have) been waiting for this winter and this is a winter of incredible opportunity for them....The luxury tax threshold goes to $206 million this year; Baseball Reference (is) projecting if they kept everybody, which isn’t going to happen by the way, they would be (at) $114 million so that would leave them $92 million to play with. There is no team in baseball with the revenue stream that the Phillies have and that much maneuverability below the tax threshold so of course they’re in on everybody. The idea is to not spend it all this year because this is a long term project but I think the interest in Patrick Corbin, might to some extent depend on what happens with Bryce Harper and Manny Machado. It would be very hard to do a very mammoth contract for a free agent hitter and then turn around and give Patrick Corbin (a contract that is) going to be $100 million plus. They have a lot of different trade chips to (acquire) for a starter if they choose to go that route. So I think it all begins with what happens on the Harper/Machado front and (everything) flows from there.”
Checkout what Stark had to say about Patrick Corbin's visit to Philadelphia on Tuesday, perspective on if Gabe Kapler could have a positive or negative impact on potential Free Agent acquisitions, and more