Philadelphia

Phillies

Henry returns to Philadelphia as extra catching depth at Triple-A Lehigh Valley heading into 2025. The 27-year-old backstop hasn’t appeared in the big league sine the 2022 season when he got into 15 contests for the Marlins.

Vasil was selected in the eighth round by the Mets in 2021 and at one point was considered an intriguing right-handed prospect. He struggled considerably in 2024 with a 6.04 ERA for Syracuse over 138 innings, but the Phillies will get a chance to see if they can get him back on the right track.

The Yankees are in the mix, too, but they might not match up as well as other suitors. Tucker, one of the AL’s best players the last four seasons, has one year to go before free agency. Sherman sees the Cubs as a particularly strong pursuer here. It brings up the interesting possibility of Isaac Paredes perhaps being moved to an Astros ballpark that’s perfect for his swing. However, much of the reason Tucker seems to be on the table at the moment as that his departure would make it easier to re-sign Alex Bregman to a long-term deal.

The Yankees are rather surprisingly missing from the list, though that probably doesn’t rule them out as a possibility. It’s currently unclear if any suitor is as interested in Arenado as the Cardinals are in moving on from him. He’s said he’d be willing to shift to first to aid a deal, but that just doesn’t make much sense; most of his value comes from his defense at third base.

Rosenthal and Sammon add that the Phillies and Red Sox are among the other teams interested in Crochet, but the Mets and Yankees have been the most aggressive so far in trade talks. The 25-year-old southpaw, who is under team control for two more season before reaching free agency is the best pitcher available on the trade market this offseason following last year’s breakout campaign where he led all big-league starters with a staggering 35.1 percent strikeout rate across 146 innings (32 starts). At this point, it’s unclear how close the White Sox are to making a decision, but the asking price figures to be astronomical.

The deal is now official. Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski told reporters at the Winter Meetings that he wouldn’t completely rule out acquiring another reliever, but added that he’s comfortable with the club’s bullpen at this point. The 31-year-old stopper was non-tendered last month by the Blue Jays after missing four months last year due to elbow issues, but he’s expected to be ready for spring training. All signs point to Romano opening next season as Philadelphia’s primary closer, which makes him a borderline top 20 stopper from a fantasy perspective.

Per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, it’s a one-year deal which is expected to come in higher than his projected arbitration number of $7.75 million. This is a crucial signing for the Phillies, who could lose Jeff Hoffman and Carlos Estevez in free agency and saw their bullpen meltdown in the playoffs. The 31-year-old Romano became a free agent last month after the Blue Jays non-tendered him following a year where he struggled through elbow issues. Romano didn’t pitch in a game after the end of May and had arthroscopic surgery on July 3 for an elbow impingement; however, he was reportedly close to returning at the end of the season if the Blue Jays had been in contention. Romano has a career 2.90 ERA with 105 saves in 231 games across his six seasons and would be a tremendous addition for the Phillies if he’s healthy in 2025.

The 35-year-old hurler has generated interest from at least eight teams already, so it sounds like he’ll do pretty well for himself on the open market. Kahnle was brilliant once again for the Yankees in 2024, registering a 2.11 ERA, 1.15 WHIP and a 46/19 K/BB ratio over 42 2/3 frames.

Jude adds that the Phillies “asked for one of the Mariners’ top pitchers — Logan Gilbert or George Kirby — in exchange for Bohm,” during initial trade talks. Seattle has predictably balked at the rather absurd asking price, but they have a massive hole at the hot corner entering the offseason, especially after non-tendering Josh Rojas, so these two teams would seem to line up. Bohm, who is coming off the best season of his career at the dish, has reportedly been on the trade block for a couple weeks at this point with Philadelphia looking to shake up its core following a disappointing postseason. We’ll see if the two sides revisit talks at some point in the near future.

The Phillies only have one opening in their starting rotation with Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Ranger Suarez, and Cristopher Sanchez returning in 2025, but it seems that they are intent on taking a big swing to fill it. Bohm is 28 years old and coming off three straight solid seasons but seems to be capped as a .280 hitter with 15-20 home run power, so it’s unclear if that profile would excite the White Sox. Especially with the Orioles and Red Sox are allegedly open to trading some of the top 15 prospects in all of baseball. It’s still early days, but the Phillies seem intent on shaking up their lineup, and Nightingale reports that “if the Phillies trade Bohm, they are expected to make a strong play for Alex Bregman, whose talent and personality would fit in perfectly with the team, or perhaps sign Willy Adames and move him over to third base.”