Philadelphia Phillies Offseason Acquisition Targets

The Philadelphia Phillies took a step in the right direction in 2016, finishing with a 71-91 record, three games ahead of the Atlanta Braves for last place in the division.

To keep trending upwards, the Philadelphia Phillies will have to make a few moves this offseason, but maybe not something as big as trading away Ken Giles like they did last year. The focus should be on adding veteran leadership at a low cost, so that when some members of the Phils talented farm system are ready to make their debuts, there will be a spot waiting for them on the 25-man roster.

With a fairly weak free agent class, the Phillies will likely make an addition here or there, but nothing terribly splashy like signing Jose Bautista, who is one of the few big names on the market, would command a high salary (which isn’t necessarily an issue for the team) and block another outfielder ready for the jump. Instead the Phillies will be looking to add a veteran arm to the rotation with Jeremy Hellickson potentially leaving via free agency, while adding two arms would provide plenty of depth to a rotation that finished the season without both Aaron Nola and Vince Velasquez.

Before we get started with some ways to fill up the roster this winter, let’s quickly take a look at where the team ranked in a few categories.

Offensively, the Phillies ranked last in runs (610), 24th in home runs (161), 29th in batting average (.240) and on-base percentage (.301) and last in wRC+ (82, which is eighteen percent below league average as a team).

The Phillies ranked ninth in baseball in defense according to the defensive metric on FanGraphs, but they also allowed 22 extra runs to score according to DRS (Defensive Runs Saved). While Ryan Howard was responsible for nine of those extra runs while manning first, and he will no longer be in the red pinstripes next season, there is still quite a gap to make up to get into the realm of many of the playoff teams that had positive metrics, outside of the Mets and their phenomenal starting pitching, the Nationals, who also have an excellent starting staff, and the Orioles, who just bludgeoned everyone with their offensive firepower.

The starting pitching that the Philadelphia Phillies have assembled in recent years will become their trademark as they look to get back to their winning ways in the coming years. As a team the pitching staff ranked 18th in WAR at 13.1, which includes a ranking of 25th in ERA (4.64) and a FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) ranking of 21st (4.34) which is an example of their defense hurting them.

The Phillies staff was more prone to giving up more fly balls than grounders, which can work, but their fly ball per home run rate of 13.8 percent ranked 25th in the game. This isn’t to say that a team with a high HR/FB rate can’t challenge for a wild card berth, as both the Yankees and Rockies had higher rates than Philadelphia, but it’s something small and potentially correctable that could lead to more success in 2017.

To that point, let’s start off out look at what the Phillies could do this winter with starting pitchers.