Phillies rumors: Didi Gregorius’ replacement might be … Didi Gregorius

With Philadelphia Phillies rumors indicating the team’s interest in bringing Didi Gregorius back, it’s becoming more likely he might be his own replacement.

Didi Gregorius still needs to find a home for the 2021 season. The Philadelphia Phillies still need to find a shortstop for the 2021 season. According to the latest Phillies rumors, that reunion may be in the offing.

With the New York Yankees bringing back second baseman DJ LeMahieu as a free agent, the odds of a Bronx rerun with Gregorius and LeMahieu in the middle of the infield is slim. The Yankees, for all their resources, are very budget-conscious this offseason.

According to Corey Siedman of NBC Sports Philadelphia, Gregorius and the Phillies might be in closer orbit than originally thought.

Gregorius performed well for the Phillies in 2020, hitting .284/.339/.488 while playing in all 60 games. In 237 plate appearances, the veteran had 10 home runs, 40 RBI and struck out just 28 times against 15 walks (three intentional).

A middle-of-the-order fixture — he batted in the No. 4, 5 or 6 slots in 54 games — he did the most damage in the five-hole, hitting .333/.396/.586 in 24 games and 97 plate appearances, with five homers and 24 RBI.

Earlier last week, Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia reported that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski is interested in bringing Gregorius back to the Phillies.

The problem for Gregorius might just be timing.

After missing half of the 2019 season with the Yankees after Tommy John surgery, he returned in early June, but struggled to get going at the plate, hitting .238/.276/.441 in 344 plate appearances with 16 homers and 61 RBI, striking out 53 times with 17 walks (one intentional).

His career took off after he went from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Bronx in a three-team deal. The December 2014 swap sent Gregorius to New York, Domingo Leyba and Robbie Ray from the Detroit Tigers to Arizona and Shane Greene from the Yankees to the Tigers.

Over a three-season span from 2016-18, Gregorius averaged 24 homers and 81 RBI a season while slashing .277/.319/.472 over that period.

He was only able to get a one-year, $14 million contract for 2020 and he made good on it. But with it being a shortened season and every team in baseball reeling financially from the COVID-19 restrictions on gate revenues, TV revenues and every other kind of revenues, Gregorius might not be in a position to do much better than another one-year contract.

That would not bode well for next winter, when baseball may see the biggest collection of star-studded shortstops hit free agency simultaneously in a generation.

Right now there is a literal handful of stars at the position entering their walk year — Javier Baez of the Chicago Cubs, Carlos Correa of the Houston Astros, Francisco Lindor of the New York Mets, Corey Seager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Trevor Story of the Colorado Rockies.

Gregorius would be a remote sixth, at best, in that marketplace. It’s very possible if Dombrowski offers anything longer than one year, Didi might bite just to avoid that potential train wreck of free-agent shortstops next winter.

But it’s very possible the Phillies could have a new shortstop who looks an awful lot like the old shortstop.