Phillies Agree to Terms with INF Didi Gregorious

[Squire]

per Joel Sherman

Joel Sherman on Twitter

[andyb]

Apparently 1-year. Assume this means we are going to exceed the threshold if it is something like $18 million.

[zambonir]

I wonder if it will include an option. Or an agreement not to QO.

Still think trading Segura is as likely as exceeding the threshold.

[andyb]

Gelb tweeting that the Phillies have their infield now, so I think he is thinking the Phillies will look towards pitching next. That extra starter we probably need and some low cost bullpen arms are probably the biggest remaining priority. A 1-year deal with Gregorius probably gives them the option to be under the threshold in a year if they choose to be.

I think they'll be $10 million or so over after the pitching moves. If they want to win next year it probably is a better bet to go over for 1 year and retain flexibility for the next.

[Squire]

Salisbury says its 1 year/ $14million

[andyb]

That is a good number if true. The whole 3/42-45 seemed a bit much for a guy coming off a bad year.

[zambonir]

Just not convinced you go over the threshold for Didi Gregorius and Zach Wheeler
but I guess maybe the market (and Robertson and Herrera) leaves them with no choice.

But if you trade Segura and Velasquez you've got $20-22 million to spend on pitching and a mid-priced 2B/3B option.

Anyway, if they are over, they're over, and may as well still consider CF or 3B upgrades, far-fetched as they may be.

[bkeich]

Nice signing. Good/ very good defensive SS always helps, even if his bat isn’t great.

Now the question is do we let Haseley play CF or Kingery and do we still find a 3B or let Kingery man it until Bohm is ready.

Would still like a SP, even another average guy

[allentown]

Good/ very good defensive SS always helps, e

I'd be happier with this signing if this were true. Last year he had -01. dWAR. For the past 4 seasons, he's averaged a dWAR of +0.4. If you are counting up him to be a very good defensive SS, I think you are going to be disappointed. Segura had a dWAR of 0.0 at SS last season and averaged a dWAR of +0.6 over the past 4 seasons. Kingery was +1.2 dWAR last season at a number of positions, including SS, with the Phillies thinking he is a better defensive SS than Segura. Didi looks like a baby step in the wrong direction on D.

I'm not thrilled with this signing and will be unhappy if we dump Segura for not very much beyond salary relief.

I'm guessing this makes Kingery our starting CF.

[el-pietro]

I'm a little confused about this deal. I assume they are expecting a bounce back year from him, because honestly I'm not seeing why they think hes better than Cesar who likely would have been a couple of million cheaper.
Surely there were other cheaper middle infield options out there? This eats up a chunk of their remaining sub lux tax money and they still need pitching.

[allentown]

Wouldn't let me edit (kept asking if I really wanted to delete post). I ended to soon. Kingery may play largely 3B until Bohm comes up mid-season and then be starting CF, but I think he is primary CF for 2020.

[Philsmania]

I'm not thrilled with this signing and will be unhappy if we dump Segura for not very much beyond salary relief.

That may be what it takes to put an end to a continuum of bad moves--the Santana signing to the Santana and Crawford for Segura trade to the Segura dump. Bad karma all along. Of course, with our luck, Segura will return to form at his next stop like Santana did.

[nycphils]

An infield of Hoskins, Segura, Didi and Kingery strikes me as...very below average. What am I missing?

[allentown]

I guess hope for growth on Kingery's part and a triple bounceback. I guess Girardi really loves Didi as a clubhouse presence. At best, this is an IF with a lot of ifs.

[tom81]

I'm a little confused about this deal. I assume they are expecting a bounce back year from him, because honestly I'm not seeing why they think hes better than Cesar who likely would have been a couple of million cheaper.

I think it’s a matter of management going with the guy who the new manager is comfortable with. The difference in money/ability is secondary imo.

[zambonir]

If you evaluate them all based on the last three years not last year Didi is better than Cesar, and likely has more upside than Segura due to the more tangible reason for his down year, a major injury.

If Hoskins isn’t Hoskins they are in trouble no matter what. But I still don’t mind trying to replace Segura’s WAR on the cheap if it buys you pitching WAR.

[xogfog]

I'm still hoping they can move Segura. If Boston wants to send us Price straight up for Segura, that way by taking Segura back, they are on the hook for far less money and wouldn't have to eat any of Price's salary, Phils get a proven lefty starter.

[Austinfan]

Figure if Segura and Didi both play SS, they have the arm to play 3B. So now you have three guys who can play all three IF spots, plus Kingery can play CF.

This means you don't have to rush Bohm next year (and when Didi leaves, Bohm will be at 3B, and Stott in AA).
Bring back Miller and you have solid depth.
Kingery and Quinn (who you're not gong to count on starting more than 50 games in any case) can platoon to some extent in CF, Cutch and Bruce in LF.

At this point I'd be looking at low cost ST invites for 5th starter (Nola, Wheeler, Eflin, Arrieta) and RP spots.

[bkeich]

I'd be happier with this signing if this were true. Last year he had -01. dWAR. For the past 4 seasons, he's averaged a dWAR of +0.4. If you are counting up him to be a very good defensive SS, I think you are going to be disappointed. Segura had a dWAR of 0.0 at SS last season and averaged a dWAR of +0.6 over the past 4 seasons. Kingery was +1.2 dWAR last season at a number of positions, including SS, with the Phillies thinking he is a better defensive SS than Segura. Didi looks like a baby step in the wrong direction on D.

But that is positive dWAR for Gregorius. That is better than the guy who he is replacing (Hernandez). The fact that he is about the same as Segura, well, frankly I dont really care which one of them plays SS and which plays 2B, but we should have a better middle of the infield.

Throwing in Kingery's 1.2 dWAR is a red herring, I seriously doubt that his 12 games at SS contributed much to that, in fact it was kinda despite those 12 games. He had a couple errors, he did have an abnormally high range factor, but once again it is only 12 games. The year before when he played 101 games at SS (for some mysterious reason I still dont understand) he had a -0,3 dWAR. He has a fairly high error rate at SS so far, my guess is while they are saying he is a very good SS, so far the stats dont really show that. The best stat I can find for Kingery is that in almost exactly 1000 innings so far in the major he has contributed -5 runs defensively.

[zambonir]

It's a bit of a rearranging deck chairs approach really. Gregorius is a better SS than Segura, Segura is a better 2B than Hernandez, but Kingery isn't necessarily going to be a plus 3B. And yet he still might be the best defender of them. But this isn't at all about defense really. Didi hit 27 home runs in 2018 and still had 16 last year in just 344 PAs. Segura has hit 11, 10 and 12 in his last three seasons. Kingery had 19 in 500 PAs. Didi immediately becomes our best slugging infielder really (non-1B), and possibly our best overall too if he can put it back together. Kingery needs to progress as well.

The problem is, why would Segura be any easier to trade than Hernandez was, even for value? Maybe if the Phillies picked up half his salary, or, yeah, took back something big, but they can't really afford to take on Price's salary, even if Segura was involved. You'd lose all the room you're about to gain back from Arrieta next year.

It's not gonna be boring.