Phillies Find Free Agency Is Perfect Path To Promised Land

Halfway toward their second straight National League pennant, the Philadelphia Phillies are riding a foundation built by importing high-priced free agents.

More than a half-dozen members of the squad that has taken a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven NL Championship Series came to Citizens Bank Park via free agency:

★ Bryce Harper signed a 13-year, $330 million pact during 2019 spring training

★ Trea Turner, with family ties to neighboring New Jersey, got 10 years at $300 million

★ Zack Wheeler got five years for $118 million, a deal that now seems like a steal

★ J.T. Realmuto signed for five years and $115.5 million

★ Nick Castellanos autographed a five-year, $100 million offer

★ Kyle Schwarber inked a four-year, $79 million contract

★ Taijuan Walker took a four-year deal calling for four years at $72 million

★ Craig Kimbrel got one-year, $10 million deal

That spending spree pushed Philadelphia to a payroll of $263,744,976, fifth among the 30 clubs. Only the two New York teams, San Diego Padres, and Houston Astros pay their players more. And only the Astros and Phillies are still playing, in pursuit of the same World Series berths they grabbed last fall.

For the Phillies, the payoff is the playoffs – or the chance to play for their first world championship since 2008, when they beat the upstart Tampa Bay Rays.

Philadelphia won 90 games but finished 14 games behind in a National League East race won by the Atlanta Braves for the sixth straight season. With three wild cards in each league, however, the Phils not only qualified as the first seed this year but rode a hot streak into postseason play.

They rolled over the favored Braves in four games, using the home run as their weapon of choice, and continued their slugging ways against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the wild-card team that swept the favored Los Angeles Dodgers in the other NL Division Series.

Much of the credit goes to president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski, signed in December 2020 and since extended through 2027. One of five general managers to win a World Series with two different teams, he formerly worked for the Expos, Marlins, Tigers, and Red Sox. The 1997 Marlins and 2018 Red Sox won world championships under his watch while the Tigers won pennants in 2006 and 2012.

Dombrowski, now 69, is the only baseball operations chief to lead four different organizations into the World Series.

He brought Schwarber, Castellanos, Turner, and Walker to town after Harper and Wheeler were already there.

Harper, whose contract contains a clause that guarantees a $100,000 bonus if he’s voted Most Valuable Player of the World Series, reached the Fall Classic for the first time last year. But Houston shortstop Jeremy Pena won the MVP trophy.

Harper would get an even bigger bonus – a cool half-million dollars – if he wins the regular-season MVP trophy but Atlanta slugger Ronald Acuna, Jr. is widely considered the favorite for that award.

On the plus side, Harper not only played on his birthday – Oct. 16 – for the first time but hit a first-inning homer to speed the Phillies to a 5-3 win in the NLCS opener against Arizona.

Before the series moved to Texas Wednesday, he had four homers in eight post-season games.

Both Harper and Wheeler are survivors of Tommy John surgery who seem better since their operations.

Schwarber is also a survivor of the surgeon’s knife, with knee surgery that knocked him out for the entire 2016 regular season but not for the post-season. Then with the Cubs, his big bat enabled Chicago to win its first world championship in 108 years.

Schwarber and Castellanos were the two big bats Dombrowski brought to Philadelphia, while Turner added speed, defense, and surprising power for a shortstop.

In their first 13 playoff games at Citizens Bank Park over the last two years, the Phils have pounded 32 home runs.

That certainly helped Wheeler, a strike-throwing strikeout artist, and rotation sidekick Aaron Nola, both of whom have pitched well since the playoffs started.

The Phillies began by sweeping the Miami Marlins the best-of-three Wild Card series, won four out of five from the Braves in the Division Series, and took both Championship Series games played so far from the D’backs.

Rob Thomson, a Canadian who replaced Joe Girardi as manager in the middle of last season, has been the chief beneficiary so far.

If the Phils advance to the final round, the 2023 World Series could be a match-up of wild cards, since the Texas Rangers lead the World Champion Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series after winning both opening games at Minute Maid Park.

The Rangers have never won a World Series but their manager, Bruce Bochy, has won three with the San Francisco Giants.