Friday was the deadline for teams to decide whether to offer contracts to their players who are eligible for salary arbitration and the Phillies opted against doing so with outfielder Austin Hays, who immediately becomes a free agent.
It was not a difficult call because Hays was set to earn approximately $6 million through the arbitration process and was not on the field enough to show the Phillies he was worth that price tag or an everyday job.
The Phils acquired Hays from Baltimore four days before the 2024 trade deadline for reliever Seranthony Dominguez in hopes that he'd at worst be a solid platoon partner for Brandon Marsh in left field and at best an everyday player. He suffered a hamstring strain two weeks later, missed two weeks, was sluggish upon his return and soon found out he was battling a kidney infection that would sideline him most of September.
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Hays returned at the very end of the regular season and started a game against Mets left-hander Sean Manaea in Game 3 of the NLDS but his timing was off and his brief Phillies career ended with a whimper.
"Sometimes you have to make adjustments to things and be open-minded to it. I know for myself, you ask about the trade deadline, for me, it really hurts that Austin Hays didn't have a good two months," president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said a week after the season ended. "We thought — I take the responsibility -- that Austin Hays was really gonna help us. And versus the Mets? Left-handed pitching, the right matchup. He gets hurt, he gets sick and he just wasn't the same player after that."
Two of the Phillies' top priorities this offseason — their top two, probably – are outfield help and overall lineup improvement. In an ideal free-agent market, both could be achieved with the same move. But after Juan Soto, there isn't a clear-cut stud outfielder to add who would substantively alter the complexion of the Phillies' lineup with his presence alone. Thus the need to be creative in the trade market and explore potentially difficult choices regarding players like Alec Bohm, Ranger Suarez, Brandon Marsh and others.
Of the other seven arbitration-eligible Phillies, two agreed to deals Friday and the other five were tendered contracts. Jose Ruiz avoided arbitration with a one-year, $1.225M contract, according to FanSided's Robert Murray. Backup catcher Garrett Stubbs also agreed to a one-year deal.
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Bohm, Suarez, Marsh, Bryson Stott and Edmundo Sosa were tendered contracts. Teams and players must exchange arbitration figures by mid-January. Hearings take place in February unless an agreement is reached prior. If the matter goes to arbitration, a panel rules in favor of either the player or the team.
The Phillies avoided arbitration with all of their eligible players last offseason except Bohm. They offered him $3.4 million, he countered at $4 million and won.
Players become eligible for arbitration once they've accrued at least three years of big-league service time but less than six and do not already have a contract for the next season.