As season ends, Phils' focus turns toward contracts

Hours after the Giants swept aside the Tigers Sunday night to clinch their second World Series in three years, the Phillies took care of some housecleaning Monday by settling up Carlos Ruiz's $5 million option.

As expected, the Phillies franchise catcher will be back behind home plate in 2013 before hitting free agency after the season. Ruiz, 33, had a career year and kept pace with the league batting leaders before injury cut his season short. He finished hitting .325/.394/.540 with 16 homers in 421 plate appearances, representing the best story from an otherwise disappointing Phillies season.

Meanwhile, the Phils are expected to make announcements in the coming days on three others with 2013 options: third baseman Placido Polanco, Ty Wigginton and reliever Jose Contreras. None of them are expected to be retained and the buyouts would total $1.75 million ($1 million for Polanco, $500K for Wigginton and $250K for Contreras). Aribitration-eligible players include first-timer Antonio Bastardo and second-timers Kevin Frandsen and Nate Schierholtz.

Comments

[The Hook]

Wiggy too!

[Kendrick Appreciation Society]

MLB Trade Rumors has a post estimating arbitration salaries for all arbitration eligible players. They apparently have a pretty good model to develop these estimates. For the Phillies:

Nate Schierholtz $1.6M
Antonio Bastardo $1.1M
Kevin Frandsen $800K

I bet Shierholtz isn't offered arbitration.

[A-Train]

The Phils are very lucky to have Carlos for 5 million.

[Iceman]

Yeah, with the money they're already paying Nix, I don't see them shelling out 1.6 million for Schierholtz to suck equally.

[MG]

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/30544/give-sabean-his-due-for-building-a-champ

You have to give Sabean his due. Won 2 WS now and been in 3 with the Giants along with having a pretty solid resume there since taking the GM role. Rather have him running the Phils.

Giants were the clear winners on the Cabrera for Sanchez trade and the Torres-Ramirez for Pagan trades last offseason. Kind of deals that Amaro has to pull this offseason in order to have this team back in the playoffs next year.

Still giving Sabean praise for signing Blanco?! or acquiring Scutaro. Their playoffs in the playoffs were both 'gift from God' type performances a WS winner often gets from bench players or journeyman scrubs.

More than anything the Phils are going to need the same kind of dumb luck the Giants got on staying healthy next year and getting surprise upside performances from a few unexpected sources.

Do agree with Amaro in basically that it was a 'what could go wrong did go wrong' for the Phils last year. Just didn't help with most of his offseason moves last year.

[A-Train]

It wouldn't surprise me if Nate is offered arbitration. Both Rube and Charlie have shown, in the past, they much prefer a proven mediocre veteran to a rookie who could either suck or be Matt Holiday.

[ColonelTom]

Schierholtz is their fallback option in CF (platooning with JMJ) if they can't acquire someone better. I wouldn't be surprised if they work out a lesser deal (maybe in the $1.2M range, about what Nix is making), as Philly's outfield uncertainty could give Schierholtz a good chance of playing regularly.

The Chooch situation will be interesting to watch. If they have payroll space after free agency, I could see them giving him a raise for this year plus two more seasons. He might be willing to do that without the Phils' breaking the bank, so that he'll have certainty in case of injury.

[EastFallowfield]

Also very clever of Sabean to arrange to play the 7th best team in the AL in the series after beating the 2nd WC team in the NLCS.

[DPatrone]

"Do agree with Amaro in basically that it was a 'what could go wrong did go wrong' for the Phils last year. Just didn't help with most of his offseason moves last year."

Yes and no. Yes because injuries killed us. And you can't predict those. Although he knew Howard would be out for an extended period of time. And no because maybe if he would have brought in better players less could've have gone wrong.

Stay safe up there everyone. We're getting hit preety good down here in Richmond. Some secondary roads are starting to flood and the worst is yet to come. Hope the Lord is with all of you during the storm.

[Scott]

This was nice to read:

http://www.csnphilly.com/baseball-philadelphia-phillies/phillies-talk/Sources-Henderson-to-return-to-Phillies-?blockID=794889&feedID=693

I now return you to your regularly scheduled petty bickering.

[MG]

Schierholtz/Nix can help a team if used in a complementary role. Schierholtz is a the better bench player for several reasons. Doesn't have dramatic batting splits, is a very good career PH, and is decent defensive corner OF who can play LF/RF.

Nix is the better platoon role player who starts vs favorable RHP matchups (ideally RHP who don't throw hard) and has above average offensive numbers & power (vs RHP) and adequate defense in LF.

[NEPP]

Now is not a good time to live in Atlantic City (or any of the barrier islands in southern Jersey)

Its basically going to be wiped off the map by the hand of God in the next few hours.

[MG]

NEPP - Nah. This is a Category 1 hurricane. It will do plenty of damage and erode the benches badly in NJ (Wildwood benches will even get larger after this storm) but it would lead to widespread catastrophic destruction & loss.

[MG]

Schierholtz/Nix is a tough call. Imagine it largely depends on what OFs Amaro is targeting via FA. What I really don't hope is that Schierholtz is non-tendered and Nix ends up primarily as a bench player/PH option. He's a horrible PH and not a great option off the bench because of his lack of speed & ability to really only play LF.

[NEPP]

I was thinking of the flooding, not the wind damage. The storm surge will beat up those islands pretty good.

[Kendrick Appreciation Society]

Declined options to Contreras and Wiggington. Both get $500K buyouts.

[bay_area_phan]

Schierholtz/Mayberry is a fallback option in CF in the same way that Freddy Galvis is a fallback option at 3rd base. Which is to say: they may be fallback options as the roster is currently constituted, but if any one of them is actually in the starting lineup on opening day, RAJ's off-season will have been a bona fide disaster.

[MG]

NEPP - Yeah I saw already that the bay and oceans have met in Ocean City, NJ and in Avalon, NJ.

Those barrier islands though will always take a beating though. One reason I am glad I don't own a place at the shore. Too many headaches in the offseason.

[Scott]

Earlier picture from Atlantic City:

[bay_area_phan]

Am I the only one who's even a teensy bit concerned about the omission of Polanco among the list of players whose options the Phillies have already declined?

[Kendrick Appreciation Society]

bay_area_phan: That was my first thought.

[MPNPhilly]

even if Darin Ruf's ceiling is 1980 Joe Charboneau or 1983 or 1984 Ron Kittle I will gladly take any combination of those stats for a $480k player for 2013.

[RT]

Gotta wonder why our team only ever hits on prospects that our scouts don't hold in very high regard. If Ruf pans out, it might be time to part ways with Marti Wolever...

[Bedrosian's Beard]

"Those barrier islands though will always take a beating though. One reason I am glad I don't own a place at the shore. Too many headaches in the offseason."

Uh... One storm is not like the others...