Sometimes the measure of a move is almost as much about the size of the hole you've filled as it is the person you've chosen to fill it.
So it is for the Philadelphia Phillies, who on Wednesday morning agreed to a reported four-year, $79 million deal with free-agent slugger Kyle Schwarber.
That's a lot of money for a team that will likely be skirting luxury tax thresholds for years to come. Thresholds, incidentally, which the team is expected to adhere to while budgeting for the season to come. Luckily for the Phillies, their quest to return to the playoffs for the first time in more than a decade has been aided by the new CBA — at least in the short term.
First, there are the higher tax thresholds, starting with the $230 million cutoff for 2022. According to Cot's Contracts, the Phillies had about $37.6 million under that threshold before the deal with Schwarber. Thus, Schwarber will eat up a little more than half that amount.
Was it worth it?
Well, for the Phillies to contend, they had to do something about left field. According to Fangraphs, Philly's group of anticipated left fielders — a mishmash of part-timers like Adam Haseley, Luke Williams and Mickey Moniak — projected to finish 0.3 wins below replacement, the worst figure in the majors by a good margin.
Meanwhile, coming off his best season, Schwarber's WAR forecast at Fangraphs was at 3.1, and while some of his at-bats will surely come as a DH, that's still a massive upgrade for a team that entered Offseason Part II on a level where it will be scrambling with the Giants, Cardinals and Reds for the last playoff spot in the NL.
That would be the sixth spot, which incidentally is another reason why the Phillies were one of the winners of the new CBA. The addition
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