The hot stove is heating up even as temperatures drop in Philly. It's been well-documented that the Phillies are in the market for one of the big-name shortstops hitting free agency this winter. Where there's smoke, there's fire and the reports keep trickling about the Phils and these shortstops.
The latest from The Athletic's Jayson Stark notes that Phillies brass will meet with all four top shortstops available, Trea Turner, Xander Bogaerts, Carlos Correa and Dansby Swanson, before the MLB Winter Meetings start on Monday in San Diego:
It isn’t known which order the club has scheduled those meetings. But indications are that they will sit down with both Scott Boras clients — Carlos Correa and Xander Bogaerts — this weekend.
Indications within the industry are that the team also would have sit-downs with Trea Turner and Dansby Swanson before the start of the Winter Meetings. It’s possible those player meetings have already taken place.
Turner has often been characterized as the Phillies’ No. 1 choice, and Philadelphia has been widely viewed as the favorite to sign him. But the meetings with Correa, Bogaerts and Swanson indicate the club hasn’t ruled out any of the other members of a stellar free-agent shortstop class. [The Athletic/$]
Here's how the four shortstops compare in a few different metrics from this past year including how old they will be for the 2023 season::
| Player | Age | Runs | HRs | BA | OPS |
| Trea Turner | 30 | 101 | 21 | .298 | .809 |
| Carlos Correa | 28 | 70 | 22 | .291 | .834 |
| Xander Bogaerts | 30 | 84 | 15 | .307 | .833 |
| Dansby Swanson | 30 | 99 | 25 | .277 | .776 |
(I don't really think Swanson should be included here as a "Big Four." It's way more of a "Big Three" to me with a clear separation, but that's another story entirely.)
It feels like a guarantee that at least one of these guys ends up in red pinstripes next season, Turner specifically. It's a move that seems so telegraphed that I wonder if we'll even need to do the modern free agent dance between agents and teams that lasts well into Spring Training.
President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski should be trying to get this holiday gift for Philadelphians wrapped up ASAP.
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