March 05, 2024
Dave Nelson/USA Today Sports
Zack Wheeler participates in a pitchers drill during Phillies Spring Training.
This Phillies team is really easy to like.
But will fans still like them when they're basically identical in 2025 too? Or when the team is paying multiple 37-year-old players over $20 million per season?
After extending their ace Zach Wheeler for three more seasons — paying him a record $42 million per campaign — the same mentality that carried the Game 7 losing Phillies into this season with more than 90% roster retention could continue for a long time.
There isn't much room for prospects or free agents, and the trade market isn't easy for a team that isn't either rebuilding or filling holes. In contrast to the NBA, where a player on a big contract can be shipped away alongside a draft pick — or the NFL, where deals can be shed for dead cap hits — Major League Baseball's guaranteed contracts and rules on trading draft picks will all but assure the following players play out their gargantuan deals:
| Player | Signed through | Signed until |
| Trea Turner | 2033 | Age 40 |
| Bryce Harper | 2031 | Age 38 |
| Aaron Nola | 2030 | Age 37 |
| Zack Wheeler | 2027 | Age 37 |
| Nick Castellanos | 2026 | Age 34 |
| Taijuan Walker | 2026 | Age 33 |
| Jose Alvarado | 2026 | Age 31 |
| Kyle Schwarber | 2025 | Age 32 |
| J.T. Realmuto | 2025 | Age 34 |
Next offseason Whit Merrifield and Seranthony Dominguez have team options, while Ranger Suarez (one more), Cris Sanchez (five more) Alec Bohm (two more), Edmundo Sosa (two more), Bryson Stott (four more), Johan Rojas (six more) and Brandon Marsh (four more) all remain under team control beyond next offseason.
The Phillies — two years from now — will need to replace (or re-sign) their catcher and their DH, and that's about it. Every other starter will be with the team through the 250th anniversary of America celebration in Philadelphia in 2026 and beyond.
And we haven't even mentioned the $237 million payroll this season — a top four number in baseball what could snowball even higher once they have to give Stott, Bohm and other pre-free agency starters new contracts.
"We have a high payroll as you know," Phillies president Dave Dombrowski said after the team announced Wheeler's three-year extension which will pay him more in 2025 than the entire payroll of the Pittsburg Pirates. "We're very appreciative of what [John Middleton and the Phillies ownership] give us."
There had to be a discussion about the lack of flexibility this team will have in the future, right?
"There as a limit on how much we can do, it's not unlimited but those will be questions we face at the end of the year when we see how our season progresses," Dombrowski said.
The Phillies window is obviously wide open, and if they can get healthy play that extends into the mid-30s for their key high priced players they'll remain contenders for some time. But that is a gigantic "if" for a sport that spans 162 games a season.
Young pitching will become more and more key over the next few seasons, as a lot will be riding on Andrew Painter's recovery and leap to the majors. If a position player, like recently drafted outfielder Justin Crawford does emerge, it's probably a good problem to have needing to find room for someone like that. But it will be tough.
"There will be some challenges but this is a good place to start," Dombrowski said.
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