Eem wrote:

philliesphhan wrote:The guy's career LOW in walks was 88 which would put him 27 ahead of our top guy in 2017

Don't understand the hate for this

I love it but I don't think anyone would be "hating" if there was an obvious fit

It's clear MacPhail and Klentak have a plan though. This isn't just some spur of the moment move, though I do wonder if the Marlins' dismantling convinced them to speed up the process a bit

Wheels Tupay wrote:

Eem wrote:

philliesphhan wrote:The guy's career LOW in walks was 88 which would put him 27 ahead of our top guy in 2017

Don't understand the hate for this

I love it but I don't think anyone would be "hating" if there was an obvious fit

It's clear MacPhail and Klentak have a plan though. This isn't just some spur of the moment move, though I do wonder if the Marlins' dismantling convinced them to speed up the process a bit

Yeah, I kind of wonder if they didn't look around the division and think "shit, we got a chance here"

Barry Jive wrote:could you guys not do this

JFLNYC wrote:Agreed, but they need more, especially pitching.

ReadingPhilly wrote:think it's likely cesar stays. cesar-jpc-santana-hoskins is a great obp top of the order.

MoBettle wrote:They really gonna bat Crawford 2nd?

Wizlah wrote:

Barry Jive wrote:could you guys not do this

Do what, now?

PSUPhilliesPhan wrote:OMG are we trading Hoskins for Machado?

At three years and $60 million, it’s not overpaying, and limiting the deal to three years means there’s little chance of it blowing it up on the back end. Santana owns a career .365 OBP, so he brings some much-needed on-base ability to the Phillies lineup. The deal takes him through his age 32-34 seasons and while Santana’s home run production has been inconsistent through the years -- 27 in 2014, 19 in 2015, 34 in 2016, 23 in 2017 -- we know he’s going to draw his walks. The Phillies were 11th in the NL in walks and 13th in OBP in 2017, so they need a hitter like this to help anchor the middle of the lineup.

Terry Francona also praised Santana’s defense the other day, and the metrics suggest Santana was very good there in 2017, with 10 defensive runs saved. UZR had him at 4.8 runs, third place among all first basemen. Even if those numbers regress a bit, it seems pretty clear Santana won’t be a defensive liability. He’s not a DH masquerading as a first baseman.

Santana could also benefit from the move to Citizens Bank Park. Progressive Field is basically home run neutral, but Citizens Bank ranked as the easiest home run park in the majors in 2017 -- even more so than Yankee Stadium. Santana has been worth 3.0 and 3.4 WAR the past two seasons. Frankly, I’d much rather have Santana on a low-risk $60 million deal than Eric Hosmer on a high-risk $150 million deal (or whatever he ends up signing for).

Signing Santana isn’t going to push the 2018 team into the playoffs, but it gives them one guarantee for 2019 and 2020. The layout also won’t prevent them from going hard after Harper and Machado.

They obviously believe in Hoskins’ ability to play a passable left field. There is admittedly some risk here, as Hoskins had played just three games in the outfield in the minors before the Phillies put him out there for 30 games in the majors. The sample size is too small to read much into, but he recorded minus-1 defensive runs saved and 0.1 UZR, so the early indication was that he at least won’t be awful out there. Plus, Citizens Bank Park, with its shorter power alleys, is one of the easier outfields to play for a corner defender. I don’t see Hoskins as a major liability out there, and Herrera and Aaron Altherr are decent defensive outfielders.

If you’re a Phillies fan, you can start to finally see some hope here. They are still a long way from playoff contention -- outside of Aaron Nola, the rotation remains a big question mark as Jerad Eickhoff and Vince Velasquez took backward steps last year -- and they’ll need Crawford, Kingery and catcher Jorge Alfaro to develop alongside Hoskins, with at least two of those guys becoming star-level players. Then you add Machado or Harper to the mix. Or maybe both.