MLB free agency resumes and Phillies have more to spend originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
With the lockout finally over and the new Collective Bargaining Agreement ratified, major-league transactions resume for the first time since December 2.
The Phillies have a lot of work to do.
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Every team has had an incomplete offseason and now faces a condensed period of less than a month to build out its roster ahead of opening day, April 7 or 8. Most will be doing so with more breathing room under MLB's Competitive Balance Tax and some will take advantage. The CBT (or luxury tax) threshold has risen to $230 million for 2022, up $20 million from 2021. By 2026, the fifth and final year of the newly agreed upon CBA, the luxury tax threshold will be $244 million.
The luxury tax is not a salary cap but some teams have treated it like one and the players made note of that in the negotiations. In 2021, only the Dodgers and Padres exceeded the tax, with the Red Sox, Astros, Yankees and Phillies pressing right up against it, within $1 million or so, proving the point in a way. Those teams could have accomplished a lot with $20 million more of wiggle room.
The Phillies' CBT payroll for 2022 is in the range of $180 million to $182 million, accounting for raises due to arbitration and pre-arbitration players, taxes, benefits and the $1.66 million each team now contributes to the new pre-arbitration bonus pool.
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Had the threshold remained steady at $210 million, it would have been difficult for the Phillies to stay under while also improving enough to contend with the Braves (and maybe the Mets). One Kyle Schwarber signing, for example, and they'd have only about $10 million to fill center field and shore up the back end of the roster while remaining under last year's number of $210M.
The math could and should change now, based on how the Phillies have spent right up to the tax in recent years to end their playoff drought and how badly they need to maximize the best years of Bryce Harper, Zack Wheeler, J.T. Realmuto and others. Could a free agent like Nick Castellanos, assumed to get a larger contract than Schwarber or Michael Conforto, be more realistic now than before because of the higher CBT threshold? What about Kris Bryant, who could fill multiple voids?
More than anything, the Phillies have another opportunity, one they cannot waste, to build up their bullpen. It was baseball's worst in 2020 and, by some metrics, its worst in 2021, serving as their undoing both years. Corey Knebel on a one-year contract prior to the lockout was a good start. Kenley Jansen is the top available free-agent reliever and there's a steep drop after that to setup men like Ryan Tepera, Adam Ottavino, Richard Rodriguez, Joe Kelly, Alex Colome and Brad Hand, among others. Dave Dombrowski and his assistants have likely also identified expensive relievers on teams uninterested in paying them available via trade.
Let the Hot Stove season begin again.
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