With the Phillies off-season upon us, the biggest question marks surrounding the team is the current roster, and how Dave Dombrowski can make this team a title contender. The team has had a tendency in the past to not exceed the luxury tax ($210 million), but with some current contracts set to come off the books, that might not be an issue.

The Phillies have nine players set to hit free agency once the window opens. Those players include Odubel Herrera, Andrew McCutchen, Archie Bradley, Hector Neris, Ian Kennedy, Brad Miller, Freddy Galvis, Matt Moore, and Cam Bedrosian.

When you add up all of their expiring contracts, you get around $40 million. Andrew McCutchen will be a bulk of that, taking about $16 million off of the books. The situation will then be, where will the Phillies take their money? And how they will spend it?

Rhys Hoskins and Zach Eflin are also due “raises”, and will each be taking on about 4 more million dollars than usual. The Phillies need to go over the tax if they want to win, but with their past experience, it’s safe to say they probably won’t.

Trevor Story, Corey Seager, Carlos Correa, and more shortstops are some big names hitting the free-agent market and should be on the Phillies eye. The team would need to go over the tax for that, especially if Correa would somehow land in Philly. Correa is set to get a massive contract this offseason. Even if he did want to come here, we don’t know if Dave Dombrowski would be willing to take on another huge contract anyway.

So the money is there, sort of. The Phillies have some guys that they will probably let walk (Cutch, Bradley, Kennedy, Galvis), alongside some players that they will hopefully re-sign (Neris, Miller maybe). Philadelphia haa one of the highest payrolls in baseball, and if they play their cards right, they can make a big splash in free agency this offseason.

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