Phillies Free Agents: Who stays, who goes, and at what cost to the organization

Bryce Harper said Friday that he expects the Phillies to look a lot different next year, and he later clarified he was at least partly talking about free agency. He didn’t need to clarify. After another first-round exit, this roster needs to change, and the offseason starts with seven players set to hit the open market.

Alec Bohm, Luis Arraez, Adolis García, Edmundo Sosa, José Alvarado, Brooks Raley and Tim Mayza. Bohm, Sosa and Alvarado are all free agents, so a big chunk of guys, who some of which spent a lot of time in Philly already, could be walking out the door this winter.

Phillies Money Isn’t as Simple as It Looks:

The Phillies have real money coming off the books. Nick Castellanos and Taijuan Walker, both released before their deals ran out, account for $38 million alone.

If none of the seven free agents return, roughly $78 million in 2026 salary is gone.

Don’t get carried away with that number.

Kyle Schwarber, Jesús Luzardo, Brad Keller and Cristopher Sánchez are all due raises in 2027 that add up to about $38 million.

Jhoan Duran, Bryson Stott and Brandon Marsh are also arbitration-eligible heading into their final years of team control. With the CBA expiring after this season, nobody knows how teams are going to spend with a labor fight on the horizon. On top of that, we don’t even know if there will be baseball in 2027 but duty calls, so I’ll be writing about it like there’s still a chance we watch the Phillies next year.

Back to the money, there is flexibility here, just a lot less than the headline suggests.

Alec Bohm, 3B/1B, 30:

Bohm hit .249 with 15 homers, 88 RBI and a .698 OPS on a $10.2 million salary, but that line undersells him.

After a rough offseason and a brutal first month, Don Mattingly gave him two days off to reset, and from May 9 on he hit .274 with 14 homers, 73 RBI and a .773 OPS in 120 games. He hit .347 with runners in scoring position over that stretch, which works out to a 19-homer, 99-RBI pace over a full season.

He’s one of only seven right-handed hitters with at least 85 RBI in three of the last four years, and he hit the go-ahead homer in the 10th inning of Game 2.

The bat plays. The glove doesn’t. After moving to first base in the Arraez trade, he finished at minus-11 Outs Above Average, in the first percentile of MLB fielders. He’s the biggest homegrown decision on this list, and the Phillies need to figure out where he actually plays before they pay him like a cornerstone.

Something tells me the Phillies are going to pay Alec Bohm because they have no other choice and that the contract will haunt this team down the road but we’ll tackle that issue if and when it happens.

Luis Arraez, 2B, 29:

Dave Dombrowski grabbed Arraez and Caleb Kilian from San Francisco at the deadline for pitching prospects Marty Gair and Ramon Marquez. Arraez showed up hitting a league-leading .324 and then hit .278 with a .678 OPS in 46 games here.

The production dipped, but his impact went beyond the numbers. He rarely swung and missed, and his arrival reshaped the defense with Stott moving to third, Bohm to first and Harper back to right. Stott at third was a real revelation.

Then Arraez sprained his ankle in the final week and never played again. Without him, the Phillies went right back to chasing everything in the Wild Card Series, which is exactly why they wanted him in the first place.

Adolis García, RF, 33:

The one-year, $10 million flier didn’t work. García hit .195 with a .599 OPS and struck out 84 times in 259 plate appearances. His season ended in June when he tore his right lat making a throw home and needed surgery.

The defense was real. García gave the Phillies their best right-field defense since Harper moved to first, and his arm was a weapon. He was also well respected in the clubhouse. But that bat was never coming back, and there’s no reason to run it back.

Edmundo Sosa, INF/OF, 30:

Sosa finished at .242 with a .690 OPS, but he was a different hitter down the stretch, posting an .806 OPS over his final 50 games. He hit .323 with a .923 OPS with runners in scoring position, which ranked in the 89th percentile, and he was in the top 16 percent of the league in both Outs Above Average and sprint speed.

He’s been here since the 2022 deadline, he plays all over the field and he played through pain late in the year. Other teams are going to want him as more than a bench guy. He’s the easiest call on this list. Bring him back.

José Alvarado, LHP, 31:

This was ugly. Alvarado still missed bats with 70 strikeouts in 58⅓ innings, but he posted a 5.86 ERA and 1.65 WHIP and lost every high-leverage role he used to own.

The Phillies picked up his $9 million option after his 2025 was interrupted by an 80-game PED suspension, and it backfired. He was a huge part of this era and one of the most overpowering lefties in baseball at his best, but it’s time to move on.

Brooks Raley, LHP, 38:

This is the deadline deal that should haunt Dombrowski. The Phillies sent outfielder John Spikerman and right-hander Luke Gabrysh to the Mets for Raley, who had a 1.96 ERA in 45 games in New York.

He came to Philly and gave up 10 earned runs and four homers in 11⅓ innings for a 7.94 ERA. He was so bad he didn’t make the Wild Card roster. That was the bullpen help this team got at the deadline.

Tim Mayza, LHP, 34:

Mayza was one of the only steady arms in a bullpen that was anything but. He threw 67⅓ innings, handled six opener assignments and finished with a 3.48 ERA and 1.13 WHIP on a $1.75 million salary. He was never a late-inning guy, but he got lefties out and covered innings whenever Mattingly needed it. For that price, he’s worth keeping around.

The Bottom Line:

Sosa and Mayza are easy calls to bring back. García, Alvarado and Raley should be gone. Arraez and Bohm are the real decisions, and both come down to what the Phillies want their infield to look like in 2027.

Whatever they do, this bullpen needs a real overhaul, not another round of patching holes with a guy like Raley. Harper is right that this team has to look a lot different, and free agency is where that has to start.

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