Now that Zack Wheeler and Aaron Nola are both signed for the foreseeable future, could the Philadelphia Phillies pivot and try to sign two-time Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell? Never say never the longer that Snell remains a free agent, but it sure doesn’t seem likely.
Matt Gelb of The Athletic reported Monday that “the Phillies have never seriously discussed Blake Snell, multiple major-league sources said.” Gelb adds that this includes even the idea of the Phillies signing Snell to a short-term deal with opt-outs.
Sunday, USA Today‘s Bob Nightengale reported that “the Phillies have interest in Snell, but only on a one-year or short-term contract.”
Obviously, both reports can’t be correct.
Snell is represented by Scott Boras. Two other Boras clients — OF/1B Cody Bellinger with the Chicago Cubs and third baseman Matt Chapman with the San Francisco Giants — recently accepted three-year deals with opt outs after the first two years of their contracts after their markets didn’t pan out as expected. Snell seems headed for a similar path, despite many projecting he would receive a six or seven-year deal at the outset of free agency.
The issue with Snell is that he declined a qualifying offer from the San Diego Padres in favor of testing free agency. That means for the Phillies to sign him — even on a one-year deal, or a multi-year with an opt-out after 2024 – they would have to surrender both their second and fifth-round picks in the 2024 MLB Draft, along with $1 million of their international bonus pool money.
In recent years, the Phillies have signed a ton of free agents with qualifying offers attached to them, such as Bryce Harper, Wheeler, Kyle Schwarber, Nick Castellanos and Trea Turner. Obviously, the Phillies don’t regret any of those signings. But consistently giving up high draft picks and limiting the funds that you have to spend on international players puts you at a disadvantage in developing young, controllable players. The Phillies haven’t signed a qualified free agent this offseason yet — Nola doesn’t count since he was returning to the team — and it would be good to avoid doing so for a year as the organization tries to build the next wave of talent.
Interestingly, Jordan Montgomery was not eligible to receive a qualifying offer from the Texas Rangers because he was traded during the 2023 season by the St. Louis Cardinals. That would mean that not only would any team who signs him not have to give up draft compensation, but they could extend a qualifying offer to Montgomery if he opted out and became a free agent after a year or two. Players can only be given a qualifying offer once, meaning Snell is ineligible to receive one for the remainder of his career.
We aren’t saying you should expect that the Phillies will sign Montgomery. We would bet against them landing either Snell or Montgomery. But of the two — as Phillies Nation‘s Destiny Lugardo has written all offseason — Montgomery makes much more sense as a target.
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