{"id":501914,"date":"2026-01-01T19:48:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T19:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/501914\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T19:48:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T19:48:12","slug":"phillies-have-major-free-agent-issue-highlighted-by-tatsuya-imais-signing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/501914\/","title":{"rendered":"Phillies have major free agent issue highlighted by Tatsuya Imai’s signing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phillies have major free agent issue highlighted by Tatsuya Imai’s signing<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Phillies<\/a> have signed a few free agents this winter, mainly bringing back Kyle Schwarber, signing Brad Keller, and outfielder Adolis Garcia.<\/p>\n

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All of those moves have been solid to great signings, but there’s still a lot more that the Phillies need to do this offseason. But the Tatsuya Imai free agent signing, which, according to Chandler Rome of The Athletic<\/a>, is for $63 million with opt-outs, is a concern.<\/p>\n

That deal isn’t concerning since the Phillies missed on Imai. It’s a concern about how the team handles contract negotiations, potentially hurting their chances of being able to sign free agents in the offseason.<\/p>\n

Phillies’ contract rule is bad news for free agent odds<\/p>\n

During an appearance on the Baseball is Dead podcast<\/a>, Phillies general manager Preston Mattingly revealed a concerning stance that Dave Dombrowski and the Phillies have when it comes to free agent contracts: they don’t use opt-outs in their deals.<\/p>\n

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“That’s something that the Philadelphia Phillies don’t do,” Mattingly said. “So we’re kind of up front with that with guys.”<\/p>\n

While this might not seem like a huge issue, especially since they were able to sign a few players this winter already, it likely made their odds of landing Imai small at best.<\/p>\n

If the Phillies aren’t willing to hand out any opt-outs in their contract talks with players, then anyone seeking a combination of long-term security and short-term upside won’t come to Philadelphia.<\/p>\n

Imai is the latest example. He has opt-outs after years one and two of this three-year deal. The Phillies won’t give Imai such a chance, as they don’t do opt-outs.<\/p>\n

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More:\u00a0Phillies\u2019 J.T. Realmuto prediction shows how bad things would be if Philadelphia doesn\u2019t re-sign him<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, they would try to bump up the AAV for a short-term deal or shrink it over a long-term contract. But if Imai, or any free agent, is seeking an opt-out in their deal, the Phillies are essentially out of that player’s market.<\/p>\n

This is a concerning issue for the Phillies, as they could now be missing out on top free agents thanks to this contract wrinkle that Dombrowski and Mattingly ascribe to for the Phillies.<\/p>\n

While they’ve made some good moves this winter, and can continue to do so while following this contract rule, the Phillies are limiting their scope by not allowing for opt-outs in their contract talks.<\/p>\n

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As the rest of the offseason progresses, and even into the future with the current organization, this issue could significantly impact the Phillies’ chances at top free agents.<\/p>\n

More Phillies news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phillies have major free agent issue highlighted by Tatsuya Imai’s signing originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":450102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2397],"tags":[3418,5,7798,554,350,808,113,81,4,144,25,4216,40,24891,4658],"class_list":{"0":"post-501914","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-phillies","8":"tag-adolis-garcia","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-brad-keller","11":"tag-dave-dombrowski","12":"tag-free-agent","13":"tag-free-agents","14":"tag-j-t-realmuto","15":"tag-kyle-schwarber","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-philadelphia","18":"tag-philadelphia-phillies","19":"tag-philadelphiaphillies","20":"tag-phillies","21":"tag-preston-mattingly","22":"tag-tatsuya-imai"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115821576510990979","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501914","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501914"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501914\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/450102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501914"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501914"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501914"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}