The latest on Soto’s market and Bohm trade talks as winter meetings approach originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
It was extremely unlikely that the Phillies would be in the running to sign Juan Soto given the huge expected price tag and the handful of teams willing to make him one of the two highest-paid players of all time.
Soto has met with five teams and the Phils are not one of them. He is expected to focus on the Yankees, Mets, Red Sox, Blue Jays and Dodgers between now and the Winter Meetings, which take place Dec. 8-12 in Dallas.
It was always hard to imagine the Phillies offering Soto a $500-$600 million contract. Soto is a transformative player a la Bryce Harper, and four of the teams most interested in him are among the richest in baseball. He would have been a perfect fit for what the Phillies are looking for, but that’s like saying, “Hey, this roster could definitely use Ted Williams.”
Beyond Soto, the top outfielders available in free agency are Teoscar Hernandez, Anthony Santander, Jurickson Profar, Max Kepler and Tyler O’Neill. Hernandez and Santander each received a qualifying offer from their former team, meaning the team that signs them will be without a high draft pick. This penalty will be taken into account in the clubs’ calculations on the free agent value of Hernandez and Santander.
Sailors, a suitable profession?
Alec Bohm appeared in trade conversations with the Mariners, according to the Seattle Timeswho reports that the M’s have also discussed Nico Hoerner with the Cubs.
Desperate for offense, the Mariners have perhaps the only rotation in baseball deeper than the Phillies’: Logan Gilbert, Luis Castillo, George Kirby, Bryce Miller and Brian Woo.
According to the Times report, the Phillies asked the Mariners for Gilbert or Kirby in a trade for Bohm and were rebuffed. That’s understandable, considering Gilbert and Kirby have become two of the top 10 pitchers in the American League. Bohm is a solid trade piece but isn’t worth one of these near-aces on his own.
Gilbert, 27, had a 3.23 ERA and the lowest WHIP in baseball last season (0.89). He hasn’t missed a start since 2022 and has a 3.38 ERA over that span.
Kirby, 26, is already the most consistent strike thrower in MLB. He, too, has made every start over the past two seasons with the lowest walk rate in baseball each year. Kirby has a 3.43 ERA in 89 career starts.
Their salaries make both pitchers even more attractive. Gilbert is expected to make around $9 million this offseason through arbitration, then will have two more years under team control, reaching free agency after 2027. Kirby is expected to make $5 million this season and will still have three years under team control, reaching free agency after 2027. 2028. The Mariners are right to ask the world in exchange for either arm, they are two of the main trade assets of the baseball.
Castillo, 32 with $72.5 million guaranteed over the next three seasons, would make a lot more sense for the Mariners. He could bring them back some offensive pieces that will help while freeing up some or all of that payroll space for a franchise that is generally closer to the middle of the pack in terms of spending.
Castillo had a down year from his standard in 2024 with a 3.64 ERA and 1.17 WHIP compared to 3.19 and 1.09 the previous two seasons. Even this lesser version of Castillo was a productive pitcher, at worst a No. 3 starter who absorbed 175 innings despite missing the final three weeks with a hamstring strain.
So what about Bohm for Castillo? Could this make sense for Seattle?
This would help balance the Mariners roster, leveraging their biggest strength (rotation) to address their biggest weakness (offense).
The Phillies aren’t specifically looking for starting pitchers and have as strong a 1-4 as any team with Zack Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Cristopher Sanchez and Ranger Suarez. But they are trying to increase their roster cap space, and if the best return for Bohm or one of their other trade candidates is a starting pitcher, then that could become a multi-level decision. The Phillies could acquire a starter and buy Suarez, for example. He’s not a player they want to trade, but he’s a post-2025 free agent they could lose for nothing.
So, adding another starter would accomplish several things: it would round out the Phillies’ rotation, it would create more trade opportunities within their own roster, and possibly protect them from losing or overpaying Suarez. Again, starting pitching isn’t first, second or third on the Phillies’ priority list, but it makes no sense to close the doors at this point in the offseason.
It’s also not guaranteed that Bohm will be traded this winter. He could very well be in uniform in Clearwater for the first day of full-squad practice in mid-February. He has been the subject of trade rumors not because the Phillies want to give up on him, but because he has the most value out of all the players they would realistically trade, that he is only is two years away from free agency and could be a season away from having to do so. fending off 20-year-old Aidan Miller, the Phillies’ top prospect.
