Let’s open up the mailbag once again!

It’s December now. The cold days are ahead of us, the dreary ending to the baseball season behind us. Soon, we’ll have the hot stove set aflame with rumors from the Winter Meetings, things that will occupy us for days on end. For now, we have little.

Except mailbag questions! Those are always fun!

On to the questions.

I’m not sure this is fair to ask just yet. The nature of this question makes it sound as though Bryson Stott were done here as a tenured member of the team, yet we all know he still remains with the organization (for now). So comparing their time here when much still is yet to be written seems unfair.

Yet we can compare their careers up to this point.

Now, using the Player Comparison tool on Baseball Reference, if we did the first four years for each player, everything weighs out in Stott’s favor. He’s been a starter all four years he’s been in the major leagues while Morandini didn’t start start until his third season. So, for comparison’s sake, I did Morandini’s first four seasons as a starter (his third through sixth years) and Stott’s first four years.

At the plate, these two are virtually the same player. A lot of Stott’s counting stats are higher by virtue of nearly 500 more plate appearances, but that wouldn’t account for the 35 more home runs. Stott strikes out much, much more, which hurts the overall offensive profile, but these are virtually the same player at the plate.

Where the WAR veers is clearly the fielding. Stott is one of the better defenders at second base. We have memories of Morandini, but using advanced stats when the precise way of measuring things wasn’t available then just feels a bit off.

At this point, I feel confident in saying Stott has been the better player compared to Morandini and will probably end up with a better Phillies career when it’s all said and done.

I’d be perfectly fine with the team signing Garcia for one year. He somewhat represents the perfect balance of risk/reward they can go for in an outfielder.

The question is: would Garcia want a one year deal?

The CBA’s outcome is probably being a bit exaggerated by the media a bit, mostly things whispered in their ear from one side or the other, but there is no doubt teams are looking at their 2026 payroll with at least a side glance to what negotiations will do for their future. That probably means those teams that just nontendered players probably did their payroll some favors, but did the players themselves a little dirty. It’s going to be hard for some teams to give those players a multiyear deal when their own team didn’t want to have that control over them.

The one thing that Garcia has going for him this offseason is that he is a right handed hitter and plays in the outfield. The success he has had in the past shows that there is still talent there; it may just need a change of scenery, a fresh start. But can he find a team that is willing to offer a guaranteed multiyear deal that gives him money beyond 2026 without some kind of opt out tacked on? I find that to be doubtful.

If it’s a one year deal and it’s below the $10 million threshold, that’s something that the Phillies should be interested in. Kevin Long has helped hitters get better and Garcia would be a good project for him. Besides, like it could get worse than what they had last year?

Wait.

Garcia is.

Nevermind that comparison, the point remains.

I do kind of see the value here, so you’re not alone at all.

Let’s address the final part: Bellinger and J.T. Realmuto instead of Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber. There are benefits to this set up. The first and most obvious is that it would free up the DH spot for the team to rotate people in and out the position. Bellinger would handle right field for them, improving their outfield defense and retaining at least some of the power a departed Schwarber would leave them. He’s younger, still with some upside maybe and can move around to play center field if necessary.

Would that mean keeping on Nick Castellanos as the main DH and keeping a right handed power threat in the lineup? What if they also re-signed Harrison Bader?

Maybe you’d have something close to this?

Position

w/ Schwarber + Realmuto

w/ Bellinger + Bader + Realmuto

C

Realmuto

Realmuto

1B

Harper

Harper

2B

Stott

Stott

3B

Bohm

Bohm

SS

Turner

Turner

LF

Marsh

Marsh

CF

Crawford (?)

Bader

RF

uh…other?

Bellinger

DH

Schwarber

Castellanos

There is still a Bohm sized dilemma to deal with at third base and their stated desire to see Justin Crawford get some regular MLB playing time takes a hit, but that’s not a bad lineup at all. There’s some power missing, but the outfield defense would be outstanding.

Still, moving on from Castellanos is probably one of the most needed part of the offseason that needs to happen. His coming back just doesn’t look like it will be in the best interests of anyone in the organization, Castellanos or the team. If he’s gone, now there is the possibility they sign one of the Japanese hitters to fill that gap and, well, does the team want to spend that much money?

I think we all know the story by now with Crawford. He hits the ball hard, but it’s on the ground. He’s fast as all get out, but major league defenses are going to be positioned well and catch (almost) everything hit at or near them. He is going to have to figure out how to hit the ball more consistently in the air if he wants to have major league success.

The team seems committed to giving him every chance to get a spot on Opening Day. How much they’ll stick with him if he struggles will be determined by how well they stock their bench. It really does look like the runway will be long, that he’ll have a chance to work with Kevin Long for as much as possible to get his swing to the point where his power can be tapped into. As with any rookie, they’re going to have to accept some failure in the meantime.

That’s why it’s just as important to shore up the other two outfield spots to help lighten the expectations on him.

I am probably in the minority here with this, but I still believe Castellanos has value to a team in 2026. It should not be with the Phillies as it’s clear that a change of scenery is best for both parties involved. Castellanos is a DH in waiting and should go to a team that has that spot in their batting order open for 120ish games in the season.

What might he provide while there? That would be the question since the likelihood is that he still believes himself to be a capable defender in the outfield. Advanced metrics and basic stats and anyone with eyes can see that isn’t true, but we all know what he thinks about what the numbers say about his defense. A team that is looking for someone to simply fill the DH role with possibility that maybe they can get a dead cat bounce season out of him could be interested, but I do believe that type of season is still in there, somewhere.