Starting today (January 15, 2025) teams can begin to make signings for the 2025 year. This season’s signings are obviously thrown into chaos by the Roki Sasaki free agency as the Dodgers, Padres, and Blue Jays may all seek to acquire signing money to lure him or sign players they have committed deals too. Additionally those teams may lose players who are worried about their deals no longer being committed. The Phillies have $6,261,600 to spend this year and do not have a truly big name in their class. There are rumored names in the high 6 figures, but no multi million dollar deal. It is unknown if this will play into the Sasaki chaos or we could see them spread the money around.
I will update this throughout the day as deals are official or other things develop. You can track money spent and what that means on the spreadsheet.
Baseball America Phillies Preview
Trades
The Phillies traded either $1M or $750k of their international money to the Dodgers for OF Dylan Campbell. The Phillies to that point had spent well below their bonus pool and the Dodgers needed money to make their signings with plenty of teams willing to offer space up. There is certainly an argument that the Phillies should have done more to sign other players or hold for a future signing if something happened, but ultimately they decided the player in hand was more valuable (it is also important to note that teams that usually are very active in the international market were also dumping money such as the Reds, Guardians, and Red Sox indicating there was not much talent left available). Campbell isn’t short, but he also is not tall and projectable. He strikes out a bit much and his power is all pull side. He has good speed, but isn’t a burner. He has mostly been a corner outfielder, but intriguingly has picked up some games at second and played some third in college which makes for an interesting bench profile.
Signings
- Nieves Izaguirre, SS, Venezuela – Pipeline #44
- Elias Marrero, SS, Dominican Republic – $700,000
- Deivis Velasquez, C, Venezuela
- Geremy Viloria, RHP, Venezuela
- Dayber Cruceta, OF, Dominican Republic – $300,000
- Leonardo Carpio, OF, Venezuela
- Rafael Oropeza, SS, Venezuela
- Eduardo Guillen, OF, Cuba – $65,000 – source / bonus from Francys Romero
- Filoppo Sabantini, RHP, Italy – $80,000
- Deiry Gonzalez, RHP, Dominican Republic
- Anderson Araujo, C, Venezuela
- Carlos Duran, LHP, Dominican Republic – $200,000 – source
- Samuel Salcedo, SS, Venezuela
- Nelson Prieto, C, Venezuela
- Carlos Severino, SS, Dominican Republic
- Reyner Zambrano, LHP, Venezuela
- Romeli Espinosa, SS, Dominican Republic
- Maykol Fernandez, SS, Venezuela
- Yordanis Guerra, OF, Dominican Republic
- Domingo Morla, 3B, Dominican Republic
- Roiner Cespede, SS, Venezuela
- Jorge Mitre, RHP, Panama
- Gabriel Azocar, C, Venezuela
- Luis Hernandez. C, Venezuela
- Gabriel Flores, C, Venezuela
- Ramon Marquez, RHP, United States
- Diego Marquez, RHP, Venezuela
- David Hernandez, LHP, Mexico
- Elian Adames, OF, Dominican Republic
- Maicol Lauriano, RHP, Dominican Republic
- Albertt Medina, RHP, Venezuela
- Juan Parra, LHP, Venezuela
I don’t feel not having a high dollar sign International Free Agent is a bad thing. It feels, to me at least, the Phillies graduate as many high dollar signees as they do <$250k.
Spread the money around and see what happens.
Agreed……Phillies seven-figure signings rarely materialized into MLB.
Filippo Sabatini
https://www.fibs.it/en/news/filippo-sabatini-firma-ufficialmente-per-i-philadelphia-phillies
I’m amazed $1 million in bonus pool only gets you a Dylan Campbell. But then again I’m not.
Is there a site where there are photos of those players intl’ signings