The Philadelphia Phillies have seized first place in a good sign of their chances for a fourth straight playoff run. But their hopes of making it a deeper run than last year’s have taken a major hit.
Amid some questions about their bullpen following the departure of Carlos Estevez and Jeff Hoffman, the Phillies lost their most trustworthy closer of the season when Jose Alvarado received an 80-game suspension with no eligibility for the playoffs after violating Major League Baseball’s banned substance policies.
Now the Phillies are left to navigate the rest of the season without him and will have to make some changes to assemble a championship-caliber relief corps.
MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand reported that the Phillies had targeted free agent reliever David Robertson as a potential addition even before news of Alvarado’s suspension. Now it would seem a potential reunion between Robertson and the Phillies is even more likely.
But MLB insider Robert Murray provided an update on Robertson’s contract situation, indicating that his contract requests are more clouded in mystery than usual.
“Then there’s the topic of price, with some reports suggesting that he was seeking around $10 million this offseason,” Murray wrote. “What exactly is Robertson seeking now? He’s self-represented and teams around the league are mum on the topic, so no one exactly knows.”
It’s possible that Robertson’s self-directed contract expectations are a holdup in negotiations with the Phillies. And even if the team does add him, he’ll need some kind of ramp up before he’s able to help out, as he missed spring training.
But as the team scrambles to recover from the loss of Alvarado, it can’t be too picky about a solution.
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