Well, the hot stove season is here again, and after a somewhat disappointing exit in the playoffs in 2024, but an awesome showing of taking the NL East pennant, the Phillies are putting their name out there as possibly interested in the services of Juan Soto. The Phils continue to put themselves in the limelight of teams like the NY Yankees, the LA Dodgers, and the NY Mets as the biggest spenders in the game. Who can argue with the success all of these teams had last year, the cream rose to the top with the highest-spending teams making a great showing in the playoffs. With of course the Dodgers winning it all, who didn’t think that would happen before the start of the season with all things being equal?
The Phillies have a couple of players on the team with very high contracts as we know, that are for many years and north of the $300 million range when they were signed. Of course, Harper and Turner will be part of the team for a long time still. Do the Phillies need a player like Juan Soto? That’s an interesting question.
With the current makeup of the team, I don’t think the Phils are a serious player in the Soto sweepstakes. Some moves would probably have to be made to sign a player like him. Recently, on a fellow Phillies podcast called ‘The Phillies Show’ with Todd Zolecki, Ruben Amaro, and Jim Salisbury, they reported that some recent talk about a Soto contract was rumored to be in the $660 million incredible range.
Let’s back up a little bit and look at some of the numbers that Soto has put up. First last year his WAR number was 7.9, but let’s see some stats from his career:
| Season | Age | Team | WAR | G | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | SO | BA | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 19 | WSN | 3.0 | 116 | 414 | 77 | 121 | 22 | 70 | 99 | .292 | ROY-2 |
| 2019 | 20 | WSN | 5.0 | 150 | 542 | 110 | 153 | 34 | 110 | 132 | .282 | MVP-9 |
| 2020 | 21 | WSN | 2.4 | 47 | 154 | 39 | 54 | 13 | 37 | 28 | .351 | MVP-5,SS |
| 2021 | 22 | WSN | 7.1 | 151 | 502 | 111 | 157 | 29 | 95 | 93 | .313 | AS,MVP-2,SS |
| 2022 | 23 | 2TM | 5.5 | 153 | 524 | 93 | 127 | 27 | 62 | 96 | .242 | AS,SS |
| 2022 | 23 | WSN | 3.7 | 101 | 342 | 62 | 84 | 21 | 46 | 62 | .246 | |
| 2022 | 23 | SDP | 1.8 | 52 | 182 | 31 | 43 | 6 | 16 | 34 | .236 | |
| 2023 | 24 | SDP | 5.5 | 162 | 568 | 97 | 156 | 35 | 109 | 129 | .275 | AS,MVP-6,SS |
| 2024 | 25 | NYY | 7.9 | 157 | 576 | 128 | 166 | 41 | 109 | 119 | .288 | AS,SS |
| 7 Yr | 7 Yr | 7 Yr | 36.4 | 936 | 3280 | 655 | 934 | 201 | 592 | 696 | .285 | |
| 162 | 162 | 162 | 6.3 | 162 | 568 | 113 | 162 | 35 | 102 | 120 | .285 | |
| WSN | WSN | WSN | 21.3 | 565 | 1954 | 399 | 569 | 119 | 358 | 414 | .291 | |
| SDP | SDP | SDP | 7.2 | 214 | 750 | 128 | 199 | 41 | 125 | 163 | .265 | |
| NYY | NYY | NYY | 7.9 | 157 | 576 | 128 | 166 | 41 | 109 | 119 | .288 | |
| NL ( | NL ( | NL ( | 28.5 | 779 | 2704 | 527 | 768 | 160 | 483 | 577 | .284 | |
| AL ( | AL ( | AL ( | 7.9 | 157 | 576 | 128 | 166 | 41 | 109 | 119 | .288 |
In looking at Soto’s career so far, it’s easy to see that he nailed it in 2024, he had a career year, his best yet. It was also a contract year, so you know Soto’s agent emphasized this with his player, but Soto had to go out on the field and prove it as well. Looking back a couple of years, to me, Soto isn’t Superman, he isn’t in the Ohtani airspace, but somehow, now his ‘value’ is considered to be close to Ohtani in salary.
Let’s see the numbers that one of my favorite Phillies players over the past couple of years, Nick Castellanos in comparison with Soto. Not the eye-popping WAR of Soto last year, Nick had a WAR of .8 but what did he do on the field? 23 HR and 86 RBI is what Casty put up, and Soto? He had 41 HR and 109 RBI. Keep in mind Soto is a lot younger than Nick, Juan was in his 25-year-old season, while Nick was in his 32-year-old season.
Here are some of Nick Castellanos’s numbers over his career. And I’m not trying to say Castellanos should be compared to a player like Soto for any other reason but just look at the bottom line numbers they both put up in HR and RBI last year:
| Season | Age | Team | WAR | G | AB | R | H | 2B | HR | RBI | BA | Awards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | 21 | DET | -0.2 | 11 | 18 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .278 | |
| 2014 | 22 | DET | -0.1 | 148 | 533 | 50 | 138 | 31 | 11 | 66 | .259 | ROY-8 |
| 2015 | 23 | DET | 1.3 | 154 | 549 | 42 | 140 | 33 | 15 | 73 | .255 | |
| 2016 | 24 | DET | 2.3 | 110 | 411 | 54 | 117 | 25 | 18 | 58 | .285 | |
| 2017 | 25 | DET | 0.1 | 157 | 614 | 73 | 167 | 36 | 26 | 101 | .272 | |
| 2018 | 26 | DET | 2.8 | 157 | 620 | 88 | 185 | 46 | 23 | 89 | .298 | |
| 2019 | 27 | 2TM | 2.8 | 151 | 615 | 100 | 178 | 58 | 27 | 73 | .289 | |
| 2019 | 27 | DET | 1.0 | 100 | 403 | 57 | 110 | 37 | 11 | 37 | .273 | |
| 2019 | 27 | CHC | 1.8 | 51 | 212 | 43 | 68 | 21 | 16 | 36 | .321 | |
| 2020 | 28 | CIN | 0.0 | 60 | 218 | 37 | 49 | 11 | 14 | 34 | .225 | |
| 2021 | 29 | CIN | 3.4 | 138 | 531 | 95 | 164 | 38 | 34 | 100 | .309 | AS,MVP-12,SS |
| 2022 | 30 | PHI | 0.1 | 136 | 524 | 56 | 138 | 27 | 13 | 62 | .263 | |
| 2023 | 31 | PHI | 1.5 | 157 | 626 | 79 | 170 | 37 | 29 | 106 | .272 | AS,MVP-23 |
| 2024 | 32 | PHI | 0.8 | 162 | 606 | 80 | 154 | 30 | 23 | 86 | .254 | |
| 12 Y | 12 Y | 12 Y | 14.9 | 1541 | 5865 | 755 | 1605 | 372 | 233 | 848 | .274 | |
| 162 | 162 | 162 | 1.6 | 162 | 617 | 79 | 169 | 39 | 24 | 89 | .274 | |
| DET | DET | DET | 7.3 | 837 | 3148 | 365 | 862 | 208 | 104 | 424 | .274 | |
| PHI | PHI | PHI | 2.4 | 455 | 1756 | 215 | 462 | 94 | 65 | 254 | .263 | |
| CIN | CIN | CIN | 3.4 | 198 | 749 | 132 | 213 | 49 | 48 | 134 | .284 | |
| CHC | CHC | CHC | 1.8 | 51 | 212 | 43 | 68 | 21 | 16 | 36 | .321 | |
| AL ( | AL ( | AL ( | 7.3 | 837 | 3148 | 365 | 862 | 208 | 104 | 424 | .274 | |
| NL ( | NL ( | NL ( | 7.6 | 704 | 2717 | 390 | 743 | 164 | 129 | 424 | .273 |
We’ll see what happens in the Soto sweepstakes, but without an extensive amount of changes to this current Phillies roster to accommodate such a move, plus given the fact that the Phillies moves over the past year have been somewhat conservative after adding the likes of Trea Turner type contract plus extending Nola and Wheeler (and rightly so), the addition of Soto would make no sense for the Phillies when they could have so much more great additions to this team and with spending a fraction of what a Soto contract would be.
