The Phillies are back, baby. This is a shocking turn-around from Andy MacPhail’s end-of-season press conference wherein he insisted the Phillies were unlikely to invest in players and instead would invest in ballpark improvements and fan experience. Well it appears the team’s research showed that the fan experience is best at Citizen’s Bank Park when the Phillies are good.
So they spent $169.2 million in free agency this year, the second-most behind only the Cubs and their fancy new Yu Darvish, adding veterans Carlos Santana, Tommy Hunter, Pat Neshek, and most notably Jake Arrieta.