7:14pm: The edges are in settlement on a one-year, $10MM contract, experiences Jeff Passan of ESPN. The deal continues to be pending a bodily.
7:06pm: The Phillies and outfielder Max Kepler are working towards a one-year contract, report Todd Zolecki and Mark Feinsand of MLB.com. Philadelphia has been trying to find an outfielder who can take some enjoying time from one or each of Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas.
Kepler modifications uniforms for the primary time in his profession. The German-born outfielder had spent a decade and a half with the Minnesota group. He signed with the Twins as a young person and reached the large leagues late within the 2015 season. Kepler appeared in elements of 10 massive league campaigns with Minnesota, stretching past the six-year management window after signing a $35MM extension in February 2019.
For many of that run, Kepler was an above-average proper fielder. He appeared as if he may on the cusp of stardom after a 36-homer displaying in 2019, however that proved to be an outlier in a season that was performed with the juiced ball. Outdoors of that yr, Kepler has sometimes been a 15-20 homer with first rate on-base expertise.
Kepler, 32 in February, is coming off his least productive season. He battled accidents in each knees and solely appeared in 105 video games. Kepler was restricted to a career-low eight house runs whereas posting a middling .253/.302/.380 line throughout 399 plate appearances. The free passes plummeted alongside the facility. Kepler walked at a career-low 5.5% clip, posting his lowest on-base share within the course of.
The Phillies are hoping {that a} wholesome offseason might enable him to return to his prior kind. Kepler had one among his finest years as not too long ago as 2023. He hit .260/.332/.484 with 24 longballs (the second most of his profession) throughout 491 plate appearances that season. Kepler set private highs in common exit velocity (91.9 MPH) and laborious contact share (47.6%). His laborious contact charge dropped by 11 factors this yr, suggesting that he was enjoying at lower than full energy.
A lot of Kepler’s diminished manufacturing got here late within the season. He carried a league common .256/.309/.394 slash line into the All-Star Break. That dropped to .246/.287/.352 into the primary week of September. The Twins resisted placing him on the IL for some time as they tried to hold onto a Wild Card berth, however his numbers tanked to this point in August that he needed to land on the shelf. Minnesota’s September collapse meant that he was unable to return for a potential postseason push.
Whereas it ended on a down word, Kepler had a productive run within the Twin Cities. He appeared in additional than 1000 video games for the Twins, hitting .237/.318/.429 with 161 homers and simply over 500 runs batted in. There wasn’t a lot doubt that Minnesota would go in one other course this offseason, although. Possession isn’t giving the Minnesota entrance workplace a lot monetary leeway, so an eight-figure contract to retain Kepler after an injury-plagued season was by no means within the playing cards.
At his peak, Kepler was one of many sport’s finest defensive proper fielders. If not for sharing the Goal Area outfield with Byron Buxton, he in all probability would’ve gotten extra constant run in middle discipline early in his profession. Kepler’s defensive grades are nonetheless stable however not as sturdy as they’d been in his 20s. Defensive Runs Saved graded him as a league common proper fielder in a bit of over 800 innings this previous season. Statcast credited him with two runs above common.
Higher well being might assist him rebound on protection as properly. Kepler fell under league common in Statcast’s dash pace measurement for the primary time in his profession. That’s not a shock contemplating he was enjoying by way of knee ache. On each side of the ball, the Phillies are hoping that this yr was a health-related blip relatively than the signal of a pointy decline in his early 30s.
Kepler figures to play principally left discipline at Residents Financial institution Park. That’s a place he’s by no means performed within the majors, although most proper fielders can kick over to the other nook with out a lot subject. Kepler hasn’t began a sport in middle discipline since 2021, so he’s in all probability not more than an emergency possibility there. Johan Rojas and Brandon Marsh are every likelier to deal with middle discipline work.
Whereas there shouldn’t be a lot subject concerning the positional transition, Kepler’s handedness makes him one thing of an odd match. The Phils had sought to discover a rotational outfielder who might reduce into the enjoying time for Rojas and/or Marsh. A right-handed hitter would have been essentially the most easy answer, permitting the Phils to defend Marsh from lefty pitching. Philadelphia hoped Austin Hays would deal with that as a deadline pickup, however he spent most of his Philadelphia tenure on the injured record and was non-tendered final month.
Kepler doesn’t match that want. Like most left-handed hitters, he’s a lot better towards righties. Kepler has a profession .243/.326/.452 line versus right-handers. He’s a .221/.292/.363 hitter in additional than 1000 plate appearances towards southpaws. If the Phils are going to platoon Marsh, he’d in all probability pair with the righty-hitting Rojas in middle discipline. That’d put the onus on Kepler to remain wholesome sufficient to play repeatedly in left discipline.
Marsh might at all times transfer again to left if Kepler lands on the IL, but that’d go away the Phillies with the identical middling outfield upon which they’re making an attempt to improve. They’d definitely love to dump the remaining two years at $40MM on the Nick Castellanos deal, which might allow them to place Kepler in proper discipline and add one other outfield bat. Shedding a notable chunk of the Castellanos cash is far simpler stated than accomplished after he hit .254/.311/.431 this yr.
Extra to return.
