Max Kepler and the Philadelphia Phillies agreed on a one-year, $10 million contract on Friday, with the expectation that Kepler will become the team’s starting left fielder.
Kepler spent his entire 10-year career with the Minnesota Twins. Over 1,072 games, he has a .237 batting average, with 161 home runs and 508 RBIs.
Phillies president of baseball operations, Dave Dombrowski, said the team will give Kepler the opportunity to play every day in left field.
“We think he can,” Dombrowski said.
Kepler had a tough 2024 season, hitting only eight home runs and 42 RBIs due to injuries. Dombrowski explained that Kepler had core surgery to fix a sports hernia during the offseason, which, along with left knee tendinitis, kept him from playing a full season. He played just 105 games.
“Max was very careful. He said, ‘I don’t want to make any excuses,’” Dombrowski said. “It does affect you. It just does. You try to play through it but it’s not easy. It’s a tough (injury) to play through.”
In his six career games at Citizens Bank Park, Kepler has hit four home runs and has a .955 slugging percentage over 23 plate appearances. The Twins signed Kepler when he was a teenager from Germany.
With Kepler set for left field, the Phillies will keep Nick Castellanos in right field and continue with Brandon Marsh and Johan Rojas in center field.
“We think it’s easier to just leave Nick in right field. Let him play out there,” Dombrowski said. “We think Max will make that adjustment very comfortably and he’s willing to do so.”
The Phillies have not made many moves this offseason after winning the NL East but losing to the Mets in the NL Division Series. Their only other notable signing was closer Jordan Romano, who joined on a one-year, $8.5 million contract.
Romano, an All-Star in 2022 and 2023, spent his first six seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays. He has 105 saves and a 2.90 ERA in 231 relief appearances.
With one of the highest payrolls in baseball, Dombrowski said he may not make any more big moves for the upcoming season.
“I would be surprised if we got into impactful free-agent type-of signings from an offensive perspective,” Dombrowski said. “I don’t want to say it’s a tight payroll.
From an ownership perspective, I don’t think I’ve ever gone to John (Middleton) on anything and him say, no, don’t do something. But you still try and keep things in perspective. We’re over $300 million and everybody we sign is a major penalty at this point.”
What’s next?
Dombrowski mentioned that the Phillies would like to add a potential fifth starter who could also pitch out of the bullpen.
“We’ll keep our mind open,” Dombrowski said.
