ATLANTA, GA - AUGUST 23: Former Braves relief pitcher Gene Garber before the Friday evening MLB baseball game between the Atlanta Braves and Washington Nationals on August 23, 2024 at Truist Park in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The Philadelphia Phillies seem to be on the cusp of losing one of their best relievers who is currently a free agent.
Just days after Jeff Hoffman headed to the Toronto Blue Jays coming off the best season of his career, Carlos Estévez appears to be close to landing a deal with another team as well. Jon Morosi of MLB Network reported on Sunday that the market for Estévez is heating up in the wake of major dominoes Tanner Scott and A.J. Minter falling over the weekend.
According to Morosi, both the Blue Jays as well as the Chicago Cubs are interested in Estévez along with ‘several’ other teams.
The Phillies were seen as a potential threat to try to sign Scott, but instead he landed with the Los Angeles Dodgers on a mega deal and only further widening the gap between Philadelphia and the class of the National League. It’s unlikely the Dodgers will be involved in the Estévez sweepstakes, but at this point you just truly never know with spend-happy Los Angeles.
After the team acquired Estévez in a midseason trade with the Los Angeles Angels, the 2023 All-Star continued his elite form over 20 regular season appearances for the Phillies. Over 21.0 innings pitched in 20 appearances, Estévez had an ERA of 2.57 and seemingly helped bolster Philadelphia’s back end heading into the postseason.
Unfortunately, it was not to be with a very good unit on paper completely imploding and leading to a four-game defeat against the New York Mets in the NLDS.
With Hoffman having departed and missing out on Scott along with all of the top relievers who have been signed outside of an acquisition of a presumed new closer in Jordan Romano from Toronto coming off a rough year, perhaps an Estévez reunion could become back in the cards.
Given that he was acquired by the Phillies as a mid-year rental, Estévez likely does not have any underlying loyalty to Philadelphia and the team may not be at any advantage over other teams who will put in bids for the 32-year-old.
If the Phillies want to keep Estévez, they will in all likelihood have to be the highest bidder, something that will not be easy given the market starting to be established for relief pitching.
Minter’s deal with the Mets was for an $11 million AAV while Scott’s with the Dodgers was a staggering $18 million AAV.
Keeping Estévez will not be easy and seeing how much interest Philadelphia actually has will be interesting to monitor.
