The Phillies reportedly met with Bo Bichette today. I don’t know if they planned to be in this position from the start or not, but here they are- Bichette is the clear best choice of all the offensive players on the market for the Phillies at this point. The only players who might be better, Tucker and Bellinger, are left handed. Bregman is gone. Eugenio Suarez is good, but considerably older. Okamoto and Murakami went elsewhere. Bichette might have always been the best option, given his age, what side of the plate he hits from, his potential positions, and how good of a player he is. Bichette is the guy the Phillies need right now.

The Phillies have not moved one dime of salary yet this off-season, and probably won’t until after Bichette is off the market and teams know what they need. Castellanos ($20 million), Walker ($18 million), Bohm ($10.2 million), Stott ($5.9 million), Marsh ($5.2 million), and Sosa ($4.4 million) are all still here, despite varying degrees of markets probably available. In fact, the Phillies payroll sits at a projected $302,705,437, including pre-arbitration contracts, deferment money from past contracts, player benefits, minor league payroll, bonus pool money, and all settled contracts. Bichette will have a very active market of big market teams interested in his services. Given that Bregman got $35 million a year for the next five years, it’s not unfair to think Bichette will get $30 million a year for the next ten, or damn close to it. Think of Trea Turner’s $27.273 million a year as a baseline here. The Phillies will also still need to do something about catcher and would really like to bring back Ranger Suarez. In other words, if Bichette is going to happen, expect a lot of creativity to happen fast.

Expect the Phillies to try to dump as much of Castellanos, Walker, and Bohm’s salary fast as they can. Of course, that is relative to them signing Bichette first. They are probably lining up the moving parts even as they figure out what they are able to offer to Bichette. Either this will be a quiet ending to an off-season that ultimately ends up largely with them running it back, or it will be a franchise altering roster shakeup that will resonate for years to come.

No big deal though.

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Chase Utley is apparently gaining steam in Hall-of-Fame voting. Look, I’ll believe it when I see it. Each year he has wildly over performed his actual vote share among voters who release their ballot publicly when they vote. Those voters tend to be younger and tend to be more driven by advanced metrics, the two characteristics that coincide closest with voting for Utley. As of the last I read, he needs about 71% of all the remaining ballots to be for him to get in this year. I do not think he will.

Utley is a polarizing Hall of Fame candidate for a lot of reasons, but I do expect him to get in someday. I’m not sure he should, and I would vote for Jimmy Rollins first (I find analytics great for predicting future performance and awful for judging the final product at the end of their career), but the group think around baseball’s Hall voting is changing. Career milestone numbers and awards are being largely cast aside in favor of more in depth analytics and consideration of a player’s peak years in the league. Of course this new bias is largely driven by voters who view WAR (wins above replacement) as one of the better ways to judge a player, so guys with an even better peak five seasons (Ryan Howard), who played at a position with more elite offensive players (first base, outfield), and had less defensive value than middle infielders aren’t getting as much benefit here. I’d definitely have been a “no” on Utley two or three years ago, his peak just wasn’t enough for me. My mind is opening to this new way of thinking though, provided we take a longer look at a lot of other players who got passed by on the ballot.

Utley getting in will end up being really good for his 2008 teammates in the end. If Utley’s five year peak is enough to put him into the Hall, Ryan Howard’s also will now have a lot better chance than a lot of us would have thought when his career ended. Jimmy Rollins case is more based on his career milestone numbers (all time hits leader for his team, over 2,000) and his hardware (the MVP, gold gloves, All-Star Games, and ring), but I am not sure future veterans committees would pass over Jimmy if Chase is in. And if we’re putting in both, I’m suddenly a lot more alright with either one of them individually.