Over the years, few teams have been more willing to hand out expensive long-term contracts quite like the Philadelphia Phillies. Sure, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Mets stole the headlines in each of the past two offseasons with their Shohei Ohtani and Juan Soto deals, but the Phillies deserve to be in the conversation of big spenders, too.
Heading into the 2025 season, a whopping eight players on their roster will make over $15 million. Of that bunch, two of them will hit free agency at the end of the upcoming season, including J.T. Realmuto and Kyle Schwarber. Should the latter walk once he hits the open market, a door could open up for the Phillies to pursue another high-end DH-type player in Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Or, the club could sign Guerrero — who won a Gold Glove in 2022 — to play first base while Bryce Harper moves to the outfield. According to Harper himself, he may be open to such a move as long as the Phillies are replacing him at first with another superstar-type talent. Boy, oh boy, this could be interesting.
Phillies fans can dream on Vladimir Guerrero Jr. playing first base, thanks to Bryce Harper
In a wide-ranging interview with Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Harper touched on a variety of topics, including a potential position change (subscription required). The Phillies first moved the superstar to first after his Tommy John surgery in 2022, in an effort to preserve his body over the duration of his freakishly long contract. His slowly declining defensive metrics gave the organization another leg to stand on in these discussions.
According to Harper, he said that he, "talked to [the Phillies] this offseason about that, just in case a guy was available [at first] that we needed to have, needed to get."
He went on to say: "I’d be more than open to it if we had a guy like that, who was going to change our lineup or change the demeanor of our team. They like me at first base. But I’d go out there to have a guy who was going to play first base and hit 35 or 40 homers."
When Harper spoke to the Phillies this past offseason about such a switch, he did so with a player like Pete Alonso in mind. Of course, Alonso re-signed with the Mets and the Phillies missed out on the opportunity to show their division rivals a big middle finger, but it seems that the club could instead turn their attention to Guerrero next winter.
Guerrero has been the center of the MLB headlines lately amongst some pretty serious contractual drama with the Toronto Blue Jays, and it seems likelier by the day that he's going to leave the Jays as soon as he's given the chance. On Thursday, Guerrero himself revealed that he proposed a contract "below $600 million" to the Jays, but was turned down. This, of course, goes completely against any rumors that suggested he asked for Soto-like money in extension talks.
The four-time All-Star and two-time Silver Slugger will hit the open market at just 26 years old with an opportunity to secure a deal that'll be borderline record-breaking. Since first breaking into the league in 2019, Guerrero has done nothing but rake and is now considered one of the most dangerous sluggers in the league.
In fact, Guerrero ranks 10th in the league in RBI since 2019, 13th in wRC+, 14th in home runs, 17th in runs scored and OPS, and 18th in batting average. No matter which way you slice it, he's a generational talent.
Harper's willingness to move off of first base to accommodate a player like Guerrero says all you need to know about him as a player and a person. He's clearly got a World Series ring on his mind, and the Phillies luring in Guerrero would put themselves in a fantastic position to bring one in.