Grading the Phillies’ last offseason through the first half of the 2023 season
By Edward Eng
3. Notable players leaving for free agency
Corey Knebel, Kyle Gibson, David Robertson, Brad Hand, Noah Syndergaard, Zach Eflin, Jean Segura
The Phillies had quite an exodus of players that ended up electing for free agency at the end of the 2022 season. With a fair number of them having played a huge part in the team’s success last year, one would wonder how letting so many of them go at one time would affect their team performance for 2023.
Corey Knebel was having a solid season for the Phillies for 2022, toiling with a 3.43 ERA and striking out 41 batters in 44.2 innings, before he went down with an unfortunate season-ending injury with a right shoulder capsule tear in late August. Surprisingly, despite his performance prior to the injury, he was not resigned by the Phillies and has been a free agent ever since.
Both Brad Hand and Noah Syndergaard have caught on with new teams for 2023, but both have had disappointing seasons thus far. Hand has an ugly 5.16 ERA and 1.55 WHIP with the Colorado Rockies, whereas Syndergaard has been much worse, sporting a horrendous 7.16 ERA, 1.45 WHIP, with only 38 strikeouts in 55.1 innings pitched and only one win to show for all season despite playing in the pitching haven in Los Angeles (Dodgers). In addition, Jean Segura has found a new gig with the Miami Marlins this year, but has been struggling mightily, posting career worst numbers in batting average (.216), OPS (.546), along with tallying just two home runs, 16 RBI and six stolen bases over 72 games played. So technically, all three of them haven’t been sorely missed at all. Kyle Gibson had improved a bit from his time with the Phillies, but remained far from his All-Star form back in 2021. He has posted a 9-6 record with a 4.60 ERA, 1.31 WHIP, with 89 strikeouts in 19 games started.