CLEARWATER, Fla. — A year ago, the Phillies gave Odúbel Herrera a chance to be the opening day center fielder.
History is about to repeat itself.
Against almost all odds when the offseason began, the Phillies are in agreement on a major-league contract with Herrera, a source confirmed Monday. The team didn't comment because the deal is pending a physical. Given the Phillies' other positional needs and the lack of free-agent center-field options, it's likely Herrera, a left-handed hitter, would platoon at the position with righty-swinging Matt Vierling.
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NBC Sports Philadelphia was the first Sunday morning to report the Phillies' interest in Herrera.
"We have always contemplated that we could have a platoon at [center field or left field]," Phillies president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Sunday. "We do like Matt Vierling as being part of our group of players for us. With [Bryce] Harper in right, and then you've got Vierling, you may not look, per se, for two full-time guys."
In November, the Phillies declined Herrera's $11.5 million option. They could have retained him through arbitration at roughly 70% of that salary, but instead paid him a $2.5 million buyout. At the time, Dombrowski said the Phillies were "open-minded" to bringing back Herrera at a lower salary if other options didn't pan out.
Starling Marte, the top free-agent center fielder, signed a four-year, $78 million contract with the New York Mets early in the offseason. The Phillies lacked the elite prospect capital to trade for Byron Buxton last season, and even if they wanted to revive those talks, the Minnesota Twins signed him to a $100 million contract extension in November. Before the lockout, the Phillies talked about a potential trade for Tampa Bay Rays center fielder Kevin Kiermaier.
Instead, they will attempt a timeshare in center field. Dombrowski and manager Joe Girardi are bullish on Vierling, who batted .324 with a .364 on-base percentage in 71 at-bats last season. But they also aren't ready yet to turn over the keys to an everyday job. Girardi did say Sunday that he expects Vierling to play "a lot."
"My philosophy usually with young players, ideally you don't want to throw them to the wolves where they're overexposed," Dombrowski said. "In [Vierling's] case, a real tough righty, or a real tough left-hander with [shortstop prospect Bryson] Stott, ideally you'd like to complement them with somebody if you can. But do we think he can play [center]? Yeah."
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The Phillies used eight center fielders last season and ranked 28th in the majors with a .661 on-base plus slugging at the position. Only the Cincinnati Reds (.645) and Atlanta Braves (.627) were worse. Herrera, who led the team with 92 starts in center field, batted .260 with a .310 on-base percentage, 13 home runs, and a .726 OPS in 450 at-bats.
It appears the Phillies will bet on Herrera's numbers to improve off a full season after he didn't play at all in 2020, a consequence of his Memorial Day 2019 arrest in Atlantic City on charges of domestic assault.
The charges were dropped a few months later when Herrera's then-20-year-old girlfriend declined to proceed with the case. But a police report indicated that he left "handprint markings" on her neck and "small scratches" on her arms in what police terms a "domestic violence physical dispute."
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After conducting an independent investigation, Major League Baseball suspended Herrera for the balance of the 2019 season for violating its joint domestic violence agreement with the Players Association, and the Phillies removed him from the 40-man roster that winter.
Herrera didn't play in 2020 because the minor-league season was canceled by the pandemic. He came to spring training last year as a nonroster invitee and was among the final cuts after losing out to Adam Haseley in a wide-open center-field competition that also included Roman Quinn, Scott Kingery, and Mickey Moniak.
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The Phillies acquired Herrera in the Rule 5 draft in 2014 and signed him to a five-year, $30 million contract extension in 2016, early in their rebuilding process. He was an All-Star in 2016, but his career sputtered in the ensuing years, his OPS declining from .781 to .778 in 2017, .730 in 2018, and .629 before his arrest and suspension in 2019.
