January 21, 2026
So here's the free agent pursuit of Bo Bichette as we knew it...
• The Phillies were in, genuinely in. They kept popping up in rumors, there was a meeting between the two parties that was said to have gone well, and as recent as last Friday morning, the Phillies were even considered the overwhelming favorites to land the star infielder.
• There was a deal reported to be on the table: seven years and $200 million, per USA Today's Bob Nightengale, with a belief from the Phillies that it was going to get done.
• Then the Mets lost out to the Dodgers in trying to sign Kyle Tucker, and at the last minute, swooped in with a shorter-term, annually higher-paying, and heavily opt-out laden deal to take Bichette instead, at three years and $126 million (if it even lasts a third of that since the first opt-out chance is after 2026).
The Phillies were right there, to the point where club president Dave Dombrowski was openly talking about it during a Zoom call with the media on Tuesday, and even to the point where he acknowledged that he had notified J.T. Realmuto's camp that the team might be going with Bichette over him instead before quickly pivoting back to re-signing the veteran catcher in the immediate aftermath.
The Phillies' negotiations with Bichette weren't the first time a deal had fallen through on Dombrowski, he explained on that Zoom call, but it was one of the rare instances in baseball where it had gotten out to the public, and it was "a gut punch," he said.
Maybe it was a reality check on the Phillies' philosophy in free agency, too.
After word broke that the Phillies missed out on Bichette last week because of the Mets' opt-out offer to him, OnPattison's Tim Kelly called back to an interview of general manager Preston Mattingly on the "Baseball Is Dead" podcast from December, where Mattingly said that contract opt-outs aren't something that the Phillies do and have always been up front about in offseason talks.
But MLB free agency seems to be a rapidly evolving market now, accelerated further by the Dodgers' newfound habit of deferring money on its big-name signings (Tucker and Shohei Ohtani before him), and now by the Mets' (frankly) extremely risky play to shell out millions for maybe just one year of Bichette.
Yet even so, the Mets got Bichette, for however long they have him, and the Phillies didn't.
Bo Bichette was going to be a Phillie, until he wasn't.
But Dombrowski, at least for now, isn't taking that as a sign that the organization also needs to start evolving when it comes to free agency. He reinforced Mattingly's point of avoiding opt-outs as he spoke on Tuesday, with the follow-up that he's held a disfavor toward them as an executive long before he got to the Phillies.
"We have not given opt-outs, and a lot of clubs don't give opt-outs," Dombrowski explained. "We're not the only ones that don't do it. I guess you never say anything's in concrete, but you have to be careful. You can give long-term, big contracts, and then you can give opt-outs. You still have to realize where you are as an organization from a financial perspective."
And the Phillies have always been an organization for long-term commitment, as evidenced by Bryce Harper's 13-year contract, Trea Turner's for 11, and the five-year pact that Kyle Schwarber just signed, even though the obvious risk there is that the club will carry those players as they decline into their late 30s and early 40s.
That still seems to be the kind of risk, though, that Dombrowski would much rather deal with than potentially rolling the dice from year-to-year on immediate and fluctuating payouts.
"I have never, myself, and still don't feel, that it's a wise move to make when you look at the risks that are attached to it," Dombrowski continued about contract opt-puts. "Because the reality is if the player has a bad year, they opt in. If they get hurt, they opt in. So double the amount that you're paying a player for one year, and that becomes two years. And can you afford to do that? And of course, we're also involved when it comes down to [the luxury tax]. I know other organizations are, too. But if they opt out, it's generally because [the player] had a good year then.
"So that has not changed for years. You always are open-minded to do things that you think are best, but it's generally not a philosophy that I have liked, we have liked, to do. Will you be open-minded? I guess you're always open-minded to anything."
But for now at least, what happened with Bichette and the Mets, and what the Dodgers have been successfully getting away with over in LA, aren't about to change how Dombrowski and the Phillies handle their business.
In due time, it'll be clear if it should have.
But in the bigger picture...that Bichette deal might be another domino falling straight toward a nasty MLB lockout in 2027, which will be a way bigger problem to deal with.
SIGN UP HERE to receive the PhillyVoice Sports newsletter
Follow Nick on Twitter: @itssnick
Follow Nick on Bluesky: @itssnick
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
