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The Phillies' front office is wasting no time whatsoever assembling a roster for 2010. Late last week, Brett Myers was informed the Phillies would not negotiate a new contract with him and today brings word that the Phillies have declined the $5.5 million option for Pedro Feliz.
Technically, declining the option doesn't necessarily close the book on Feliz in Philadelphia. The team could still close bring Feliz back at a much lower rate, something more in line with his performance [Fangraphs.com credits Feliz with 1.3 wins above replacement level, meaning, he's worth one win more than a AAAA-type player -- Andy Tracy if you will].
I would expect the Phillies already have an idea of who they will target as their everyday -- or almost-everyday -- third sacker. Free-agents include:
2010 Age 2009 WAR*
Chone Figgins 32 6.1
Adrian Beltre 31 1.9
Mark DeRosa 35 1.7
Troy Glaus 33 -0.2
Joe Crede 31 1.9
Melvin Mora 38 0.9
Placido Polanco 34 3.1
* wins above replacement
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Obviously, Chone Figgins is the best player of the free-agent crop. Beltre, DeRosa, Glaus and Crede are definite injury risks having missed all or significant portions of 2009. Mora, given his age is probably an injury risk as well. Polanco isn't even really a third baseman having not played there since 2005.
If it were me, I would target Figgins not only because of his on-base average, but also because of his ability to play multiple positions. In theory, you could make him your pretty-much everyday third baseman while once in a while giving him a start at second base or shortstop, giving Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins a rest and hopefully avoiding the typical September slides. Heck, maybe even first base too. A man as big as Ryan Howard doesn't need to play every day the way he did in 2009.
Should Figgins demand too much money or sign elsewhere, DeRosa may be a good fall-back for similar reasons that make Figgins interesting. Good on-base-ness and the ability to move around the diamond.
