Philadelphia Phillies Star Free Agents Want to Return in 2024
The offseason has come sooner for the Philadelphia Phillies' front office than they would have liked.
In an ideal world, baseball decisions for the future would have been made following a World Series championship.
It looked like that might have been the case for a while when the Phillies held two separate leads in the NLCS.
But, the front office will now be tasked with adding pieces, once again, to ensure they'll be back competing in the postseason.
Two of Philadelphia's stars, Rhys Hoskins and Aaron Nola, are set to hit free agency.
Hoskins is coming off a torn ACL this season and missed the entire year. Nola and the Phillies were far apart on contract discussions prior to 2023 and he's emerged as a top target of other teams.
Both players were drafted by Philadelphia and have spent their entire careers with the organization, becoming the two longest-tenured Phillies on the roster.
So, it comes as no surprise that they have expressed interest in returning to the team during free agency.
"Hope I’m back next year," Nola said following their Game 7 loss.
Philadelphia would like to have him back as well, but are they going to be willing to give him the multi-year, $200 million contract that he's looking for?
He will be in high demand and it might not make sense financially for the front office to bring him back.
Hoskins is a different story coming off his injury.
The slugger likely would have been in high demand as well, but not playing in 2023 has reduced his value.
"I’ve said this all along and I’ll say it again, but I would love to be back here," Hoskins said. "We have a chance to win the World Series every year here with this group. That doesn’t exist around all of baseball, and that’s something that is important for me as a competitor."
There's a very realistic possibility that both players have played their last games for the Phillies.
Nola might price himself out of the front office's plans and the new logjam at first base and designated hitter could keep Hoskins from having a spot.
