Philadelphia Phillies Make Top Offseason Priority Very Clear

The Philadelphia Phillies might find themselves to be very busy this offseason as they figure out how to win the World Series. They made it very clear what their top priority is before the start of 2024.

The Philadelphia Phillies entered their offseason sooner than anticipated.

After rolling through the Wild Card and NLDS rounds of the MLB Playoffs, they looked like they were on their way to another World Series trip after going up 2-0 in the NLCS.

They collapsed in the series and are now sitting at home wondering what the next steps are to win this elusive championship.

Dave Dombrowski, the Phillies' president of baseball operations, made it very clear on what they will do during this offseason.

"He’s our priority to sign," he said when discussing impending free agent Aaron Nola.

Keeping their ace might come with quite the price tag.

Nola is seen as one of the best starting pitchers available on the market and already is generating interest from other teams.

It's likely that it will cost around $200 million to keep him, something that the organization was far from willing to give before the 2023 season started.

"I can't tell you that I feel 100 percent confident we’re going to get it done. But we would like to sign him and we’ll be aggressive trying to make that happen," Dombrowski said.

So, what happens if they aren't able or willing to meet the expected asking price?

"If we don’t [keep Nola], to me, that would be our No. 1 area [of need]: to replace him. We need to be in position where we have somebody else that will be a starting pitcher of quality. So, yes, it’s either Aaron or somebody else," he proclaimed.

Starting pitching is the clear focus of this front office heading into the offseason.

There's a possibility that even if they re-sign the ace that they'll aggressively pursue other starters.

Plenty of questions and concerns surrounding a team that is in win-now mode and hasn't been able to get it done.