Phillies, Freddy Galvis Avoid Arbitration

Freddy Galvis had himself one fascinating year. The 27-year-old shortstop, in his second season of keeping the seat warm between the departure of Jimmy Rollins and the arrival of J.P. Crawford, bashed 20 (that’s TWENTY!) home runs and played awesome defense. That performance - despite the whole “bad OBP” thing - was good enough to earn him a new $4.35M salary for 2017, as he and the club struck a one-year agreement Thursday to avoid arbitration.

Galvis’s power surge was admittedly a surprise, but the glove certainly wasn’t. Galvis arrived in the Majors as a heralded glove man, and has certainly been that during his career, even if the hitting portion of things hasn’t always been Tulowitzki-like. Galvis’s .274 OBP in 2016 was dead last among all qualified hitters (146 of them), but he still managed to show some pop and, as the Phillies dedicated their season toward finding foundational pieces for the next great team, was able to stay healthy for a second straight season and rack up 624 PA.

Given Crawford’s high regard, Galvis’s long-term future with the club is a bit unclear, but for the moment, he has received a well-deserved bump in pay and enters 2017 as the team’s starting shortstop once again.

Here’s to FERD.