The Philadelphia Phillies acquired Harrison Bader this past summer from the Minnesota Twins and now his future is up in the air in free agency.
His mutual option was declined and now the 31-year-old Gold Glove Award winner is one of the better outfielders available after a career year in 2025. He played in 146 games and slashed .277/.347/.449 with 17 homers, 54 RBIs, 11 stolen bases, and 61 runs scored. Throughout the season, Bader set new career highs in hits (124), doubles (24), home runs (17), RBIs (54), batting average (.277), on-base percentage (.347), OPS (.796), and OPS+ (117).
Unsurprisingly, the Phillies reportedly want him back. Phillies general manager Dave Dombrowski said as much, as transcribed by Lochlahn March of The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“They know we’d like to bring him back,” Dombrowski said as transcribed by Lochlan. “They also had expressed that they want to see what’s out there, because this was the best year he’s had, I think, in quite a while.”
It’s not shocking the Phillies would want someone like that after he solved an issue in the outfield for Philadelphia and played some of the best baseball of his career.
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