Phillies agree to 1-year, $7.5 million deal with Joaquin Benoit

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — The Phillies have agreed to a 1-year, $7.5 million deal with reliever Joaquin Benoit, as first reported by Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com and Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer. The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of this week’s Winter Meetings.

Benoit is the second veteran addition to the Phillies’ bullpen this winter, as the club also acquired righty Pat Neshek in a trade with the Astros. Benoit and Neshek join Hector Neris and Jeanmar Gomez as main pieces in a group that will likely undergo even more change this winter.

Benoit, 39, finished last season with a 2.81 ERA and 9.8 K/9 in 48 innings split between the Mariners and Blue Jays. The veteran originally struggled to a 5.18 ERA in 26 appearances with Seattle before being traded to Toronto at the non-waiver trade deadline, and then posted a stellar 0.38 ERA mark for the Jays, allowing one earned run in 23.2 innings in the season’s final two months.

Benoir is a veteran of 15 major-league seasons. The Phillies will be his seventh major-league organization.