Phillies decline club options on Odubel Herrera and Andrew McCutchen

The Phillies, despite their best attempts otherwise, were in contention for the National League East title up until the last couple of weeks of the 2021 season. Unfortunately for them, they fell short while the team that beat them out, the Atlanta Braves, went on to win the 2021 World Series title.

Given how much Philadelphia has invested into their roster financially, falling short of the division crown when it appeared ripe for the taking is a big blow. Now, it appears that the team is moving on from at least a couple of players as they try to regroup and stay competitive in the coming years.

While Bryce Harper had an MVP-caliber season, other parts of the Phillies outfield underperformed and, more importantly, were going to be owed a significant amount of money for 2022. Odubel Herrera had a pair of club options on the end of his deal, the first of which came in at $11.5 million for 2022. With a .260/.310/.416 line with 1.8 rWAR in 2021, it appears as though the Phillies didn’t like their chances on getting a return on that investment from Herrera.

McCutchen is a more severe case of drop-off as Father Time seemingly caught up with Cutch as he slashed .222/.334/.444 with 1.3 rWAR in 2021. The Phillies club option on Cutch was $15 million and it was pretty clear that they were going to decline that option for a while.