Didi Gregorius will return to the Philadelphia Phillies after the free-agent shortstop reached a two-year contract of $ 28 million with the team, a source confirmed to ESPN on Saturday.
Gregorius, who turns 31 on February 18, turned out to be a great bargain in 2020 for the Phillies, who signed the Free Agent a $ 14 million deal off-season last year. He recovered from an injury-ridden 2019 season with the New York Yankees by hitting .284 with 10 homers, 40 RBI’s, and 34 runs scored, and an .827 OPS for the Phillies during the pandemic-shortened season.
Gregorius lost a lot of time with the Yankees in 2019 as he recovered from Tommy John surgery, which involved repairing an elbow strap that was torn during the 2018 ALDS against Boston. He went on to hit .238 with 16 home runs and 61 RBI’s in 2019.
In the past five seasons, Gregorius has been in fourth place with Xander Bogaerts among all shortstops in the Major League in homeruns (98), behind only Trevor Story (134), Francisco Lindor (126) and Javier Báez (108). He is also fifth in RBI’s (344), ninth in slugging percentage (.469, with a minimum of 150 games) and ninth in extra-base hits (215) in that period.
Gregorius has provided a defense of the caliber of Gold Glove throughout his career, and his career percentage of .978 is the fifth best among players with at least 800 games played in this position since 2012.
In all, Gregorius has a .265 batting average with 120 home runs, 457 RBIs and a .748 OPS in nine seasons with the Reds, Diamondbacks, Yankees and Phillies.
The Athletic portal first reported on Gregorius’ deal with the Phillies.
This report uses information from the Associated Press.